Max Ophüls was a German director who made films all around the world during his life, but today I’ll be looking at his last 4 films, made mostly in France. La ronde (“Roundabout”) is a funny little film with some racy moments, enough so that it was classified as immoral in the USA when it was released in 1950, and it took an appeal to the Supreme Court a couple years later before it was shown here. The film opens on our narrator/emcee. He will hold our hand over the course of the film, weaving a tale of lust and debauchery, but also playing a part in it himself at times (as a carriage driver, or passerby in the street giving advice to a character, or whatever the case may be). He promises a circling tale around the merry-go-round, and we’ll soon see what he means. In the beginning, a young soldier is being propositioned by a prostitute. The man tries to duck out for lack of funds, but gives in when she says she doesn’t charge for the military. What red blooded man is going to turn away a romp for free? No sooner is the deed done though that the man heads out and goes to a party, in an attempt to pick up a new girl. His target, a chambermaid, eventually gives in to his wares. But she isn’t sitting around pining away for him afterwards; she too moves on to the next bed-partner. And so on and so forth. Each subsequent partner becomes the central character and hunter for a new partner afterwards, until, of course, we make it back to the prostitute. There’s lots of very funny moments, often provided by the narrator breaking the fourth wall to us viewers (like when one man tries to go again too soon after his previous foray, leading to a scene where the merry-go-round has broke down and the narrator has to bang on it with a wrench to get it going again). I’m sure it caused quite the scandal in its day, and is still a lot of fun today. ★★★½

Le plaisir adapts three 19th century short stories into a film of vignettes. The first and third are short (around 20 minutes) but good, but the middle, longer story is the star. The first is “Le masque” and tells about an old man who dons a mask to frolic with younger women at public dances, much to the consternation of his wife. The third, “Le modele,” is about an artist who falls head-over-heels for a woman, only to find that a relationship with her is not the same as a dalliance. The middle story, “La maison tellier,” is full of humor but also introspection for the characters. It begins in Paris, where a madame runs a “house of women,” as the narrator tries to delicately tell us. There’s a lot of laughs about how the men around town congregate there every night, and who is their favorite, but it is mostly a way to introduce us to the girls. One day, the madame suddenly closes with no notice (much to the dismay of the men!), but she has a reason: her niece out in the country is having her first communion, and the madame is taking all of her girls to visit her family and witness the big day for the young girl. More jokes on the train ride over, as the women are mistaken for high society by a country couple, and exposed for what they are by a traveling salesman, but the film turns more serious when they reach their destination. The madame’s brother (played by Jean Gabin, one of France’s all-time most popular leading men) becomes smitten by the beautiful young Rosa, and is willing to drop everything and move to the city, but of course, he has a life there in the country. There’s also a heart-warming moment at the niece’s ceremony at church, when Rosa and the other women are moved by this peaceful, religious moment, so different from their everyday lives. All good things come to an end though, and the women pack up that night to return to Paris, where “men may forgive one night closed, but would never forgive two.” Very moving film. ★★★★½

The Earrings of Madame de… has been called by some critics, “The most perfect film ever made.” Lofty praise, and I have to say after one viewing, it is indeed a great one. At the start of the movie, the titled madame, Louise (her last name is always carefully hidden through camera or sound tricks), is selling a pair of diamond earrings to a jeweler. The earrings were a wedding gift from her husband André, a count and general in the French army, but it has from the beginning been a marriage of convenience, and Louise could use the money to pay for her extravagant lifestyle more than she needs the memories of the wedding day. The jeweler, thinking the earrings are more emotionally significant than they are, contacts André and sells them back to him. To avoid a messy confrontation with his wife, André instead gifts them to his mistress, who is heading out of town to Constantinople, where she loses them in gambling, and they are later purchased by the Baron Donati. In a twist of fate, Donati crosses paths with Louise and becomes smitten, eventually gifting her the earrings. She recognizes them, but then must hatch a plan as to how she got them back (as far as she believes André knows, they were stolen and never recovered). The twists keep going from there. On face value, it’s a charming film full of humor and unexpected fate, a love story with twists and turns to keep you on your toes. But for those who look deeper, it is a movie about class/social status, love, and honor, with gorgeous sets and meticulous camera work. Maybe not the best film ever made, but certainly one you’ll want to watch again and again. ★★★★★

Lola Montès is the one stinker out of this batch, and that’s unfortunate because the subject material is fascinating. Lola Montez was a wannabe dancer in the mid-19th century who used her body to try to advance her career. Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t a good enough dancer, even by giving away her “wares,” and she never amounted to much on stage. At the start of the movie, she’s in a two-bit circus in New Orleans, USA, with a ringleader telling her tale to the audience as Lola acts out parts of it. In flashbacks, we learn of her history. After a short flashback to 1844 when Lola had a brief affair with composer Franz Liszt (the ringleader expounds that he wasn’t the only famous composer to be Lola’s lover, with others including Chopin and Wagner), we go back to her childhood. Born in Ireland, first her mom tries to marry her off to a wealthy (but very old) baron, but Lola instead flees and marries her mom’s boyfriend instead, at the time, her only way out of the situation. The marriage doesn’t last, so next, she ends up traveling in Germany, eventually becoming the main mistress to King Ludwig I. In fact, it is her ministrations that lead to an uprising in Bavaria and King Ludwig stepping down, after policies he enacts at Lola’s urging. Lola fleeing an angry mob is what ultimately lands her in America, trying to recapture some of the influence she once had. Amazing life, right? The movie however is a bore, and doesn’t do anything for this exciting person. I think it would have worked better if they’d just ditch the circus act/ringleader narration and told her story in a more straightforward way (something the studio tried to do in later re-edits, when the movie initially bombed upon release). Do yourself a favor and just read about the real Lola Montez. ★★

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is the sequel that no one knew they needed, but for children of the 80s, it offers plenty to enjoy. Eddie Murphy is back as Axel Foley, the Detroit cop that every street level player likes, and every police higher-up hates, for the antics he pulls on a daily basis. After his latest escapade, where he once again gets the bad guys but tears up half the city in doing so, he is in hot water again. Just as he is facing disciplinary action, he gets a call from his buddy in Beverly Hills, Rosewood, who is no longer a cop but is a P.I. His cryptic message is something about working a case for Axel’s estranged daughter Jane, a lawyer in LA, but afterwards Rosewood goes missing. Axel heads out to LA to see what he can dig up, and it will lead to a reunion with all his old pals from the first film 40 years ago (!), including Taggart (now a police chief) and Serge (still with the funny name mistakes). A little bit of a family angle, with Axel and Jane trying to reconcile by the end, but the highlight is still the action and Murphy’s comedy, which may seem dated to some, but I think he’s still got it. It’s not a blockbuster or anything, but if you enjoyed the first film all those years ago but felt let down by the second (and especially that stinker of a third), this is a return to form that will make you remember the glory days. ★★★½

