Texasville is the sequel to 1971’s smash hit The Last Picture Show, which launched the careers of all of its stars. They’re all back for this followup, also from director Peter Bogdanovich, a film that many stated (at the time) was unnecessary. Part of The Last Picture Show’s appeal was it was about a tiny Texas town that was dying, so the tale loses a bit of its magic when we learn that Anarene, TX, is still around 33 years later. Duane (Jeff Bridges) became a wealthy oil tycoon, though with falling oil prices, he’s facing bankruptcy. Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) also stayed in town, but did not find success. He’s followed the path that many of the down-on-their-luck residents trekked in the first film. Jacy (Cybill Shepherd) got out of dodge and went to college, and then on to Europe, but is recently back to town to regroup, looking for something to reconnect to after the recent death of her son. Duane is married but sleeps around with everything with legs, and his son his following in his footsteps. This creates a lot of humor in the first 30 minutes of the film, which honestly I could have done without. It comes off as silly with way too much zany comedy that becomes off-putting. When Jacy finally shows up, the film starts to settle in. Once it gets there, it is (I think) very good. The best moments are those lines of dialogue here and there that are (probably) ripped straight from the Larry McMurtry book upon which the movie is based. Duane is grappling with his life in shambles, and Jacy is trying to find some kind of solid footing. You’d think this would lead these two former lovers back to each other, but thankfully the movie goes for a more realistic, grounded ending. Get past the first 30 minutes, and you’ll be fine. Of note, I did watch the extended “director’s cut” in black and white, which echoes the feel of the original film, probably for the better. ★★★½

To Sleep With Anger follows a family in south Los Angeles. Gideon and wife Suzie have raised two adult sons: eldest Junior (who can do no wrong) and younger Sunny (the black sheep of the family). Gideon regularly babysits Sunny’s son until late in the day since the parents both work, and Gideon gives him a hard time for not putting more effort into his family. Into this stressed environment comes a friend from long ago, Harry. Harry is welcomed with open arms and told to stay as long as he likes, and on the surface, he seems like a God-fearing, polite individual, but little comments and actions here and there paint a different picture. He starts manipulating Sunny into scheming and gambling with him, and when Gideon has a stroke and becomes bedridden and mostly unresponsive, Harry drops the pretenses and invites more ne’er-do-wells over. Leads to an explosive ending. Danny Glover shines as the conniving Harry, but outside of his acting chops, the movie didn’t offer much else for me. It’s a tried-and-true story of the prodigal son, and it’s been done before (and better). A couple stars for the always-great Danny Glover though! ★★½

Miller’s Crossing is an early film from the Coen brothers, and a great one. A neo-noir that takes place during the prohibition era, it stars Gabriel Byrne as Tom, the right-hand-man for mob boss Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney). Tom has never steered Leo wrong, but they are odds now. Leo is approached by underling Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito), who has a beef with no-gooder Bernie (longtime Coen brothers alum John Turturro). Bernie’s been skimming from Johnny’s gambling ring, and Johnny wants him dead. However, Leo is dating Bernie’s sister Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), so he can’t see Bernie killed. Knowing Bernie is no good, Tom pushes Leo to just let Leo have Bernie, and this despite the fact that Tom too is sleeping with Verna (obviously unbeknownst to Leo). It’s a tricky situation, with lots of moving parts including other gangsters, underlings, double-crosses, and a scheme that Tom has put together to (hopefully) stay one step ahead of everyone else. Tense but also with lots of funny moments (like the anxious Mink, played by Steve Buscemi, or how the cops always break up the speakeasies depending on which mob boss is currently holding power in the city). Everyone from the mayor to the chief of police is “in the know” and thus knows how to look the other way when needed, leading to some big laughs here and there. I loved this film, with its high re-watchable factor. ★★★★½

So many good comedies from this era that I had to find one to include. I went with Albert Brooks’ Defending Your Life, starring himself and Meryl Streep, from 1991. Brooks plays Daniel, an exec who likes the nice things in life, but gets into a car accident in his brand new BMW, killing him instantly. There’s no heaven waiting for him (and thankfully no hell), but instead he finds himself in Judgement City, a stopover where souls are judged. The judges aren’t looking for good or evil, they are determining if the person lives in fear or not, with the reasoning being that if someone lives without fear, then they are living life to the fullest and using more of their potential. Those that have done so get to move on to the next level of existence (heaven is implied), but those that are found to still live in fear get sent back to earth for reincarnation to try it all again. Daniel definitely has had fear in his life, whether it was afraid to take a risk on a new stock, afraid to stand up to a bully in school, or just afraid to put himself out there with women. Though he has a solid public defender to plead his case, it’s not looking so good for him. While going through his trial, Daniel meets Julia (Streep), and she most definitely lived her life to the fullest. She isn’t afraid to take chances and is always helping those who need it. The two hit it off, which leads Daniel to take some risks, maybe for the first time in his life. Is it too late? Full of Brooks’ typical observational comedy, looking at society (and himself) with no topics off limits, it’s a great comedy for fans of Seinfeld or the like, with some heart thrown in too. ★★★½

Rounding out with an action flick with 1992’s Deep Cover, starring Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum. Fishburne plays Stevens, a young man who, as a child, witnessed his father do drugs and then get shot and killed after robbing a liquor store. He vowed to never follow in his father’s footsteps, and became a cop. However, a rebellious streak keeps landing him in hot water, but rather than continue to reprimand him, he is recruited to go undercover as a drug dealer, with hopes of working up the food chain to build a case against the drug importers at the top. In the course of his work, he runs into Jason (Goldblum), who is a lawyer by day and drug dealer by night. The two become friends and look out for each other in this dangerous world, and both start making serious money as they are given increasingly more drugs to sell and continue to meet higher-ups in the business. Along the way, Stevens finds himself engaging in more and more criminal activity, until he starts to wonder if he can return to the right side of the law when this is all done. Excellent vibes and a dark, undercity feel, but there’s a lot of sophomoric dialogue, and often the characters behave like children, undercutting the tension. Just goofy stuff that is out of character for the feel of the film. But overall I liked it enough, just wish it could have been better. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Stranger Things (season 5), Deep Space 9 (season 6)
• Book currently reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Up today I’ve got the original Universal Dracula films, which (somehow) I’ve never seen. We’ve all seen snippets of the original Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, it was this portrayal that pretty much set in stone what we all think Count Dracula looks and acts like. Directed by Tod Browning, it opens on a man, Renfield, traveling in Transylvania to visit Dracula on a business matter. Renfield is unaware of the local superstitions about Dracula and laughs it off when some locals try to warn him away. He gets to the castle by a bat-driven coach and meets the sinister vampire. Dracula wants Renfield to secure a rented castle in England, where he intents to move for awhile. Dracula ends up feeding on Renfield which turns him into a sycophant, and then heads off to England. There, he enters society and begins feeding, as whispers and rumors start to fly, drawing the attention of a vampire hunter named Van Helsing. It’s a great film, and it’s so funny watching it today for the first time. So much that was introduced in the film has (for almost a hundred years now) been the standard for what we envision when we think of Dracula. The newer Nosferatu film is more of an interpretation from the original 1922 film (and original book), showing the vampire as more of an undead monster, whereas in Dracula, Legosi has the pale skin, mesmerizing eyes, black cape, etc, that we all know. It holds up great and is still a must-watch for film lovers. ★★★★

