We Live in Time - Amazon Prime | Lincoln actually joined us for a family viewing of this, and I’m now wondering if it’s because he knew Florence Pugh was naked in it. Anyway, it didn’t blow me away, but Pugh and Andrew Garfield turn in decent performances. Fairly maudlin throughout, but sometimes life is, yeah?
A Complete Unknown — Theatrical | I’ve never been a massive Bob Dylan fan, but enjoyed this biopic. Don’t care enough to Google what was real and what wasn’t, but enjoyed the music and the performances by Timothée Chalamet, Ed Norton and Elle Fanning. It’ll win its share of Oscars.
Don’t Look Back — Max | The success of “A Complete Unknown” made HBO elevate this doc to their featured category. It’s a 1967 film shot in 1965 while Dylan played eight concerts in England, just shy of his 24th birthday. Months later he plugs in at Newport and he’s already very confrontational with the press. Kinda cool to see the real artist performing and talking.
A Real Pain — Hulu | The critics loved this one, but I’ll stay at 3 stars. Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg turn in fine performances, but I didn’t think there was quite enough plot. Not every movie has to tell a gripping story, but some sort of denouement is always nice.
The Goonies — TNT | Watched this for the first time in at least three decades after hearing all the comparisons to “Skeleton Crew.” It’s actually a pretty weird movie! There’s a whole lot about it that doesn’t make much sense, but it’s always fun to see kids outsmart adults.
The Sex Lives of College Girls, S3 — Max | Enjoyed the new season, mostly, but thought it suffered from a sameness at times. As the father of a college girl, I refuse to believe they are actually that obsessed with the opposite sex.
Silo, S1 & 2 — Apple TV | Season 1 was better than 2, but both held my attention throughout. Based on a book about humanity surviving in underground silos after “top-side” is rendered unbreathable. The action begins almost a century and a half after the silos were created, so nobody but a select few actually know that there was a world once outside the silo. Tim Robbins plays a surprisingly good evil guy and Rebecca Ferguson manages to make living underground look sexy.
Somebody Somewhere, S1-3 — Max | Carey and I stumbled on this during one of our “I don’t know, what do you want to watch?” perusals of the various streaming services. The Duplass brothers have a knack for telling stories that feel real with heart.
Skeleton Crew — Disney+ | As I believe I’ve written in the media diet before, I am no longer Disney’s dream demo, but this OG Star Wars fan actually enjoyed this one! Didn’t take itself too seriously and like I said about “The Goonies,” watching kids outsmart adults is always good entertainment, no matter what age you are.
Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su | A surreal debut novel about a 20-something college dropout in the Midwest who finds a blob outside a dive bar, takes it home, and helps it morph from a gelatinous blotch into a real man. Wild stuff that the author uses to explore what makes us human. | My AP review.
Old Soul by Susan Barker | A creepy novel marketed as “literary horror,” which is a term I’d never heard before. Tells the story of a shape-shifting woman who befriends and kills people across continents and decades. The supernatural explanation required at the end is a bit much, but the novel’s form and the prose may short-list it for a few publishing prizes this year. | My AP review.
Hold Strong by Robert Dugoni | An LA publicist who graduated from Middlebury a few years before me actually tracked me down and convinced me to review this for the AP. One of the contributing writers/researchers is a Midd prof at the Monterey Institute. Anyway. It’s historical fiction set near the end of WWII when Japan was trying to cover up its treatment of POWs. There’s a love story at the heart of it and it was a quick read despite being almost 500 pages. | My AP review.
Solid movie slate. Don't Look Back is the only one I'd rave about (personally) but the NC crowd would give the rest at least a thumbs up. (We all liked A Real Pain a bit more than you it seems. What's not to love about Chopin and small European towns?) And I had no idea your influence was so vast! Head hunted for a book review...
ReplyDeleteWhat's your read of A Real Pain's climax? Is the Culkin character living in an airport or just a lonely soul who feels less lonely when surrounded by people, even if he's not talking to them?
ReplyDeleteI'd give more stars to A Real Pain - great script writing and acting - a lot of emotion without feeling sappy or preachy. Benji is just as lost at the end as he is at the beginning of the movie - the quest for meaning/connection was not a success for him.
ReplyDeleteWell, having just watched another Oscar nominee last night -- The Substance -- I'm now prepared to give all the stars to A Real Pain. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm not averse to body horror but The Substance didn't do it for me either. Annoyed me on a few levels. I'd agree with Sara's reading on A Real Pain. Someone in our group offered the theory that Culkin was sitting there in Eisenberg's mind -- it's easier to imagine Benji in a place that gives him (ostensible) peace rather than incapacitated on another couch.
ReplyDeleteThat was Kieran Culkin's theory that he shared with us at SCAD.
ReplyDeleteHey Carah is no longer anonymous! How'd that happen?? Sometimes I think you just have to be in the proper headspace to appreciate certain cinema -- perhaps I wasn't with A Real Pain. Those of you who heard it straight from the actor in Georgia probably were! Or my sister, who now goes to see a couple new release movies a month at a fairly inexpensive theater nearby. I was on my couch probably looking forward to the next NBA game that was on TV.
ReplyDelete