Fancy Dance returns Lily Gladstone, fresh off her breakout in Killers of the Flower Moon (though technically, I think this movie was finished and hit the film festival circuit first; it wasn’t released to the majority public until last month). She plays Jax, a woman living on a reservation in Oklahoma, looking for her missing sister Tawi. Tawi has had run-ins with the law over drug running and stealing before, as has Jax, so most people just figure she’s on a bender somewhere and will eventually show up, but Jax has a gut feeling that there’s more to it this time. In Tawi’s absence, Jax is looking after Tawi’s teen daughter Roki, with a little help from her and Tawi’s brother JJ, a cop on the reservation who has been able to keep his sisters out of too much trouble until now. Unfortunately, the powers at be, meaning federal authorities outside the reservation, deem that Jax isn’t a suitable caregiver to Roki due to her past, and issue a ruling that Roki must be turned over to Jax’s father, Frank. Frank, a white man, lived on the reservation and raised his kids with their mother, a Native American descendent, but he moved away after her death and remarried, and he’s had little contact with his kids or granddaughter in the intervening years. Frustrated with the lack of progress of Tawi’s case, Jax kidnaps Roki and the two go on the road looking for answers, dodging Amber alerts and the rough-and-tumbles in Tawi’s up-to-no-good circle of friends. The film does a good job of shining a light on the racism Jax’s people still face, locally and on the national/federal level, but the acting is just so-so (was Killers a fluke?) and the emotional heft wasn’t always there. ★★★

Godzilla Minus One is the latest Japanese film from Toho Studios, the company who first brought us the monster in 1954, and the first cinematic film from Japan in the film series in nearly a decade, due to a non-compete contract between Toho and Legendary, who has been making the American Godzilla films the last few years. Those have been, for the most part, stinkers, but this is how you do Godzilla. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, not trying to make Godzilla some mighty Earth hero, just making a villainous big monster who is threatening mankind and which needs to be taken down. Going back to their roots, the film starts in World War II and follows a disgraced kamikaze pilot who couldn’t bring himself to complete a suicide mission. He ends up on a Pacific island with a group of Japanese soldiers, just as Godzilla is coming on land. The pilot, Shikishima, survives, and makes it back to Tokyo where he finds his parents were killed in the American bombings. Life after the war is tough, with the very real threat of starvation, but Shikishima, along with a couple friends and an orphan they took in, are able to scrape by for a couple years. Eventually, Godzilla heads their way and lays waste to the city, forcing the Japanese authorities to come up with a plan to try to take out the gigantic beast. Heart-pounding action with some fantastic CGI (Godzilla has never looked more real; the film won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects) come together perfectly for a very entertaining film. Legendary has it all wrong with their bloated budgets. This film was done on a budget of 10-12 million and made 10 times that back at the box office. ★★★★

The Old Oak is the latest from British director Ken Loach, whose films have traditionally focused on the working and lower-middle class for decades, and especially on social issues affecting these people. This film is no different, taking place in a former mining community in northern England. The mines closed years ago, and the families that have stuck around, mostly because they’ve been there for generations, are all struggling to get by. Into this environment comes a bunch of refugees from Syria, bussed in by the government and left to fend for themselves. The locals are irate over seeing this “encroachment” on their homes and the loss of land value (one row house recently sold for $8k when a local owner laments that he paid $40k for his years ago). The depreciation in values isn’t the fault of the immigrants of course, but they become easy scapegoats. Most of the local public places have closed, but one bar still remains, The Old Oak, run by TJ Ballantyne. The bar has become the only place where the old crew can get together and hash out beefs, reminisce about old times, and relax, but now that group of men just rail on the immigrants and what they’ll do to their community. TJ is more open minded and tries to quiet such talk, eventually befriending Yara, a young woman from Syria there with her brothers and mother. Through Yara and TJ’s friendship, the community eventually starts to come around to welcoming the immigrants and doing what they can to make them more comfortable, especially since most showed up with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. But a few of the good old boys continue to cause trouble. Loach uses a cast of unknowns to imbue a sense of realness, and while the non-professional actors aren’t always up to the task, the story is told wonderfully. May not change your mind about the immigration problem facing the world, if you are dead set on one end or the other, but it will make you think. ★★★½

Hit Man is “the other” film Glen Powell did in 2023, including his breakout hit Anyone But You with Sydney Sweeney. Here, he plays a nerdy college professor named Gary, who moonlights as a tech assistant for the New Orleans police, setting up their audio and video surveillance on sting ops. With them, Gary is part of a division that responds to citizens looking to hire contract killers, and records them agreeing to the job before the cops storm in to make the arrest. One day, the officer who normally goes undercover to speak to the would-be perps is suspended, so Gary is called to fill the role. He seamlessly makes the transition, and from there on out, becomes the cops’ new undercover “hitman.” Gary even invents a new alter-ego for this suave killer, “Ron,” and conforms him to whatever the hirer wants in a killer. Things change when one caller, Madison, gives off vibes of actually being a good person. She is trying to hire someone to kill her abusive husband, and “Ron,” instead of setting her up, advises her to take the money and instead run away and start a new life. She doesn’t run, but she does start a new life, with Ron no less. The two start dating, unbeknownst to the cops who only think that Madison backed out of hiring a killer, but there’s a lot of layers of subterfuge that need to stay in place, and it may all come crashing down when Madison’s ex confronts Ron one night. The movie, directed by indie film darling Richard Linklater, starts out with plenty of laughs, and while it definitely stays on the lighter side of a romcom, even die hard fans of the genre will have to suspend belief to get through it. How does nerdy Gary so easily become charming and worldly Ron, and how bad do his partners on the police force have to be to not see what is going on, when all the cards start to fall? Slightly better than average, but nothing that will make you want to rewatch. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Interview with the Vampire (season 2)
• Book currently reading: The Machine Crusade by Herbert & Anderson

Horizon: An American Saga falls short of that glorious title in some ways, but gives me enough hope that the ship can still be righted in future films. This was the first in a planned series of four films (the second will be released in August), and is the pet project of writer/director and star Kevin Costner, who has been working on getting this film made since the 80s. The film follows a whole bunch of different characters across a whole bunch of the American Old West. There’s a woman on the run with her son, after having killed her abusive husband in the Montana territory, fleeing to a settlement in the Wyoming territory before being found by the man’s family. There’s a wagon train heading out from Kansas on the Santa Fe trail, with all of the perils and politics that come from a such a dangerous trip. And then there is Horizon itself, a new settlement in San Pedro Valley, which has been continually beset by Apache, with settlers killed or driven off, yet somehow fliers are circulating all over the west promising rich, fertile lands if you can make it there. There’s a lot of “main” characters in this film; we don’t even see Kevin Costner until the film is an hour in, and they are still introducing story lines nearly two hours in, which (I assume) won’t be fleshed out until future movies. With so much going on, so many cuts bouncing around all over the place, and some (small but important) time jumps, it all felt like a jumbled mess. Having said all that, I’m a sucker for grand, epic stories, and there’s enough here to get me excited for the sequel. I just hope that all of this is leading somewhere. ★★★

I stayed away from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire because, despite what others may say, I thought Afterlife was a bore, and wasn’t too excited to see more kid-friendly ‘busters. And unfortunately, this film is more of the same. Three years after the last film, Calle Spengler and her kids Phoebe and Trevor are the new Ghostbusters with Callie’s boyfriend Gary, suiting up to fight ghosts around New York. Ray Stantz runs a shop dealing in cursed objects, and the wealthy Winston Zeddemore finances scientific projects and advancements in paranormal studies. Like what often happens in these movies, there’s a new evil demigod looking to wreak havoc on our world, this time it is Garraka, who has been imprisoned for 4000 years in a brass orb. If Garraka can escape, it has the power to control other ghosts, and since the Ghostbuster trap in their converted firehouse has never been emptied, it houses a venerable army ripe for Garraka’s taking. Garraka also controls the cold, and has the ability to freeze people to death. Its one weakness is fire, so just as the first film had a gatekeeper and a keymaster, now we have a firemaster, Nadeem, who needs to be quickly trained up on how to control his powers. Like the last film, this movie has a couple exciting moments, but it doesn’t cover up all of its faults. It’s way too cutesy. What made the original film so great is, it wasn’t really a kids film, though kids liked it because of the whole ghostbusting factor. I like Paul Rudd as much as the next guy, but his goofy antics ruin every scene he’s in, and the jokes seem to be aiming for the lowest age group watching. I’d rather they stop making these movies, but you know Sony’s never going to end this cash cow, so all I can hope for is to scrap this team and start fresh. ★½