A sequel, Dracula’s Daughter, came 5 years alter, in 1936, and picks up where Dracula ends. The vampire is dead, his body discovered with a stake in his heart, by two police officers, with Dracula’s dead assistant Renfield nearby. The only survivor of the fiasco is Van Helsing, but his story about vampires is laughed off by Scotland Yard, and they treat him as a suspect in murder. Dracula’s legacy lives on though, in his “daughter” Countess Marya Zaleska, a former victim of Dracula that he turned into a vampire a century ago. She wants to escape the vampire curse and believes she can if she can destroy Dracula’s body, but when she steals it from the morgue and sets it ablaze, her desire for blood remains. She begins to take new victims, which gets the police snooping around, as well as a psychiatrist and friend to Van Helsing, Jeffrey Garth. Van Helsing has asked Garth to help in his defense, and while hesitant to believe the vampire stories for much of the film, he becomes a convert in the end after his secretary, Janet, goes missing. Jeffrey flees to Transylvania to save her and put a stop to the Countess. The film was pretty infamous at the time for a couple not-so-subtle lesbian-esque scenes, though the film is careful to not say or show anything overt, so as to get by the Hayes Code. Besides Janet, the Countess lures another woman to her studio to “pose” and the woman half undresses, with the rest left to imagination. The minor titillating scene was leaned on heavily in promotion. The movie is a poor followup to such a great original film, with a half baked plot and nothing really spooky or chilling ever. ★★

Son of Dracula followed in 1943, and was directed by Robert Siodmak, before he had made a name for himself. A good man behind the chair and in front of the camera (Lon Chaney Jr took on the role of Dracula) couldn’t save this movie though, and it’s pretty ho-hum. A high society girl, Katherine, is secretly engaged to the secretive Count Alucard (“Dracula” spelled backwards, which the film takes great lengths to point out again and again) and it isn’t long before dead bodies showing up, including Katherine’s father and, before long, Katherine herself, though she is resurrected shortly after. Katherine approaches her former beau Frank with a plan to kill Alucard and free her from his spell, but the plot goes haywire before the end. There’s a ton of plot twists and dead ends, and it seemed they were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the viewer to see what stuck. Little did. ★½

I jumped ahead to House of Frankenstein, despite it being a sequel to a movie I haven’t seen yet (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man), because it is a 1940s “Avengers” film, in that it is marketed as a team-up by all of Universal’s monsters. What I didn’t know is, while Dracula is in it, he dies before 30 minutes in, so I should have included it with my upcoming Frankenstein movie set. C’est la vie. In this movie, Dr Niemann is in prison for trying to continue Dr Frankenstein’s work, but he escapes with Daniel (a hunchback) and shortly after, kills a man named Professor Lampini, who owned a traveling horror show. Niemann takes Lampini’s identity and continues the show, which carries Dracula’s coffin with the stake still in the vampire’s heart. Eventually, Niemann removes the stake and revives Dracula, tasking him with seeking revenge on the person who put Niemann in jail. Once that ugly business is done, Niemann gets down to brass tacks to continue his research. He comes across the Frankenstein monster and the Wolf Man (Larry, when the full moon isn’t turning him into a werewolf) encased in ice, and starts to thaw them out. Larry comes around first, and Niemann promises to use Dr Frankenstein’s notes to undue the werewolf curse. Daniel meanwhile has fallen in love with a gypsy girl, but unfortunately for him, she only has eyes for the dashing Larry. Daniel tries to warn her that Larry will kill anyone, her included, when the moon is full, but she scoffs. It all comes to a head one fateful night, when Frankenstein’s monster comes alive again and a full moon comes out. This movie was destroyed by the critics when it came out in 1944, but honestly I liked it a whole lot more than the last two Dracula films. There’s nothing deep here, but the cast list reads like a who’s who from this era (Boris Karloff is Niemann, Lon Chaney Jr is the Wolf Man, John Carradine is Dracula, etc) and they are each game to give it their all. Fluff, but entertaining fluff. ★★★

The final Dracula film from this era is 1945’s House of Dracula, which is another monster mash-up similar to the above film. So much for righting the ship, this one is rough from the get-go. Much of the same cast returns, but the story is outlandish, meandering, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone flying the plane. Dracula (alive again?) comes to the home of Dr Franz Edelmann to plead for the doctor to find a cure for his vampirism (why does Dracula finally want to end his curse?). Shortly after, Larry the wolf man comes along, also seeking a cure. Not too long until they find Frankenstein’s monster in a cave (at least he doesn’t want a cure too). In a search for his own immortality, the good doctor takes a blood transfusion from Dracula, which had adverse affects, turning him into a monster himself. He goes on to terrorize the town. It’s a jumbled mess that never gets anywhere. ★½

Only four movies in today’s blog, but the first, A Brighter Summer Day, is 4 hours long (and the fourth is 3 hours) so that balances out. The breakout from Taiwanese director Edward Yang and widely called his masterpiece (and one of the best films of the 90s), it follows a teenager named Si’r who’s just been demoted to night school for poor grades. His father begs to allow Si’r to stay in day school, knowing that night school is rife with gangs and ne’er-do-wells, but the administration is adamant. In the beginning, Si’r is able to skate the boundary between the 217s and the Little Park Boys, but his good friend is a member of the latter group, even while Si’r gains the ire of Sly, who is currently leading the gang. Si’r is also attracted to Ming, whose boyfriend is the “true’ leader of the Little Park Boys, but he’s been away and hiding, with a rumor that he’s running from the police for killing a member of the 217s. A new rough-and-tumble kid in the area, Ma, is also out to stake a claim in the hierarchy. This film has a ton of characters and a lot of moving parts, so much so that it can make your head spin for awhile (doesn’t help obviously that it isn’t in my native language), but I did eventually catch up. The struggle is well worth the payoff in the end. It takes place around 1960, a tumultuous time in Taiwan. Si’r and others his age are too young to remember living in mainland China, but their parents have gone through much in the last decade or so, going from living under Japanese rule before WW2, to independence, to fleeing China when communists came out on top during the civil war. They still think they’ll eventually return to China once “the commies fall.” All of this is shown in the movie as a backdrop, and it later comes to the fore, when Si’r’s father is questioned by authorities over his former friends and colleagues, now communists. Si’r is trying to navigate all of this, and while he wants to do good, his slow path towards a calamitous event that shook the nation (which really happened, this is actually based on a true story) is enthralling. ★★★★½