I was excited for Problemista, but man was this a letdown. Written and directed by Julio Torres, who is also the main character, it follows a man named Alejandro who is in New York trying to get a job at Hasbro. He has outside-the-box ideas for new toys, but can’t even get an interview, and unfortunately he loses his current job at FreezeCorp, a company that cryo freezes people for future thawing. He needs employment, as he is an immigrant from El Salvador and needs a work visa and sponsorship to stay in the USA. On his way out the door from FreezeCorp, he meets the eccentric Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), whose husband Bobby is currently frozen at FreezeCorp. Elizabeth is a hot mess, one of those rich types who expects everyone to jump and be at her beck and call. Without any other prospects, Alejandro agrees to help her on her current project in hopes that she will sponsor him, allowing him to stay in the country while trying to get on at Hasbro. Elizabeth wants to do an art expo on Bobby’s paintings (he only painted pictures of eggs…) and tasks Alejandro with gathering all the paintings and setting everything up. It’s all super weird, sometimes uncomfortable to watch (Elizabeth treats everyone like the gum under her shoe) and gives a bad message in the end that, if you behave like that, you end up getting what you want in life. Left a poor taste and had no redeeming qualities for me. ½

The Monk and the Gun, however, is the polar opposite. A fictional film taking place in Bhutan, when that country was starting it’s journey to modernization in 2006, it mostly follows a younger monk named Tashi. In the rural town of Ura, Tashi has been tasked by the elder lama with finding two guns before the full moon in 4 days. The lama doesn’t say why he needs the guns, just that he does, and Tashi has no idea where to start, in a town where neighbors are very religious and genuinely care for one another. There is no violence or even violent thoughts, due to everyones strong faith in Buddhism, and no one certainly has a gun. Tashi is able to locate one firearm, an ancient rifle that the owner claims was used in the Tibetan wars hundreds of years ago, but in reality it is an American rife from the Civil War. We know this because an American collector is also in the area to buy the same weapon, and while he offers the gun owner $85k to purchase it (talked down to $35k, because the owner says, “$85k is simply too much”), the owner instead gives it freely to Tashi, knowing that giving it the lama will earn him more credits in this life. The American then has a dilemma on his hands, trying to get the gun from a person who sees no value in money or materialist gains. All of this is against the backdrop of the country taking its first steps to modernize. The king of Bhutan has announced that he will be relinquishing his power and wants to hold elections for the first time in the country’s history (“Elections? What is that? Is that a new pig disease?”). The citizens of Ura are buying their first televisions and are mesmerized by James Bond and MTV. And to prepare for the real elections, officials are holding mock elections in Ura to show citizens how it is done, and their reactions are pretty funny (“Can’t we just vote for the king? I love the king”). Wonderful movie that delves into the western idea that people are better if they elect people to govern them, and makes you really think about if that is always the best way. In the film, these people have to be told to argue with each other if they are voting on opposite sides of an imaginary line. We in the west aren’t always right. ★★★★★

Memory is a very well acted film (from powerhouse star Jessica Chastain, who would expect any less?) and has a dual meaning. On the surface, the title seems to be about Saul (Peter Sarsgaard). At a high school reunion one night, Saul follows Sylvia (Chastain) home, creeping her out. Saul ends up sleeping on the street in front of her apartment, and the next morning, Sylvia contacts Saul’s brother Isaac, who comes and picks him up. Turns out Saul is suffering from a form of dementia that hampers new memories; he remembers everything before a few years ago just fine, but recent memories don’t stick. Sylvia has a reason for being scared of Saul, and she tells him a couple days later in a confrontation: in high school, Saul and his buddy raped her. Saul denies it, because his memory from back then is still pretty good, but doubts himself. Sylvia later learns she was mistaken. Saul started school there the year she transferred out; she had confused him with someone else. Sylvia, a worker at an adult daycare facility, has experience with helping people that need it, and to make amends for her accusation, starts being Saul’s daytime caregiver while Isaac works. The two start to develop a relationship. While this is going on, Sylvia’s daughter Sara has been hanging out with her aunt (Sylvia’s younger sister) Olivia, and unbeknownst to Sylvia, their mother Samantha has been coming around Olivia’s place and getting to know Sara. Sara has always been forbidden to be around her grandmother Samantha, due to Samantha’s and Sylvia’s estrangement. The secret cause of that long-ago hurt, that “memory,” is ultimately what the film is about, and it falls like a lead weight when it comes out. I loved this movie throughout. It moves slowly allowing scenes to develop naturally, with nothing forced. Its pace will turn some viewers off, but it is a powerful and heart-wrenching film about two flawed adults, through no fault of their own, finding solace and healing in each other. ★★★★

There are some movies that you really only need to see for one central performance. That is the case for Knox Goes Away, a fairly straight forward cerebral thriller that doesn’t always hit on all cylinders, but Michael Keaton in the lead role is worth the price of admission. He plays John Knox, an aging professional killer who has recently received a diagnosis of a rare form of dementia, a variant that will wipe all his memories within “weeks, not months.” Knox has been estranged from his ex-wife and adult son, and before he goes, he wants to make things right. Unfortunately his disease does indeed move fast, and his next mission goes sideways, when Knox kills the target, but also an innocent woman and Knox’s own partner Muncie. This gets the police looking for a professional killer in the area, and shortly thereafter, Knox’s son shows up at his house with literal blood on his hands, having just killed a man and looking for help. Knox will have to find a way to tie up all these loose ends before his mind is completely gone. There’s some good twists in here, and a strong supporting cast including James Marsden and Al Pacino in a small but important role, but the movie suffers from uneven dialogue, and I feel like they whiffed on Knox’s deteriorating condition. It could have really messed with the viewer and played more heavily on Knox’s disorientation. As I said though, Keaton (who also directs, just the second time in his long career) delivers a strong performance for his fans. ★★★

The Animal Kingdom is a strange French film but one that is certainly unique, which is always a good thing for people like me who watch a whole lot of movies. In the movie, people have (seemingly) been randomly hit with mutations, sprouting feathers or snouts or whatever the case may be, until they eventually become a large animal. Some of these animals become violent, and François and his son Émile have recently had to have their wife/mother admitted to a hospital when she started losing her humanity and was no longer able to recognize them. They move her to a new facility that is doing research on controlling the violent tendencies, and the father and son relocate to be near her. However, a transport carrying the woman crashes and she and others of her kind escape into the forest. François becomes consumed with trying to find her, failing to notice when Émile starts going through his own mutations. Scared, Émile hides it from his peers at school, mostly because of the fear in the community and world regarding these new “critters,” as the mutating people are derogatorily called. Eventually, Émile will be unable to hide it though, and the family (and the local authorities) will have to make some decisions on how to handle the growing problem. As a funny aside, this movie made me feel my age a little, as François is portrayed by Romain Duris, who played a bright-eyed college student 20 years ago in The Spanish Apartment; he’s neither young nor bright-eyed anymore, which reminded me that neither am I! ★★★½