Yang’s next film, A Confucian Confusion, is much different in feel. Taking place in modern day and a comedy to boot, it also has a large cast. Molly runs a media production company. Her fiance Akeem suspects she is having an affair, but with whom is the big question. Birdy produces plays and is Molly’s old friend, and he likes to womanize with interns and whatnot. Qiqi is Molly’s assistant, and her boyfriend Ming has his sights on Molly too. Feng is the new girl at the office, and the accountant Larry has problems of his own. All of these characters flit in and out of each other’s paths in a round-about story. Not nearly as engaging as A Brighter Summer Day, these characters are all one-dimensional, and they don’t talk or react like adults, more like children. I had a hard time connecting, or frankly liking, any of these people. There are some funny moments in the last 40 minutes when all hell breaks loose, which re-arrested my attention, but there’s no emotional depth here. ★★½

Mahjong is another comedy, but I enjoyed this one a lot more. The characters were certainly easier to follow, even though there’s a lot of them and all are constantly in motion. The main core is a group of 4 roommates, “Red Fish,” “Hong Kong,” Luen-Luen, and “Little Buddha.” They share everything, even girlfriends, but each is on a different path. Red Fish holds a lot of animosity towards his absent father, who he thinks ran off with a woman, but in reality the father is dodging debts. When Red Fish sees the woman who began the affair a decade ago, he convinces Hong Kong to sleep with her and Little Buddha to hustle her. Luen-Luen seems to be along for the ride for the most of the film, but he has an important role to play with Marthe, a French woman who came to Taipei for an ex-lover but who is left stranded with no money. The only one in the group who speaks English, Luen-Luen acts as translator and takes Marthe under his wing to protect her from hustlers, even those who are his friends. Lots of side plots involving Angela, Jay (a flamboyant hair stylist), and Red Fish’s dad. It’s a very funny movie, but also lots of emotion here and there, especially with Luen-Luen and Marthe. ★★★½

Yi Yi is film perfection. A quiet, understated film but with huge emotional heft, it follows a family of four in Taipei: father NJ, mother Min-Min, teenage daughter Ting-Ting, and 8-year-old son Yang-Yang. One day, Min-Min’s elderly mother falls and hits her head, landing in a coma. Ting-Ting is wracked with guilt, because grandma fell while taking out the trash, which was supposed to be Ting-Ting’s chore. The comatose grandma is moved into an extra room in the apartment, and the doctor encourages the family members to each talk to her, saying she may hear them even if she isn’t responding. For Min-Min, the pressure is too great, and she leaves to go to a retreat. Ting-Ting finds solace in a new boyfriend, who is the ex of her neighbor. Lots of drama incoming from that triangle. NJ runs into an old flame, Sherry, whom he almost married 30 years ago before disappearing the night before the two were to elope, and the two reconnect and talk old times. Yang-Yang is often bullied at school, by other children and a terrible teacher, and he takes comfort in a new hobby of photography. He is often the forgotten member of the family, with everyone else dealing with their own stuff. This is poignantly shown when the camera he’s been shooting with is developed, and it’s just the back of peoples’ heads, though he says its because he’s trying to show people things they can’t see themselves. Ignoring him leads to a frightening moment late in the film. Absolutely incredible movie. I love this quote from Kenneth Turan in his review upon the film’s release in 2000, “It’s a delicate film but a strong one, graced with the ability to see life whole, the grief hidden in happiness as well as the humor inherent in sadness.” Tragically Edward Yang never gave us any more masterpieces. He died at the young age of 59 in 2007 after a 7 year battle with colon cancer. ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Mayor of Kingstown (season 4), Pluribus (season 1), Tulsa King (season 3)
• Book currently reading: Amber and Blood by Margaret Weis

Nouvelle Vague, the newest from director Richard Linklater, tells the story of the making of the film Breathless. In 1959, self-professed film genius Jean-Luc Godard has yet to make his first film, even as his contemporaries at the Cahiers du Cinéma have already begun, to rave reviews (such as François Truffault’s The 400 Blows, a darling at Cannes). Godard feels the pressure to produce a masterpiece, but he has a vision to make this first film in his own way. He secures a small budget, and even a promising young actress (American Jean Seberg) in the lead role, and is given 20 days by his producer to get the film done. So begins a fly-by-your-seat production, in which Godard is often writing scenes in the morning just to shoot them that afternoon, with little-to-no rehearsals for the actors, all of whom are as in the dark as everyone else about what kind of movie they are making. Jean-Paul Belmondo goes with the punches and trusts Godard’s vision (even if his agent tells him it is a mistake and he’ll never work in the industry again), but Seberg becomes increasingly frustrated with Godard’s style and antics. Obviously, we all know how this ultimately turns out though. This is not a film for the masses. Unless you are a cinephile, the names Truffaut, Chabrol, Varda, Demy, and Rivette probably mean nothing to you (actors playing them, and many more from this era, turn up) but if you love film as much as I do, and cherish the groundbreaking French New Wave for how it changed the trajectory of motion pictures, this is a wonderful view behind the scenes at making one of the most influential films of all time. Linklater nails the style and in true Godard fashion, put together a cast of almost entirely new faces; with the exception of Seberg (Zoey Deutch), I didn’t recognize a single person. For the majority of them, this was either their first acting role, or their first major motion picture. New wave resurrected, indeed. ★★★★★

The Knives Out films series continues with Wake Up Dead Man, bringing back detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to solve a new murder case. The accused is Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor, in a star-making turn), a young idealistic priest who seems to have murdered the senior priest at their church. Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) was a charismatic priest but he chose to use the power of his words to alienate and manipulate his parishioners, pushing away most until only a small group of regulars remain in the flock. Jud declares his innocence, and Benoit believes him, but he’ll need to find out which of those church regulars is the real killer. A fantastic murder mystery with plenty of twists and turns, some truly gasp-inducing moments, it will keep you on your toes and make you think, time and again, that you have it all figured out, until of course, it shows you that you didn’t. Excellent cast too, including Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Mila Kunis, Jeffrey Wright, and Andrew Scott, who always seems to nail every role he’s in. ★★★★★