The Long Game is based on a true story about a high school golf team in southern Texas in the 1950s. JB Peña has recently been hired as a new superintendent at a high school and wants to join the local country club to play golf, his favorite pastime, but being of Mexican descent, he is turned away. He notices that other young men in the area also love the game, but they are only able to get on the course as caddies and are not allowed to play because of their heritage. In order to get them (and himself) access to more courses, Peña starts a golf team at the school. To get their foot in the door, Peña gets his friend and former war buddy Frank Mitchell, an older white man in the area and member of that country club, to co-coach the team. The film tells of the racism the team faces at every turn, but they persevere and come together to try to make the state’s high school golf championship tournament. If it sounds like every other inspiring high school sports film you’ve ever seen, then you are just about right. There’s lots of uneven dialogue, some hokey moments in the plot, but ultimately it is a decent feel-good film with better-than-average acting (Jay Hernandez as Peña, Dennis Quaid as Frank Mitchell, and newcomer Julian Works as one of the boys, Joe Treviño, with supporting roles from Cheech Marin and Oscar Nuñez). ★★★

Coup de chance is the first Woody Allen film I’ve seen in awhile, and is his first French language film. Like my prior experience with most Allen films, it’s a very straight-forward film. Cute, but nothing earth-shattering. It follows a love triangle involving married couple Fanny and Jean, interrupted by an old friend of Fanny’s from high school, Alain. Alain literally bumps into Fanny on the streets of Paris one day and he confesses he had a huge crush on her in school. Alain is a big believer in destiny, that it was fate that brought Fanny back into his life. His charming, artistic, and bohemian way of life (he is a writer, whereas Fanny was an artist before she married the wealthy Jean) draws Fanny like a moth to flame, and the two begin an affair. The controlling and obsessive Jean starts to suspect something, and hires a private investigator to follow his wife. This ultimately leads to the big finale, though not in the way you may expect (though it is in keeping with the title of the film). Overall, it’s ok, maybe a little too “neat,” but big Woody Allen fans will find nothing to complain about. I do wonder why he moved it from New York to Paris, because it still feels like every other Allen New York kind of picture, just with the actors speaking a different language. ★★★

Nowhere Special is a very emotional, quiet movie that will certainly get you crying (and, I mean, ugly crying) by the end. John (played magnificently by James Norton) is a single father to 4-year-old Michael, after Michael’s mother left them shortly after birth. Already abandoned by his mom, Michael is a little quiet for his age, especially when talk of mothers comes up around his friends or others. Now, John needs to make sure Michael doesn’t feel abandoned again, because he (John) has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and his time is measured in months. In fact, he looks worse and worse as the movie goes along. John is taking Michael to meet potential adopters, not telling him why, but trying to find a parent or parents who will properly care for Michael when John is gone. The adoption agency is trying to gently remind John that he doesn’t have much time, that new parents need to be in place and all the paperwork completed before John dies, but he is obviously trying to find the perfect home. At the same time, he knows he needs to talk to Michael about what is coming, to prepare him, but John doesn’t want to crush him either. Throughout this process, John becomes increasingly aware of other sons around him, from boys to teens, and seeing them do things that he will not be able to be a part of. It’s a tearjerker for sure, and one that had me sobbing unabashedly at the end. If you are a parent, you’ll probably end up in much the same state by the time the credits start to roll. ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Dark Matter (series)
• Book currently reading: The Machine Crusade by Herbert & Anderson

Io capitano shines a light on the dangers immigrants face when they decide to make the voyage for a chance at a new life. Seydou and his friend Moussa are teens living in Senegal in western Africa, and they’ve been saving every dime for an opportunity to get to Europe. They live in squalor, but Seydou’s mother forbids it when Seydou lets it slip, as she knows the perils they would face. However, he and Moussa are determined, even after someone who has been to Europe warns them that it isn’t like they see on TV (they refuse to believe there are homeless living on the streets in Europe). The two friends get on a bus and start their trek, but almost immediately they become prey for people looking to rob them. They get fake passports, which don’t fool the authorities at the Mali border, who demand an exorbitant bribe or face jail. Then, they join up with the first person in Niger advertising safe passage to Italy, only to find the reality of a dangerous passage across the Sahara on foot, with a mafia-run prison at the end, where their captives demand more ransom. Out of money and too ashamed to give his mother’s phone number back home to the ransomers, Seydou is tortured, but finds salvation in an older man who takes him under his wing, who even gets Seydou “bought” by a slave trader to come build a wall and fountain for a wealthy estate owner. When Seydou does finally make it to Libya, just across the Mediterranean from Italy, it might as well be on the other side of the world, for the continued obstacles he faces. Not going to be a popular movie for the growing number of anti-immigrant nationalists in the world, but even so, it is a stark reminder that, even if you believe immigrants shouldn’t be “invading” your country, they often have no real choice in life, and are brave for facing the dangers in making their decision. ★★★★

Dev Patel has received critical and commercial acclaim since his breakout 15 years ago in Slumdog Millionaire, and Monkey Man is his next step professionally, as he stars and directs, for the first time. Following a man named Kid in India who is trying to infiltrate a tight-knit high-end hotel that caters to the politically and socially elite, Kid is obviously holding on to some secrets and desperately wants to get on “the inside” for some as-yet unknown goal. In flashbacks, we start to piece together his reasoning: as a child, his mother was attacked by a police officer for not forfeiting her land to the politically powerful. Kid is old enough and ready now for his revenge on that officer, who has since moved up in the ranks, and those who empowered him. There’s an early scene where Kid goes to buy a gun and the seller references a certain piece as “the John Wick model.” Appropriate, as the action in this movie borrows from those great fighting flicks, but there’s a lot of heart here too. Kid is standing up for the oppressed, in an Indian society that still remains to this day very divided on social classes. Outstanding movie with a surprising amount of emotional heft. ★★★★½

Perfect Days is the newest from director Wim Wenders, and if you know anything about his oeuvre, then you know to expect a quiet, tranquil film that will satisfy those with patience. This film is a minimalist picture without being a minimalist picture, if that makes any sense. It follows a man named Hirayama who works as a public restroom cleaner in Tokyo, and follows him over the course of a week or 10 days as he goes about his business. Soft spoken doesn’t live up to the definition for Hirayama; you don’t hear a peep from him in the first 30 minutes of the film, and only sparingly after that. You get occasional dialogue from those around him, such as his talkative coworker, but this is a film about what is not said, more than what is. Some would say it is also a film where nothing happens, but they would be missing the point. “Stuff” does happen, like Hirayama’s niece running away from home and living with him for a couple days, leading to a confrontation between Hirayama and his estranged sister, or Hirayama’s coworker’s girlfriend ending up with one of Hirayama’s cassette tapes and being moved by Patti Smith, or his encounter with a friend’s ex-husband, who is dying from cancer. No great movers or shakers, but all contemplative moments in Hirayama’s everyday life, reminding him to stop and smell the roses. Throughout it all, Wenders knows where to set the camera, so even if “little is happening on screen,” lots is actually happening, from the vibrant colors to the busyness of the metro to the sun-dappled wind-tossed leaves in the trees overhead. Gorgeous film that will move you, hopefully as much as Hirayama is moved by the life he has purposefully chosen to live. ★★★★★