Train Dreams is one of those movies, as soon as the music starts up, you know they are going for deep, introspective, and meaningful. I’m not sure it hits on all three, but I’ll give it an A for effort. It stars Joel Edgerton as Robert, made an orphan at a young age in the late 19th century, and who never had anything easy in life. From fighting for scraps as a kid, to working the railroad as an adult, life was always a struggle. Robert does find happiness for a time, when he marries and has a little girl, but the hard life of a lumberjack never offers guarantees: people are killed on the dangerous job, or sometimes outright murdered for one reason or another, and no one bats an eye. Robert lives in constant fear that his family will lose him. As (bad) luck would have it, the reverse comes true, and a wildfire striking the area while he is away at work kills his wife and child. Robert spends the rest of his days alone, hoping that his missing wife and little girl will miraculously come back to him. The movie has its bright spots. William H Macy has a small, short role as a curmudgeony lumber lifer who regales coworkers about how easy it is for them compared to how it used to be. There’s plenty of deep moments too, like an early scene, a “flash forward” so to speak, when an older Robert is riding the train across a bridge that he helped build decades ago, only to look across the gorge at a modern “concrete and steel contraption” with cars zooming by on it. In the end, Robert lives long enough to see a man on the moon, but he cares nothing for it, only looking back at a long, hard life with little happiness. A real downer, and one that doesn’t reach the heights to which it aspires. ★★½

Jay Kelly, from director Noah Baumbach (small rant on how really great directors sign deals with Netflix, ugh), stars George Clooney as, well, himself. Jay Kelly is an instantly recognizable movie star with decades of films in his past, the kind of person who can’t go on a train without being identified by every person there, as we see later in the film. While he’s faced the criticism that he always “plays himself” (as Clooney has also been charged), he is beloved by the people. He has sacrificed much to be an actor though, with one alienated daughter and a second on the way there too. Knowing he screwed up the first and wanting to not follow the same mistake, Jay does all he can to convince the youngest girl to spend her last summer before college with him. She, of course, just wants to go hang out with friends in Europe, so Jay gives chase. He is followed by his “team” as it is known in the business, his always-by-his-side manager Ron (Adam Sandler), his publicist Liz (Laura Dern), and a big burly security detail. Part of what is giving Jay his moment of reflection is the recent death of Peter Schneider, a film director who gave Jay his first job in the business, and a long-time mentor. At the funeral, Jay runs into Timothy (Billy Crudup) who was Jay’s best friend in acting school, and while the two initially talk old times as buddies, eventually the truth comes out. Timothy was always the better actor, but was nervous at auditions, and when he clammed up in front of Peter Schneider all those years ago, the part went to Jay, and a star was born. Timothy accuses Jay of stealing his life, and what’s worse, Jay (deep down) believes it. He thus wants to make one thing right in his life, and that is his relationship with his daughter. Clooney has been quick to point out that, despite similarities, this is just a movie and that he is happy with the relationships and the way his life has gone, but still it’s a great “peak behind the curtain” at a successful actor’s life, not just from Jay, but from his team too, who often see themselves as babysitters for their star. Jay wasn’t a “bad” father, in that he didn’t abuse his kids or anything like that, but he just was never there. Something we can all take lessons from. While director Baumbach co-wrote Barbie with his wife Greta Gerwig, this is his first film since White Noise, which, in an amazing coincidence, I saw the same week as the last Knives Out movie and they showed up in the same blog then too. ★★★½

Bugonia is the latest from director Yorgos Lanthimos (lots of great directors in today’s blog!), and I really liked his last movie, even if it wasn’t for everyone. This one is a remake a popular 2004 Korean film, and begins by introducing us to Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), a successful CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Michelle has become the target and obsession of conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons). Teddy and his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) kidnap Michelle and bring her to Teddy’s house, chaining her up in the basement. Rape? Ransom? No, the men kidnapped her because Teddy is convinced that Michelle is an alien sent to Earth to force humans into subservience, and they want her to grant an audience for Teddy with the alien’s supreme emperor, to negotiate the future of humanity. Over the course of a couple days, Teddy tortures Michelle until she is willing to admit to anything they ask. The whole time, Michelle is wondering why she was targeted, until she realizes Teddy is the son of a woman that her company used an experimental drug on. It’s a dark film, marketed as a black comedy (and there’s plenty of black) but with Lanthimos’s trademark off-the-wall crazy comedy as well. Shines a frightening look at the depths the internet can take us. The ending takes a hard left (though if you’ve seen films from this director before, it’s not unforeseen), but I really enjoyed it. ★★★★

One Battle After Another is the latest from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, and from everything I’ve heard, I thought it would be a return to form. Unfortunately, it’s yet another miss for my tastes. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor as Pat and Perfidia, a couple involved in a radical, militant, revolutionary group known as the French 75, who bomb government buildings and “fight the system.” On one mission to free immigrants, Perfidia humiliates the military commander, Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), of the immigrant detention center, which only leads to him being sexually obsessed with her. Lockjaw tracks her down afterwards and blackmails her into having sex with him, unbeknownst to Pat. Later, after she has a child, Pat wants to leave the group and settle down as a family, but she refuses and leaves them, to continue the fight. Lockjaw orchestrates having Perfidia arrested, and she turns states evidence to enter witness protection, only to escape and flee herself. Her testimony though gets a lot of people in the group killed, and forces Pat and their daughter Charlene to change names and go into hiding. The story picks up 16 years later, where they are living quietly, albeit always full of paranoia of being found. Lockjaw has finally located them, and the film turns into an action thriller as Lockjaw’s military group descends on the quiet little town, with a subplot involving Lockjaw’s attempts to get into a white supremacist organization. It definitely has its funny moments, like when Pat tries to call into French 75 for help, but can’t remember the code words to get through to someone who would remember him. Entertaining in spots, but the ridiculous plot elements eventually catch up to it and by the end, I was only watching to see how it ended. ★★★

I sort of knew American Sweatshop wasn’t going to be any good, but it had an intriguing premise so I took a flier on it. It ended up being exactly as I suspected, but oh well. It’s about a woman named Daisy who works as a content moderator at a YouTube-like video host company. Her job is to look at videos that users have reported as offensive or against user guidelines, and decide if the video should be removed or left up. As such, she often sees the worst of the worst, gruesome videos including murder, animal cruelty, rape, etc. Most at the company become numb to what they are seeing, but Daisy is haunted by the images, relying on drugs an alcohol after her shifts. One day, she watches a video of a man torturing a drugged woman by driving nails into her body, and Daisy wants to report it to the police. The company doesn’t agree though, with excuses that the film could be fake or consensual, and even when Daisy goes over their head, straight to the police, they too refuse to proceed. Thus, Daisy takes things into her own hands, attempting to track down who made the video, in order to meet out vigilante justice. Silly movie, which relies on gross imagery for grisly titillation. ★½

Roofman, unbelievably, is based on a true story and stars Channing Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester, an ex-military crook who was arrested in 2000 for breaking into and robbing McDonalds stores over a period of a couple years. Sentenced to 45 years in prison, Jeffrey can’t live with the fact that he won’t see his kids grow up, despite his ex-wife promising to cut off communication with him anyway. Jeffrey hatches an elaborate escape plan and somehow pulls it off. Rather than flee the area, as he knows the police would be watching the major roads, he hides in a local Toys R Us and sets up a home. He disables the recoding on the cameras in case anyone tries to look up the history on them, and comes out at night to eat candy and baby food from the shelves. Eventually, he starts heading outside during the day and sneaking back before close. In doing so, he begins a relationship with a Toys R Us worker, Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) and befriends her two daughters. He even becomes involved in her church. Jeffrey was always a nice guy, despite his flaws, and his easygoing nature makes him popular. Things go bad one day though, when he encounters the store’s manager (Peter Dinklage) coming in to work early, so the store beefs up their security. Knowing time is short, Jeffrey reaches out to a former military buddy for help in getting a fake passport, but the friend demands a lot of money, forcing Jeffrey into an unobtainable decision. Funny movie, with a surprising amount of heart, and worthy of a single watch/date night, but nothing profound or that I’d watch more than once. ★★★

Good Fortune is the directorial debut of Parks and Rec alum Aziz Ansari, who also stars as Arj. Arj is down-on-his-luck, currently sleeping in his car and working menial jobs, just trying to squeak by, while his parents back in India brag about his other hard-working cousins are succeeding in America. His saved from a car accident one day by Gabriel, a guardian angel in charge of texting and driving, but who has aspirations of doing more. Gabriel is a bit jealous of Azrael, the guardian angel of lost souls, who regales the other angels at their weekly meetings about inspiring people who otherwise have no hope. Gabriel sees that in Arj and attempts to turn his spirits around, by giving Arj an “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment. Gabriel switch’s Arj’s life with that of a wealthy investor (played by Seth Rogan) in an attempt to show Arj that living the high life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Unfortunately for Gabriel, money does seem to solve all of Arj’s problems, and Arj doesn’t want to go back to the way things were (nor give the rich man his life back). Mildly funny at times, mostly due to Gabriel’s (played by Keanu Reeves) deadpan delivery, but no deep belly laughs. Couldn’t get more than a few chuckles from me, and when the story is feathery-light, it would need far more laughs to be a success. ★★

Left-Handed Girl was written and directed by Shih-Ching Tsou, and if that name isn’t familiar, I know the name Sean Baker is, especially after he swept the Oscars last year with Anora. Tsou co-directed Baker’s first film in 2004 and was a producer on his later films, so it was no surprise that Baker’s name showed up on this one as a co-writer, producer, etc. Out of Taiwan, it is about a family struggling to survive. Mother Shu-Fen is newly single after leaving her philandering husband, and raising her daughters I-Ann and I-Jing on her own. I-Ann is a late-teen, never finished high school, and gives off the impression of a party girl, though she does get a job to help support the family. I-Jing is only 5, and a very precocious 5 at that. As Shu-Fen opens a noodle stand (which doesn’t do well), I-Jing wanders the busy market and makes friends with kids and adults alike. Her grandfather (Shu-Fen’s father) chides her for being left-handed, calling it “the devil’s hand” in old superstition, and I-Jing takes that to heart, using her left hand to steal trinkets from the stands around her, and later, when it gets her into trouble, contemplates chopping it off to excise its evil influence. I-Ann, meanwhile, starts sleeping with her boss and gets pregnant, the ramifications which will lead to a bombshell revelation in the end. Great, subtle film that explores the fringes of society (as Baker’s films often do) and Nina Ye as little I-Jing really steals the show. The camera is often down at her level as she moves around, so we see the world from her eyes. She is up to the task, a real talent. ★★★★

• TV series recently watched: It: Welcome to Derry (season 1), Portlandia (seasons 3-4)
• Book currently reading: Amber and Blood by Margaret Weis

My review for the last Avatar movie was something along the lines of, “Good film, but maybe James Cameron is running out of ideas.” The newest installment, Fire and Ash, only confirms those misgivings. While still visually stunning, beauty can only take the viewer so far, and the writer/director continues to trot out the same plot lines over and over again.

This film picks up where the last ended. Jake Sully and his family have settled in with the Metkayina people after having fought off the latest incursion by the humans. A rift has grown between Jake and his wife Neytiri, as Jake is in favor of arming the people with guns from the humans as better protection, but Neytiri feels that in doing so, they are straying too far from her religious beliefs in Eywa. Their son Lo’ak is haunted by the death of his brother, for which he feels responsible, and the family’s adopted daughter Kiri feels cut off from Eywa for an unknown reason. The bad guys are still around too, led by the clone/resurrected avatar of Colonel Miles, who just can’t seem to stay dead. He finds a new ally to help him hunt Jake Sully: the Mangkwan clan. A group of Na’vi who worship a volcano and have spurned Eywa, they are militaristic and would love to get their hands on the humans’ guns and advanced weapons. Miles has another goal too, because he has learned that his human son Spider, who has been raised by Jake and the Na’vi, has been given the gift of breathing Pandora’s air by Eywa. If Miles can get Spider back to the human settlement to be studied by its scientists, perhaps they can engineer a way to allow all humans to breathe the air without masks, greatly aiding their campaign on the planet.

As I said at the start, way too many plot elements from the first two films are recycled. We see Neytiri and her people crying out for Eywa to protect the planet, asking the animals to come aid the people in the fight against humans. The battles in the skies between the flying beasts and the human ships is a near carbon-copy from the first film, with the same moves shown again. We even get Jake Sully having to seek out and ride Toruk again, to show that he is chief of chiefs and to unite the tribes (again) to fight back against the humans. I feel like I’ve seen this all before.

Again, the film is gorgeous and a true spectacle, but the story is not fresh. Cameron wants to do 2 more Avatar movies, but he really needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with something new and exciting. ★★★

In between My Own Private Idaho and his huge hit Good Will Hunting, director Gus Van Sant did To Die For, a (sadly prescient) film about a woman willing to do anything to get on TV, because you aren’t anyone unless you are on TV. Shortly after her breakout role in Days of Thunder (and released the same year as Batman Forever), Nicole Kidman stars as Suzanne Stone, who only cares for becoming a star. The film is told as a mokumentary with interviews with her and her husband’s family, and from the beginning, we know that Suzanne was a suspect in her husband’s murder, but we don’t know the details until the film plays out. In flashbacks, we see Suzanne marry Larry Maretto (Matt Dillon) after a short, whirlwind romance, which neither sets of parents really condone. Larry supports his new wife’s desire to get on TV and applauds the loudest when she lands a gig as a weather lady at the local public broadcast network, but ultimately he expects her to be a wife and mother, and wants kids before too long. She doesn’t want anything (including children) that could stand in her way, so Suzanne quickly starts hatching a plan to put Larry out of the picture. Under the guise of putting together a documentary about teenagers and their current points of view, Suzanne goes into a high school and lures a couple teens into her sphere of influence. She woos one into her bed, and sets him up to be her patsy. You’ll just have to watch through to see if she gets away with it. A great cast including a very young Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck in his first film role, as well as plenty of other recognizable faces from the 90s (Illeana Douglas, Kurtwood Smith, and Dan Hedaya (the dad in Clueless), among many others). It’s a good black comedy satire, but with today’s social media influencers and whatnot, not sure it hits as hard. Maybe I’m just desensitized. ★★★