Maidaan is an Indian film based on the first few years of the country’s soccer program in the late 50s and early 60s. India as a country hasn’t been independent for all that long still, and is trying to build up their sporting programs on the international stage. After being blown out at the Olympics in 1952, the soccer division decides to give coach S.A. Rahim more control over the program, to recruit the players he wants and to hopefully build a better team. Over the course of the movie, we see their ups and downs, but culminating in a gold medal at the 1962 Asian Games. Based on a true story, the film unfortunately is a bit too formulaic and way too melodramatic, there’s even a “win one for the gipper” moment at the end when the coach is fighting lung cancer. The soccer matches are entertaining for sports and sports film lovers, but even those start to grow stale by the end. The movie has its moments, but overall is very average. ★★½

Someone told me recently that I watch a lot of “heavy” films, so why not break up the pattern with a light romcom? The Idea of You stars Anne Hathaway as a turning-40-year-old single mom, Solene, raising a teen daughter, Izzy. Solene’s ex-husband Daniel is the kind of dad who thinks money makes up for absence, and has recently bought Cochella tickets and backstage VIP passes for Izzy and her friends, to meet the boy band August Moon, a band that Izzy isn’t even in to anymore (“they’re so 7th grade”). When Dad bails at the last minute, Solene takes them, and accidentally walks into the lead singer’s trailer behind the stage. As “the mom,” Solene doesn’t recognize the singer, Hayes, and he finds it endearing, since he is always surrounded by people who want something. Finally, he can be genuine, and he is drawn to Solene despite their age difference (40 and 24). With Izzy going to summer camp, Solene has the house to herself, and she and Hayes begin a whirlwind romance, even bouncing around Europe when Hayes goes back on tour. Ultimately though, the couple is spotted by the paparazzi, and Solene (and Izzy’s) life is picked apart by fans and haters, so that when Izzy comes back from camp, it all blows up. Solene has to make the hard choice between her daughter’s and her own happiness. There’s some cliches for sure, but some deeper thoughtful ideas about what it means to have your private life on display for all to see and how that can change a person. And, no surprise, Hathaway shines. She’s got this kind of role locked up. ★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Star Trek Discovery (season 5)
• Book currently reading: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Man oh man is Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire a complete waste of time. Usually this genre isn’t my thing, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by a couple of these films in the so-called Monsterverse (notably the first Kong and their battle), but the bar was set low from the beginning. At some point it was going to crash back down to Earth, and it finally happened. In this one, Godzilla, protector of Earth, has grown restless. Humans find out it is because he is sensing signals from the vast Hollow Earth and he is preparing for a big battle. At the same time, in Hollow Earth, King Kong has been searching for any signs of others like him, but when he finally does, he won’t like what he finds. The apes have been following an evil member of their own, Skar King, who once before tried to destroy Earth thousands of years ago, and is now ready to try again. Kong and Godzilla must once again reunite to take down this big threat. The problem this series is running into is sometimes the best action takes place when they are fighting on top of (and inadvertently destroying) big cities, but you can only do that so many times before it grows stale, and when you try to take the cities away (as they did a few times in the movie), then you just have two big titans fighting over dirt or jungle. At which point it doesn’t look like two gigantic apes fighting, it just looks like two regular apes fighting (no perspective). And who cares to watch that? When it was over, and everything returned to normal, I just shrugged. ★½

Road House is a a remake of the classic Patrick Swayze film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role. He plays Dalton, a former UFC championship contender who has been down on his luck for quite awhile, hopping from place to place. He picks up a job as a bouncer in the Florida Keys for a cool waterfront roadhouse which has been seeing some rough visitors lately. Dalton ends up in the middle of a fight that he is plenty-well prepared to handle. Turns out the bar’s owner, Frankie, has been rebuffing efforts by a wealthy local businessman to buy the place, and the man has been sending goons to try to frighten Frankie and her patrons away. Dalton is able to “take out the trash” fairly effortlessly, but the calm isn’t to last. The bad guys hire a professional fighter from out of town, played by real-life mixed martial artist Conor McGregor, to come in and take care of Dalton. Not too deep of a plot, but it is plenty exciting, with the laid-back, matter-of-fact Dalton providing lots of laughs too. And the fight scenes are top-notch, you can see that Gyllenhaal put in the time to make everything look real. There’s some over-the-top scenes towards the end that suspend belief, but it is lots of rip-roaring testosterone-heavy fun. ★★★½

We move from one male-heavy film to another, with Land of Bad. Though there is some hand-to-hand fighting in this one, it is a military action film, so, more than the up close combat, we get to show off the USA’s military gadgets. An Army Delta Force is sent in to the Philippines to rescue a CIA spy, with support provided in the field by young Air Force tech “Playboy” Kinney (Liam Hemsworth), who guides the overhead drones flown from back at the base by “Reaper” Grimm (Crowe). Playboy has never been on a mission like this, but along with some good-natured ribbing, the experienced team settle his nerves and they get to business. There’s a few tense moments getting to the enemy’s base of operations, but they do get into the location, just before the shit hits the fan. More enemy combatants arrive than they were expecting, and the team is forced to move when the bad guys start beheading innocent women and children on site. Though handling vastly superior weapons and better training, the US troops are hugely outnumbered, and Playboy is the only man who makes it out of the firefight alive. He spends the day hiking back through the jungle, guided from above by Reaper’s camera, to a pick up by chopper, but the site is ambushed by the bad guys and Playboy isn’t able to make it to the helicopter before it is forced to flee. Now alone in the jungle, Playboy has to rely even more on Reaper’s guidance. Up to this point, I was in the solid 3 1/2 – 4 star range, but the last 30-or-so minutes, especially the big fight in the end, runs off the rails a bit, knocking down my satisfaction and ultimately my rating. Still, a decent one-time viewing for lovers of action films. ★★★

Sleeping Dogs brings back Russell Crowe, this time as a former police detective, Roy Freeman, who is pulled back in to look into one of his old cases from a decade ago. Unfortunately for him, he has no memory of the case or nearly anything else, as he has been suffering from Alzheimer’s. Roy recently received an experimental brain surgery to help bring back some of those old memories, but it will take time, and the case won’t wait. A man is on death row with his end quickly approaching, and he is adamant that he is innocent of the murder conviction. Roy and his partner Jimmy (Tommy Flanagan, of SoA fame) were the detectives on the case at the time, and the more Roy looks into it now, the more he realizes that the two of them didn’t exhaust every lead to make sure they had the right killer. There’s a lot of moving parts in this movie and you really have to pay attention, but the end didn’t give me as big of a surprise as I’m sure the writer/director was hoping for. The whole “missing memory” thing comes off as a poor man’s Memento, but the saving grace is Crowe’s performance. He still knows how to own the camera when he’s the lead. A couple stars for him alone, but the movie by itself? Meh. ★★½