Love Jones is a romantic drama and a tale as old as time, but put in a new light (especially for the mid-90s, but still holds today). Darius is a local poet in Chicago who reads his work at a nightclub/jazz hall when he meets Nina, and up-and-coming photographer. Darius is a legendary lady’s man, with no prior relationships lasting more than a couple months, but he is instantly smitten with Nina’s looks and intelligence. He tries to put on a facade that he doesn’t care for her as much as he does, as he has a reputation to uphold after all, but he can’t help himself. Soon after, they begin a sexual relationship, but Darius tries to blow it off as simply physical, so much so that Nina begins to believe him, and she leaves for a trip to New York to reconnect with an old boyfriend. When that doesn’t work out and she comes back to Chicago, she sees Darius hanging out with a woman friend and misconstrues it to thinking he has moved on. She starts dating someone else too, setting up the ending that we’ve all seen before. What makes this movie different is the cast. All black, all college educated with blooming careers. Made at a time when most black people in film were either gang bangers or relegated to “the black friend,” (and unfortunately still too-often the case), this movie is a much more accurate portrayal of what the real world is like. An awesome soundtrack of jazz, soul, and R&B, taking place in middle-class and upscale Chicago and following the life of future movers-and-shakers, it is a very refreshing movie. ★★★½

Breaking the Waves was the breakout for director Lars von Trier, starring Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgård (another Good Will Hunting reference! this one released the year before in 1996). Watson plays Bess, a somewhat simple-minded, innocent and naive woman newly married to oil rig worker Jan (Skarsgård). Bess is completely trusting in God’s will, having conversations with Him in her prayers, where she answers back in “God’s voice” to reassure herself in times of trouble. When Jan goes away to work offshore for awhile, Bess misses him terribly and begs God to bring him home. He does come, but not the way she would have hoped. He is in an accident, leaving him a paraplegic and on the cusp of death. Jan wants Bess to move on with her life, but knowing her religion will never allow a divorce, he asks her to seek physical relations with other men. Bess initially refuses, but when his condition worsens, she believes it is God punishing her for not doing as Jan requested. She begins have trysts with strangers, and when Jan begins to improve in the hospital, Bess sees it as divine permission, or even Godly edict, and she continues, though she hates herself for it. All culminates in a terrible event when she “must” do whatever it takes to see her husband safely through the ordeal. Watson is amazing in her first film role, earning her an Oscar nom. ★★★★½

Cheating on this “90s list” a bit, as Ghost World was released in 2001, but it is based on a 90s comic book and definitely has 90s vibes. I had recently watched director Terry Zwigoff’s documentary Crumb (highly recommend) and this was his first fiction film. It follows two best friends, Enid and Rebecca (a young Scarlet Johansson) graduating from high school. Rebecca is prepping for college like everyone else in their class, but Enid is without a compass. She already has to repeat an art class over the summer to get her diploma, and she doesn’t really know what she wants to do next. The two prank phone call a want ad from a man seeking a date and set up a date with him, but when they later watch him arrive at the diner and make fun of him, Enid feels bad and goes to meet the guy, Seymour (Steve Buscemi). Like the girls, Seymour is an odd duck and socially awkward. He’s into records (before records were cool again) and his bedroom is filled with eclectic art. Enid and Seymour become friends, though nothing more than friendship is ever brought up due to the gap in their age, even if it is apparent that Seymour wishes for more. Enid starts to try to set him up on dates, but when he hits it off with one woman, Enid becomes jealous. It also starts to bug her that Rebecca, with her blond hair and filled-out body, gets all the attention from boys their age too. Lots of funny moments, mostly provided by Enid’s and Rebecca’s cynical attitude towards social norms and the world in general. Not sure it is a super great movie, but plenty to like for children of the 90s like myself, for all the nostalgia. Probably a movie I wouldn’t have liked much if I’d seen it upon release, but hits better as an older adult with some reflection. ★★★½

The Game is sort of the opposite. This one I’ve seen before, and while I usually stay away from blogging about movies I’ve already seen, it has been decades (since before I was aware who the director, David Fincher, was) so I thought it was worth a revisit. It stars Michael Douglas as Nicholas, a wealthy investor on the cusp of his 48th birthday, the age when his father committed suicide. While haunted by those memories, Nicholas goes through the motions of life without excitement or caring. This changes when his ne’er-do-well brother Conrad (Sean Penn) gifts him “an experience” for a “game” with startup company CRS. Nicholas can’t get a straight answer from anyone what this game is supposed to be, only that it will change his life and give him new perspective. Things start going batty right away, but initially it seems pretty innocuous. His briefcase won’t open, someone spills something on his shirt, he is handed a note to follow a woman, etc. But it isn’t long before people are chasing him with guns and he is being locked in the back seat of a cab as it drives into the river. Nicholas keeps trying to tell himself it is all just a game, but he is visited by Conrad again who says CRS ended up being a scam, that he’s been hounded by them ever since signing up, and it’s all a shakedown for more money. Nicholas’s head starts spinning, not knowing what is real and what isn’t. When I saw this movie in the late 90s, I remember liking it quite a bit, being blown away by the premise and action in it. Now, I thought it was just “ok,” and felt a bit dated. Maybe it was more groundbreaking in its time, or maybe I was just younger and more doe eyed. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Luke Cage (season 2), Breaking Bad (season 4)
• Book currently reading: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray

Based on a true story, Eden follows the Wittmer family as they try to make a new beginning on the tiny Galápagos Island of Floreana in the late 1920s. Lured by the writings of fellow German Friedrich Ritter, who fled there to write his manifesto on the rise of the bourgeois/bureaucracy and decline of humanity, the Wittmers instead find a cold, uncaring Dr Ritter and an equally inhospitable island, with little clean water sources and packs of roving wild dogs descended from abandoned animals by previous explorers. While they are still trying to settle in to build a homestead, the island greets a third arrival, the Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn, whom I immediately labeled a fraud. She is accompanied by two lovesick workers and a single servant, whom she’s hired to build her a mansion on the island. Of course, Eloise and her entourage are unprepared for the harshness of the environment, and soon take to living off of and stealing from the Wittmers. For awhile, the Ritters stay out of the feud, but when Eloise’s antics encroach on his carved-out little area, Friedrich’s libertarianism-esque views are tested and he begins a descent into madness. To be honest I thought the movie was going nowhere for a good while. It has intriguing moments but at one point, I had the real thought, “Man, director Ron Howard has lost his touch.” But it has a fantastic ending that changed my mind about the whole film. Still not great, but certainly a worthy watch. I don’t know how much of it is true, but if even half of it is, Floreana is cursed. Great cast of Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby (Ritters), Daniel Brühl and Sydney Sweeney (Witmers), and Ana de Armas (the Baroness). ★★★½

She Rides Shotgun is a thriller starring Taron Egerton as Nate, a man on the run with his 10-year-old daughter Polly. Newly released from prison, he picks her up after school though she is obviously hesitant to get in his car. She asks where her mom is, and we hear a quick snippet of news on the radio about a double homicide before Nate flips it off. Nate drives them to a motel, cuts and dyes Polly’s hair, and crashes on the bed. Later, Polly flips on the TV to see the report of her murdered mother and stepfather, with the police naming Nate as the prime suspect. Polly flees to the motel office to call the police, but Nate gets to her first and is able to explain the situation. Nate, a former member of a white supremacist group, tried to cut ties with them and did something that brought retribution. It was them that killed his ex-wife, and they are now hunting him too. Nate is just trying to keep his little girl safe, so they go on the road. After a run-in with someone chasing them, I gave up on the movie. While it sounds exciting, I figured I knew how this was all going to play out, because stories like this have been done a million times (and better too). All I did was feel sorry for little Polly, who is probably looking forward to a lifetime of therapy sessions. ★

Americana is a very entertaining neowestern with plenty of action and even a few good laughs. It opens in a tiny South Dakota town, on a young boy, Cal, as he buys a Native American headband and then practices bow and arrow in the yard. His big sister, Mandy, comes storming out of the house saying she’s just clobbered her abusive boyfriend over the head, so get in the car ‘cause they gotta go. Cal refuses, saying he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull and he needs to stay with his fellow Lakota people in the area. Mandy drives off, while Cal confronts the awakening boyfriend and shoots him dead with an arrow. We then go back in time, to see how we got here, and meet the rest of the cast. There’s Lefty (his birth name, because he’s actually right-handed), the town’s waitress Penny (who has a severe stutter, but who dreams of singing in Nashville), Roy (an Antiques dealer hot to get the rare and valuable Native American ghost shirt that ended up in the trunk of Mandy’s car), and Ghost Eye (leader of a local militant Native American gang). It’s a zany group each with their own motives, all swirling around that shirt, that is worth over a million. There’s action, crazy-but-plausible twists, and like I said, some great humor (Ghost Eye to Cal about his claim to be Sitting Bull: “This isn’t exactly the golden age of cultural appropriation right now.” Cal looks around and says: “I remember more horses in my day.” Ghost Eye: “Motherf**er…”). And in the end, as any good movie should, it has some heart too. Like the above Eden, strong cast though maybe not as well known, including Paul Walter Hauser as Lefty, Simon Rex (continuing his career resurgence) as Roy, Zahn McClarnon as Ghost Eye, and, stealing the show, Halsey as Mandy and Sydney Sweeney as Penny, both of whom carry every scene. ★★★½

I don’t go for comedies often, but Splitsville had an interesting premise. It opens on a couple driving down the road. Carey and Ashley have been married for just over a year and seem happy, but after they witness a car accident where someone dies, Ashley has an epiphany and tells Carey she wants a divorce. She’s obviously been thinking about it for some time, because she pulls out a letter she had written and starts reading it to him (“Maybe its because I’ve only been with 7 guys,” “Wait, I thought I was # 4?” “You were….”). Unable to handle the situation, Carey flees on foot and arrives to his best friend’s house some time later. Carey and Paul have been friends since childhood, and Carey crashes there for awhile to get his bearings. He is surprised to hear that Paul and his wife Julie have opened their marriage up to others. Julie confides to Carey that she is sure Paul is seeing someone when he goes into the city for “work,” but she has yet to find another partner. In his current emotional state, Carey *ahem* fills that void. Of course, his buddy Paul doesn’t like that at all, no matter what he’d previously said about their open marriage, leading to a huge fight between the two friends. Since he can’t stay there anymore, Carey moves back into his old house, much to Ashley’s chagrin. She’ll hate it even more soon enough, because Carey starts befriending all of Ashley’s ex-lovers and one-night-stands, allowing the other guys to continue to stay in the house too. It isn’t long before the house is full, and Paul joins the group too after his marriage with Julie goes on the rocks. That shaky ground is obviously an opening for Carey to pursue Julie again… This film is a wild ride and I was laughing a whole lot in the beginning, though it seemed to lose steam before the end. The jokes stopped landing at some point, and the movie starts to drag. But it was good for awhile though. ★★★

The Long Walk is how Stephen King does The Hunger Games. Based on one of his books, it takes place in a dystopian 1970s era after some kind of war has devastated the USA’s economy. To spur citizens to work hard and “give them motivation,” the military hosts an annual long walk, with one young man from each state chosen from volunteers (though everyone volunteers), where the participants must keep a pace of 3 miles an hour and never stop, never deviate from the road, or they are shot and killed. The final survivor is given a wish and a huge cash prize, with the idea being that hard work is rewarded. The film’s main character is Ray Garraty, a young man ready to do his walk, with an ulterior motive that isn’t learned until much later. As the days-long walk begins, Ray makes really good friends with Pete and a couple other young men, in a “Stand By Me” sort of bond. People start dying before too long, from either being unable to keep up, illness, trying to make a run for it, or simply losing their mind over the constant mental pressure. Seeing some of these people, normal otherwise, break down over the course of a couple days of walking hundreds of miles without a rest, is what provides most of the thrills. Ray and Pete form a strong bond to help see each other through the ordeal, and confide in each about their past and what has led them here. Fantastic film that is emotional and tense and never lets up. ★★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Task (season 1), Lost (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Lost Stars by Claudia Gray

This Too Shall Pass follows a group of friends on a Ferris Bueller-like day. Simon (Maxwell Jenkins, Will Robinson from the rebooted Lost in Space show) feels stifled by his strict Mormon family, who don’t allow him to date or do anything that other boys his age are doing. When his crush heads off to Canada for the weekend, and off-handedly remarks that she’d like Simon to go, he gathers his best friends to make the trip there “to surprise her,” under the guise of seeing their hometown hockey club square off in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The trio of friends jumps on a bus, and off they go, for a couple days they’ll never forget. Funny and endearing, the film borrows heavily from John Hughes’ filmography (even the film poster hearkens to The Breakfast Club) and the filmmaker isn’t shy about it; in an early scene, the friends are talking about the pros and cons of Hughes’ movies. Ultimately, this feels like a movie John would have made in 2025, and though it takes place in the 80s, it tackles modern problems that today’s teenagers still face (though obviously with less online bullying). And best of all, these “kids” are at that perfect age between childhood and adulthood, where everything is a traumatic event, making it both the best and worst time to be alive, depending on how the afternoon is going. Great film that makes you remember those years with fondness. ★★★★★