Baltimore (released in the USA as Rose’s War) is another one I saw just because of the lead, in this case, Imogen Poots. Based on a true story, she plays Rose Dugdale, a British aristocrat who left her wealthy family in the 1970s to get involved in the Irish Republican Army. The film follows a heist that she and 3 men pulled off in 1974, breaking into a wealthy home and stealing 19 paintings, which would have a value today of over $50 million. The movie takes place in 1974 as the quartet of them are hiding out in the English countryside, phoning in to the authorities demanding the release of other IRA members currently being held, in exchange for the paintings. In flashbacks throughout the film, we see how Rose got involved in the organization and how the heist went down. Like the above movie, this one is just OK too, but also like Sleeping Dogs, the lead is what drives the movie. Poots is spectacular as always, and the cameraman knows it. Lots of scenes where the camera is close up on her and we can see her range of emotions, changing slowly but noticeably, as events around her go down. Worth seeing for her alone. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Battlestar Galactica (season 1)
• Book currently reading: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Trenque Lauquen is a film of two halves, and not just because it was presented theatrically in two parts to help offset its 4 hour runtime. The first half is absolutely incredible, and at the halfway mark, I was ready to proclaim it one of the best films I’ve seen this year. Unfortunately I can’t say much about it without ruining the magic. The film begins on Rafael and Chico, two men driving together looking for a missing woman named Laura. Rafael is Laura’s longtime boyfriend, and the two were getting ready to move in together, and Chico is along for the ride because Laura stole his car when she went missing. We quickly learn that Chico is more involved than just because of his car, and that’s when the mystery starts to build. Laura was in the city of Trenque Lauquen, a city about 280 miles from Buenos Aires, cataloging local flora for her college degree. Chico is native to the area and was her driver to various sites. One evening after working, Laura shares with Chico a mystery that she is trying to solve. At the Trenque Lauquen library one day researching, she discovered a letter hidden in the pages, from a man named Paulo to a woman Carmen, written 60 years ago. The letter referenced other books in the library, each with a hidden letter, and Laura has become obsessed with following the trail of who Carmen was, what drove her to leave her boyfriend Paulo (a married man) and ultimately what happened to her. Chico, with his knowledge of the area, is able to help Laura on her chase, and as the two work together, they begin to grow closer. When the first half of the film ends, we have a pretty good idea of Carmen’s story up to a point, and maybe what drove Laura to run, but all of the answers have to wait for the second half of the film, and believe me, you will want to know! Unfortunately those answers never come; the second half instead delivers more mystery, completely unrelated to the first half, and the director/writer seems intent to not answer any of the questions the viewer might (and will!) have. I was so utterly disappointed; despite how well the story is told (and believe me, it is, full of adventure and longing, mystery and even some supernatural elements) you end up with nothing in the end to justify the last 4 hours. Big bummer. ★★ 

A Prince is the sort of high-brow international art film that, I think, believes it is deeper than it really is, which isn’t to say it is a bad film, but it definitely exudes self importance. Maybe part of that is my own perception, because honestly I was a bit lost in the beginning, and it took me awhile to settle in. For starters, the film is almost entirely narrated, with little actual dialogue between the characters, and there are 3 distinct storytellers, 2 of which are older men. It’s perhaps not surprising how much we rely on faces to connect with a character (or even to identify the character!) so that when you take away the face, it becomes hard to keep up, especially when you are reading subtitles and the language is not your native. Hard harder here, because often the screen is showing something unrelated to what the narrator is talking about. Anyway, despite the opening lines stating that the story begins when Kutta arrived (we actually don’t see or meet Kutta until the final 20-ish minutes of the film), the movie follows a young man named Pierre-Joseph, one of the narrators who is looking back from decades later. Pierre-Joseph’s parents fight a lot (it is implied that his father was a closet homosexual, leading to an embittered home life), and Pierre-Joseph finds refuge in school, particularly a horticulture school. The men of the school get together for more than just plants, and Pierre-Joseph finds himself drawn to a couple of the older men. The three of them start an open sexual relationship together, and after a flash forward to where Pierre-Joseph is an older man himself, we get the climactic meeting between him and the aforementioned Kutta, setting up a bizarre final act that honestly makes the film run off its rails (what rails there were, until then). The film has is not shy about describing sex acts, which I think is just there for shock value, and while the movie is presented well (if obtuse, for the reasons stated above), it didn’t leave a lasting impression. ★★½

Freedom’s Path is a historical drama taking place during the American civil war, and follows a young idealistic northern soldier named William. He’s enlisted in the army with his friend but doesn’t really know what he’s fighting for, even cracking jokes with his buddy when they hear that black men are signing up to fight alongside. In his first battle, William sees the horrors of war, when his friend is killed and he himself deserts, running to hide in the woods. He is later found by a quartet of black men who are going off to fight, one of whom is a young man about William’s age named Kitch (RJ Cyler, whom I remembered from one of his brilliant earlier films Me and Earl and the Dying Girl). Shortly after though, the party is attacked by runaway slave hunters, and only Kitch and William survive. Despite similar ages, Kitch’s past as a slave has given him an adult outlook on life and real-world experiences that William has lacked, and he takes William under his wing. Through Kitch, William learns about the Underground Railroad and starts to pitch in where he can to help the effort. As the movie progresses, those slave hunters, led by Silas (Ewen Bremner, of Trainspotting), continually show up, and their cruelty has no bounds. The movie doesn’t break new ground and in the early going I didn’t think much of it (the young actor who plays William, Gerran Howell, wasn’t my favorite) but Cyler and Bremner excel as Kitch and Silas, really pulling you into Kitch’s plight and giving you someone to root for. I was fully engaged by the end. ★★★½

I don’t do many docs on by blog (and don’t watch many either, not my thing), but I couldn’t escape MoviePass, MovieCrash. I loved MoviePass “back in the day” (which was long before it exploded in 2017 and later fell apart in 2018/19); in fact, when I was a member in 2013 and ’14, it was what caused me to start this blog. I cancelled after 2014 when I started a new goal, but have many fond memories of going to the theater all the time. I followed MoviePass’s trajectory after I left, and was actually very saddened when they went bankrupt. So while I knew the basics of what caused the fall, I had to watch this movie. It tells of its startup in 2011, it’s slow rise for a few years, and then its rocket climb after a new CEO and investor were brought on board in 2017, with an unsustainable promise of “as many movies as you can watch on a $9.95 monthly subscription.” I remember when they made that promise and at the time, even I knew it was too good to be true; I had paid $30/month in 2014 and knew that even then, I was costing the company money. It’s a fascinating doc, maybe only to people like me who were around for some of it, but it ends on a high note too. The original CEO, Stacy Spikes, was able to buy the company at auction last year and has started it up again, on what appears to be a more realistic foundation. For my 2 cents, I hope he succeeds. In the day of streaming, there’s something special about going to the theater, sitting back in a comfy chair with a big screen and amazing sound, and losing yourself for 2 hours in a shared experience with others. ★★★★★

Sometimes I Think About Dying is a very nice, understated film staring Daisy Ridley (of Star Wars fame) and Dave Merheje. Fran is a very quiet employee at the Port Authority in Oregon. She works alone behind her desk and barely engages in the office parties, preferring to spend her time alone and fantasize about various ways she would die. Her coworkers are nice but don’t go out of their way to include her, but things change when a new hire, Robert, comes on the scene. Robert is also a bit socially awkward, but unlike Fran, he makes attempts to get to know people, and Fran is drawn to him as a bit of a kindred spirit. They go on a couple dates, but when things start to get serious, Fran, with her complete lack of experience in romantic relationships, doesn’t know how to handle it. It’s the sort of wonderful indie film that will please some fans and turn off others, but I really liked it. For one, the office comedy is pure gold, with the stereotypical office manager who makes everyone cringe which is right out of Office Space. There’s a party scene that seemed to go on too long, which I forgave because the movie as a whole is short at around 90 minutes, and I liked the film as a whole. ★★★½

Been on an Italian kick lately, and I’ve got five more today, from director Ermanno Olmi, starting with his breakout Il posto (“The Job”). Released in 1961, it is a bit late to be considered a true Italian neorealism film, but it definitely has that feel. It follows young Domenico, who hails from a working class family in a small town. He’s ready for his first “adult” job and has been convinced by his parents to apply at a big company in the city, where he’ll need to commute by train every day as he still lives with his parents. Domenico looks even younger than he is, and is shy and unsure of himself, especially in the bustling city. At the job interview, where he is lumped in with a room full of people applying for various positions throughout the company, he meets Antonietta, a pretty young woman who is applying to be a secretary. She and Domenico hit it off, and he is glad to see that they each get hired. It’s not all peaches and cream though, as Domenico was hoping for a clerical job, but there are no openings currently. Instead, he becomes a messenger, and he isn’t in the same building as Antonietta, gets off work later, and has a different lunch time. When he finally spots her one evening, the outgoing Antonietta has already made new friends, though she does ask if Domenico will be attending the company New Year’s Eve party. Due to the invite, he goes, but Antonietta never shows up, and instead Domenico spends the evening hanging out with the older employees who did attend the party. Light on a real plot but heavy on the human element, it’s a tidy coming-of-age film much different than the films of this genre that are made today; feels more real in a way and there’s nothing contrived about it. Wonderful film. ★★★★

I fidanzati (“The Fiancés”) is another film light on plot but heavy an realism, and has a lot of emotional heft, though it is taxing to stick with it to the end. The film follows a man named Giovanni, who tells his longtime fiancée Liliana in the beginning of the movie that he is taking a job far away, which offers better pay and a chance at promotions down the line. Giovanni is hoping to use this money to provide better for Liliana, but all she sees is her boyfriend leaving her. As Giovanni settles into his new living space and new job, memories keep popping up of his girl, their fights and tender moments alike. In the present, we see snippets of his new, mundane life: he goes to a party, he moves into a new place, etc. Nothing really important seems to happen, lending significance to those memories of his relationship when they do come up. Much of the movie seemed to meander along without any clear goal, but it does really come together with a rewarding ending if you can make it. ★★★½

The Tree of Wooden Clogs has the feeling of an epic without really being an epic; it’s just a year in the life of 4 families struggling in rural Italy in the late 19th century. The families live together in a little enclosure and are all tenants, working land that doesn’t belong to them, where 2/3rds of their harvest belongs to the landowner. Everyone is working so damn hard, makes you realize how easy we have it these days! Over the course of the three hour movie, we see happy times, like when one boy is told he is bright enough to go to school, and the dad muses that no one in his family has seen the inside of a schoolhouse. Or when the eldest daughter of another family gets married. There are funny moments like when one man finds a gold piece discarded on the ground at a fair, takes it home and hides it in the hoof of his horse, but later gets in a fight with the horse when the gold piece is lost. Religious moments like when a single mother of 6, reduced to taking in laundry to make ends meet, is told that her only cow must be put down when it becomes ill. Beside herself and near her breaking point, she fervently prays for an answer, asking God to bless the water in the nearby stream, which she feeds to her cow; the cow ultimately recovers. And there are the harsh moments, such as the ending where the landowner discovers that one of the men has cut down a tree (all land and everything on it belongs to the landowner), and the man must face the consequences. Taken individually, all of these are seemingly innocuous moments in the day-to-day grind, but as a whole it paints a picture of a group of people living on the edge of survival, and all of it is told so wonderfully. It’s long, but you don’t feel it; the first hour went by without me noticing it, I was wholly enraptured from the beginning. The film won 14 awards at Cannes upon its release in 1978, and the César Award (France’s Oscars) for Best Foreign Film. ★★★★★

The Legend of the Holy Drinker is based on a short novel and allows director Olmi to delve into his deeply religious faith. Andreas (Rutger Hauer, who was The Hitcher just a couple years before this film) is a homeless man sleeping under a bridge in Paris when a passerby offers him 200 francs. Andreas is taken aback by such a large sum and tries to refuse, but the stranger insists, only asking that Andreas repay the 200, when he is able, via donation to a local church named for a saint who died young. Over the course of the first half of the film, in flashbacks we learn why Andreas is on the street (accidentally killing a man in defense of a woman and then jailed) and what is keeping him there (severe alcoholism). Andreas begins to believe that the 200 francs has blessed his life, because whenever he starts to run low on funds (often at the bar), he miraculously comes into money again. He also keeps running into people from his old life, some he hasn’t seen in years. Like a typical slice of humanity, some of these people are good for him and some aren’t, but Andreas welcomes them all as a link to his past when he felt his life meant more than it does now. He also begins to have visions of a young girl, whom he believes to be the saint of the church. Through it all, Andreas continually tries to make it to the church on Sundays to give back the money he promised to give, but something always sidelines him at the last minute. And what Andreas realizes by the end, and clearly Olmi’s message, is that no matter how many times he messes up, God isn’t giving up on him. It’s a powerful film with strong acting from Hauer, and one that I’ll want to watch again one day. ★★★½

I was only going to write about 4 films from Olmi, but watched his short film (about 45 minutes) La cotta (“The Crush”) on a whim and it really stuck with me, so here’s a final little blurb too. This is just a cute little movie, from 1967, that the director did for TV. It follows a teen who is taking a very “industrial” approach to finding a girlfriend. He’s at that age (when asked, he says he is “let’s say 16”) when he becomes smitten very easily. He “falls in love” with a new girl in the area and quickly gets her to promise to be with him forever. They plan a date for New Year’s Eve, but when he takes a taxi to her house, she has already left without him. Her grandmother thinks she went to a friend’s party, so the boy follows after. Fog keeps them from arriving until after midnight, and when he finally gets there, the girl is not to be found. Instead, the boy strikes up a conversation with the 20-something sister of the person throwing the party. She’s there chaperoning, and of course our little hero starts falling for her just as hard and as quickly as he did for the first girl. Older and wiser, the new girl is able to impart some wisdom on our little lover, and put some things into perspective, but some of that may be lost of deaf ears. It’s a cute film, nothing too taxing, but very funny and endearing. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Sugar (series), Halo (season 1)
• Book currently reading: A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan

Two big movies hit recently that I missed upon release, as the newest Apes film came out just as I was going on vacation, and newest Mad Max as I was returning, Finally rectified that this past weekend with a double feature at the theater, starting with Furiosa: A Mad Mad Saga (and despite the title, Max himself doesn’t show up; this is a prequel to 2015’s Fury Road and focuses on the character formerly played by Charlize Theron). The movie begins many years before that movie, and Furiosa is a girl (played by Ally Browne) living in a green valley around a river when she is kidnapped by encroachers of Dementus’s biker gang. Furiosa’s mom gives chase and is able to kill the kidnappers, but not before they (barely) make it back to Dementus with Furiosa in tow. Dementus sees that the young girl is well nourished and healthy, something unheard of in The Wasteland that Australia has become, and wants to know where her “place of abundance” is. Furiosa isn’t saying a word, and when her mom tries to rescue her, the mom is captured and, when she too will not talk, tortured to death.