In Vitro takes place in a near-future where humanity is facing a (very plausible) catastrophe. Meat has become scarce, so Jack, a scientist-turned-rancher, has been working on cloning cows for their beef. He’s been facing setbacks though, with the cloned animals getting sick and dying, unsafe for human consumption. His wife Layla gave up her profession to stay at their remote ranch and help him, while their young son is off in the city at boarding school. Layla misses their son terribly, and just goes through the motions at the house. Things start getting weird at home too. Layla starts hearing noises both in the barn/lab, and out in the woods, and Jack is pretty mum about what it could be. The big “twist” drops halfway through, when Layla stumbles upon a clone of herself, getting ill like the animals were, and she starts to wonder what Jack is really up to. From there, the film takes a strange turn, becoming more of a low budget almost-slasher film, as the unhinged Jack comes after Layla and her increasingly sicker clone. I liked the start of the film, it gave off Interstellar vibes, in that it takes place in a world that is starting to crumble, but really fell apart in the second half. ★★½

Relay is a great thriller starring Riz Ahmed as Ash, a “fixer” unlike any you’ve seen in a movie  before. Usually these guys are big, brawny, and handle problems with their fists. If you know Ahmed from his films like Nightcrawler or Sound of Metal, then you know he’s a little guy, so he fixes problems with his brains. When an employee, a potential whistleblower, is feeling pressure or being harassed by their workplace, Ash steps in to blackmail the company in staying away from the employee. After the company pays up and backs off, the former employee would be safe from retribution because Ash keeps a “safe copy” of the incriminating report that he would send to the press, if needed. His latest client is Sarah (Lily James), who was fired after she raised questions about a health study showing her genetic food-growing company ignored troubling results in the testing phase. Sarah has a copy of the report and initially was going to go to the press, but fear for her own life has led her to want to get out of her predicament with her health intact. Thus, she contacts Ash after an attorney recommends him. Ash lives in secrecy, constantly switching phones and never talking to people one-on-one or even over the phone. He communicates through a relay system which anonymously reads his messages to and from his clients. Ash takes Lily’s case, even as the company ups the harassment by parking a van in front of her place and keeping an eye on her. Ash reaches out to the company with his demands of staying away from her, in return for the report she holds. But they aren’t going to give up easily, and continue to try to find Ash’s identity. A very good spy-like thriller with twists and turns, and it saves the best surprise for the very end. ★★★★

Unicorns follows a man named Luke, a single father raising a little boy after the mother ran off. Luke is a guy’s guy, working in his dad’s garage. He happens into a club one night and is instantly smitten by a woman dancing on stage. He meets her outside afterwards and the two start making out, before the girl is drawn away by some friends for a minute. While they are off talking, Luke looks around and realizes the bar’s clientele is nearly all men, and then becomes aware that the girl he was just kissing on is no girl. Ashiq is a drag queen, and Luke is disgusted with himself and runs off. As days go by though, he can’t get Ashiq out of his mind. The two reconnect, and a very confused Luke tries to figure out what is going on his own head. The film is well acted, but honestly I couldn’t get into it. If they were just 2 straight people, we wouldn’t even have a movie here. I like a good art film, but this one was too much even for me. ★★

El Jockey (released in the USA as Kill the Jockey) is not a film with mass appeal, despite its very intriguing premise. It is marketed as being about a jockey who works for the mob, who goes on the run after accidentally killing a prized race horse. Sounds like an action film or maybe a thriller of some kind, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, and the end result is so much better than any standard thriller. At first, I thought it was just a bit weird but oddly intoxicating, as the jockey (Remo, a famous thoroughbred jockey who dulls his life with alcohol) breaks out in dance with his wife (fellow jockey Abril) in a Napolean Dynamite-like way. Before long though, I realize the movie is heavy in surrealism (a big giveaway is when Remo, walking down the street, is suddenly surrounded by a marching band and a military parade, who continue on parading around and through him), which is my jam, though I know these kinds of films can be divisive. There’s lots of strange imagery, and it would be easy to get lost in it all, but stick with it. The death of the horse comes pretty early in the movie, as Remo takes his ride right into a wall after a turn. Remo barely survives, and in a near-comatose state, wanders out of the hospital with a huge bandage around his head. The mobsters go on the hunt for him, while Remo finds friends here and there to help him stay hidden. Remo soon dresses as a woman to stay incognito, and this keeps him safe for awhile. The final act, after Remo is arrested and put in jail, flips the script on the viewer and answers just about all the questions you might have to this point. And that ending. Damn. I need to rewatch from the beginning to look for clues! ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: All Her Fault (series)
• Book currently reading: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

The big joke about the film Titanic is that it was so popular despite everyone knowing how it was going to end. Well, everyone has seen The Wizard of Oz, so we all know the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba) is going down, but the story behind the story is no less riveting, and director Jon Chu delivers an epic tale.

This sequel picks up some time after the end of last year’s Wicked. Elphaba is now the Wicked Witch and is reviled all over Oz. This, despite the fact that she is actually trying to do good, and protect the speaking Animals who the Wizard of Oz has made scapegoats and targets for Oz’s human citizens. Everything Elphaba tries to do, the Wizard and his crony Morrible twists to appear to be evil. Glinda, now ensconced as a figurehead/spewer of propaganda by the Wizard as Glinda the Good, goes around praising the Wizard and keeping people happy. An eternal optimist, he sees her work as good, encouraging Oz’s citizens, while secretly hoping that Elphaba will have a change of heart and join the Wizard. Elphaba’s sister Nessa has become the new governor of Munchkinland after the death of their father, and she has become cruel, hoarding her power and commanding those under her, especially munchkin Boq, whom Nessa thinks loves her, though he still only has eyes for Glinda. Fiyero is still in the mix too; he’s been dating Glinda because he cares for her happiness, but still carries a flame for Elphaba too, though he lacks the courage to stand against the Wizard as she has. Into this maelstrom comes Dorothy, who really is just a side character in the grander battle between Elphaba and the Wizard, but Dorothy becomes the catalyst that sets everything on its course.

The film does a great job of staying true to original film/story, while delving into the backstory and the development of all of its characters. There’s plenty of hints of how it all would fit together too. Some great songs (though personally, the bangers were all in the first film). Definitely a darker film than the first, with less laughs and more emotion. There’s enough scary moments that small children may be frightened, though a couple 5-7 year olds in our theater seemed just fine. Overall, an exhilarating film and a must-see for musical fans like myself. ★★★★

• TV series recently watched: The Terminal List: Dark Wolf (series), The Girlfriend (season 1), ST Voyager (season 3), Devil in Disguise (series), Stargate SG1 (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Sandworms of Dune by Herbert & Anderson