A couple years later, Furiosa is traded by Dementus to Immortan Joe, the head of the Citadel and main bad guy from Fury Road. There, she is able to escape and hide in the crowd for many years, working her way up in rank with the soldiers until she is second in command of Immortan Joe’s gas rig driver, Praetorian Jack. Jack and Furiosa (now played by Anya Taylor-Joy) form a tight friendship, which gets them through when Dementus makes a new play to take over all of the major settlements in the area: Gastown, Bullet Farm, and ultimately the Citadel itself. The film builds to a satisfying conclusion just before the events of Fury Road. It’s a great movie, with tremendously bleak and disheartening visuals, a slick soundtrack (the heavy purr of the engines in otherwise total silence really grab you—whoever did sound editing should be on the short list for an Oscar), and nonstop heart-pounding action. I had minor quibble with how the final fight between Furiosa and Dementus goes down, but other than that I loved every minute of this movie. ★★★★½

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth film in the newer reboot series which began with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Newcomers can come in blind though, because as the beginning of the film states, it takes place “many generations later” after the last film, and while there are obvious references to the first trilogy of films, they aren’t necessary to know what is going on. And what is going on is that apes are now the dominant force on an Earth where jungle has taken back humanity’s once-gleaming cities. The same virus that made ape smarter killed the majority of humans, and for the survivors, took their voices so that humans are now the animals scraping by in the woods, while apes have formed clans. One such clan is the Clan of the Eagle, who practice falconry. Noa is a teen or young adult member of the clan, now old enough to bond with his first falcon, but on the eve of the ceremony his clan is attacked by a larger, violent clan from the valley. Noa is the sole escapee, with the rest of clan rounded up as labor and taken to the valley. Noa sets out to try to rescue them, going to a foreign land which his clan has traditionally avoided.

In the valley, Noa finds two unexpected allies. One is another ape, an orangutan named Raka, who still practices the teachings of Caesar from the first trilogy of films, things like apes sticking together and not harming each other. The second new friend is a surprise: a human woman named Mae, who surprisingly can still talk. She has knowledge of humanity’s past, and says that she too wants to get to the attacking clan’s settlement, a beach village that has sprung up outside an old human underground vault. Mae has her reasons for wanting to get in that vault, but she’s not the only one. The head of the “bad” ape clan, Proximus Caesar, knows that ancient human technology and weapons are in that vault, if he can only get in. Proximus, who has warped the original Caesar’s teachings to serve his own desires, is being coached and taught by another talking human, Trevathan, about what powers can be had if Proximus can get his hands on those ancient weapons. There’s a big battle coming, between Noa and his captured clansmen and Proximus’s army, with Mae’s secret goal still to be determined too. Very fun movie and a great story. I think I liked the original trilogy maybe a hair more, because it has a bit of that dystopian feel (I’m a sucker for those kinds of films), whereas by Kingdom, anything remaining of the Earth we know is long gone. Still, I had a great time, and the movie sets up more sequels in the future that I look forward to. ★★★½

Here’s a quartet of films from Italian director Raffaello Matarazzo, who was very popular with audiences in Italy in the 40s and 50s, but whose films never really impressed the critics, and he’s largely unknown today. But I’ve (mostly) enjoyed these 4. Chains was released in 1949 and stars Yvonne Sanson as Rosa, the unassuming wife of a mechanic (Amedeo Nazzari’s Guglielmo). (Both of these actors will continue in all of these movies; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.) She is content with her life, but an ex-boyfriend shows up that will not let her go. The ex, a criminal named Emilio (Aido Nicodemi) starts stalking her and threatens to make their prior relationship known to Guglielmo. Not sure why she fears this so much, because everything Emilio says is a lie, but to keep the drama level high, just go with it. Eventually, Guglielmo hears of the past relationship and when he goes to confront Emilio, he finds Rosa there too, who had gone to tell him she’s done with his blackmail. Guglielmo gets the wrong idea and kills Emilio, and then has to flee to America to avoid arrest. It’s melodrama at its finest, and would fit in with any Lifetime movie-of-the-week today. Easy to see why it was popular with moviegoers in its day. It doesn’t tax you or ask for any high level thinking, just easy entertainment with some fine performances by a couple good-looking leads. ★★★½

Matarazzo followed up the next year with Torment. Anna has long been persecuted in her home by her evil stepmother Matilde, who treats Anna as a Cinderella-type servant. Anna’s dream is to leave and start a life with her boyfriend Carlo, but he has been pinning his future plans on a business venture that turns south. When his business partner turns up dead, just after Carlo was seen publicly arguing with him, Carlo is suspect number one and is arrested in the murder. By now, Anna is pregnant, so the couple is married behind bars, and only get to say “I do” before Carlo is hauled away. For a time, Anna is able to raise their daughter on odd jobs, but when the girl becomes sick and Anna doesn’t have enough money to provide proper care, she is forced to return to Matilde and plead for help. Matilde takes in the child on the condition that Anna go to a home for “wayward women,” to which Anna reluctantly agrees. If she had dreams of her girl having security, those were obviously misplaced, and Matilde treats the girl as a new servant. With Carlo in jail, Anna at the convent, and their child living in a hellishly strict home, you start to wonder if everything will turn out OK, but this being an Italian drama, you know it will. Just as entertaining as the first film, though seriously depressing for a stretch there. ★★★½

Nobody’s Children takes place in and around a mine in Italy, run by an aging countess and her son Guido. Countess Canali entrusts the running of the mine to her foreman Anselmo, but he is cruel and unfair to the laborers, which gets Guido riled up. Guido is in love with Luisa, the mine’s guard’s daughter, but his mother does not approve of him marrying someone so far beneath their station. She connives to get Guido sent to London to build up business, while getting Anselmo to kick Luisa out of her home. Well, turns out Luisa is pregnant, and she hides in a house just outside the mine, and is presumed dead. Guido rushes home and is in anguish. Gets even worse when Anselmo discovers Luisa’s hiding spot a year later, kidnaps the baby, and sets the house on fire. Luisa is distraught over the “death” of her baby and becomes a nun. Guido finds her there, but with their child gone, Luisa is unwilling to reconcile and has devoted her life to God. Fast forward a dozen years, and the child, now a boy named Bruno, has been raised in a boarding home paid secretly by the contessa, from a sense of obligation for her grandchild. Bruno runs away though, to try to find out who is parents are, and in a twist of fate ends up working at the mine. Guido has since married and had a daughter, and the contessa is about to die of old age. Everyone expects Guido to inherit everything as the only heir, but his mother has made a will to leave a large portion of her estate to Bruno, to make amends for her cruel past. Unfortunately, Guido’s wife intercepts the will. Just when you think no one will ever learn the truth, it all comes together before the end. Lots of tragedy, lots of drama, and while the film is still engaging, there’s some completely outlandish plot elements where you have to suspend belief to get through. It was very popular in its day though, warranting a sequel. ★★★

A couple years later, the sequel came out (will be spoilers here to the above film). The White Angel refers to Luisa, who her son Bruno saw as an angel on his death bed upon reuniting with her and his father Guido at the end of Nobody’s Children. Guido has never forgiven his wife for her part in keeping Bruno and he separated, and the couple is estranged. Guido asks for a divorce, and in his lonely wanderings around town, comes across a performer/sometimes prostitute, Lina. Lina is the spitting image of Luisa (same actress in Yvonne Sanson), and Guido is smitten, while at the same timer repulsed that this image of Luisa that he has created in his head is demeaned in the body of a lowly woman like Lina. He tries to stay away from her, but is always drawn back like moth to flame, and the two eventually sleep together. Shortly after, Lina is arrested for her part in a friend’s counterfeit money scheme, and she becomes very ill in jail. Luisa hears of it, learns the story, and begs Guido to be a father to this child as he never was to their Bruno. A jail maternity ward, lookalikes, and even a big prison escape in the end with a police standoff: it couldn’t get any more wild. Definitely seems like filmmaker was throwing everything at the board to see what would stick, and not much does. As opposed to the above films, the director sacrificed personal stories for shock value, and a lesser film is the result. ★★

• TV series recently watched: Superman: The Animated Series (season 3)
• Book currently reading: A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan