Split (M. Night Shyamalan, 2016): 1.5/5
Between this hacky shit and Atomic Blonde, James McAvoy deserves some kind of Most Acting award.

Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondó, 1995): 3.5/5
A non-Miyazaki, non-fantasy Studio Ghibli movie. Charming, calm and lovely.

* Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi, 2017): 3/5
The current state of Hollywood comedy.

* Coco (Lee Unkrich, 2017): 3/5
Pandering with style. At one point, Jack jumped out of his seat and screamed "Yeeaaaaahhhh" at the top of his voice.

* Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017): 3.5/5
What's not to like? Easily better than the last over-praised girl-coming-of-age movie.

* Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017): 5/5
Swoony, beautiful and (for me) extremely moving. Pleasurably antagonist-free. Timothée Chalamet turns in the performance of the year (and he's also one of the best things about Lady Bird).

The Circle (James Ponsoldt, 2017): 1/5
It's good to periodically re-calibrate with a really terrible movie. Talented people (including director Ponsoldt, writer Eggers, and co-star Hanks) making undercooked, out-of-touch, boring pablum. 

* The Disaster Artist (James Franco, 2017): 3/5
Skin deep, but entertaining. 

The Unknown Girl (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2017): 3/5
At times reminded me of Diary of a Country Priest: an isolated public servant, trying to lead by example but lacking social skills, enters into a humiliating search for redemption.  But this story of a modern doctor (who has no staff? or friends?) playing detective strained credulity at times.  Nevertheless, lead actress Adele Haenel was mesmerizing in her single-minded intensity.

Good Time (Josh & Bennie Safdie, 2017): 4/5
Crisp, gritty heist film.  Huge improvement over the pointless junkies-in-trash bags Heaven Knows What.  NY-based DP Sean Price Williams is a talent to watch.

A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017): 3.5/5
I went in with low expectations, and was surprised and occasionally moved.  Loved the decades-spanning montage sequence; time turns us all into ghosts.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints (David Lowery, 2013): 3/5
An overfamiliar genre piece (criminal dad on the run attempts to reunite with family), improved by atmosphere and acting (same leads as A Ghost Story).

Wormwood (Errol Morris, 2017): 4/5
Repetitive and overlong by an hour, but never dull.  Will confirm your worst fears about government overreach in the name of National Security.

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography (Errol Morris, 2017): 2/5
Dorfman's medium (the now-defunct large format Polaroid) is much more interesting than she is, and her subjects (primarily her family and Allen Ginsberg) aren't much to look at, either.  A flattering minor work made by her neighbor in Cambridge.

The Crown, season 2 (2017): 4/5
Suffered for the lack of Winston Churchill, but I admire its continuing focus on the demands of duty, tradition, and the public good--and how quickly an institution can go off the rails when those principles are abandoned.

Gomorrah, rw (Matteo Garrone, 2008): 5/5
If only Scorsese would attempt a film like this, acknowledging the wide-reaching social effects of gangsterism and corruption, instead of focusing only on the macho theatrics...

Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey, rw (Steven M. Martin, 1993): 5/5
Music, electronics, spies, Stalin, unrequited love... you really can't make this stuff up.  Enchanting, engrossing.

Arrival, rw (Dennis Villenueve, 2016): 4/5
Enemy, rw (Dennis Villenueve, 2013): 3.5/5

The Right Stuff, rw (Philip Kaufman, 1983): 4/5
Reds, rw (Warren Beatty, 1981): 4/5
Made me long for the days when Hollywood made smart, entertaining movies for adults, all year round.

Monte Walsh (William Fraker, 1970): 2.5/5
Poignant end-of-the-West story with Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, and Jeanne Moreau (as--surprise--a hooker with a heart of gold), marred by some overly broad humor.  Part of my ongoing project to go deep in Jeanne Moreau's filmography.

*Dracula, rw (Tod Browning, 1932; with live accompaniment by Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet, Segerstrom Hall, 10-28-2017): 4/5
The film comes alive only when Legosi is on screen; the score helped liven the dull parts.  It was a bit strange having live accompaniment with a talking picture, but any chance to hear Kronos is sublime.

Person to Person (Dustin Guy Defa, 2017) -- 4.5/5
Delightful and charming with brilliant dialogue. So real and organic, and coheres much more than you'd expect.

Landline (Gillian Robespierre, 2017) -- 1.5/5
Listen... this took me...three goddamn days to finish...because it was nothing but Straight People's Nonsense: The Movie. (And yet it made me gayer?)  Generic, predictable... adds nothing to the genre. 

Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene, 2016) -- 3/5
Really had me up until the eye-rolling didactic final scene in what otherwise would have been an absorbing portrait of an actor's research project. 

Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016) -- 3/5
Straight biopic. For what it lacks in offering any insight or relevance for resurrecting Christine Chubbuck, it makes up for a great lead performance. Also liked the ending.   

Woodshock (Kate and Laura Mulleavy, 2017) -- 1/5
If I wanted to see a bunch of sad people smoke weed and be fundamentally unable to balance a coherent narrative with a frustratingly self-absorbed visual style, I'd go to film school. 

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017) -- 2/5
Irksome. The lead actor (aka Vanilla White Bread) made me want to immediately bail and never look back, but the supporting cast upheld their end (Jamie Foxx especially, he totally saved it) and really, carried the whole movie. 

Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman, 2017) -- 1/5
Derivative character study of a closeted bro. Formally and narratively unimaginative. 

Good Time (Ben and Joshua Safdie, 2017) -- 4/5
Imagine a panic attack times 100-- that's this film. Robert Pattinson is truly next-level here.

Girls Trip (Malcolm D. Lee, 2017) -- 3.5/5
This will make you want to have friends and trip on absinthe. Tiffany Haddish STEALS the movie. Heaven must have sent her from above... 

The Death of Louis XIV (Albert Serra, 2016) -- 2/5
This is the kind of film that would be little harmed if most of its scenes were reshuffled in random order. I felt like I was staring at studies of the same (albeit gorgeous) Renaissance painting for 2 hours. Eschewing narrative is fine, but SOME dynamism should take its place. This is the wrong medium for stasis. Only watch if you're a Jean-Pierre Leaud completist! 

The Blackcoat's Daughter (Oz Perkins, 2017) -- 3/5
Or: The Consequences of Having Don Draper as Your Father 

It Comes At Night (Trey Edwards Schults, 2017) -- 2.5/5
Underwhelming "artsy" "horror" film. Very little here that actually deviates from the survivalist template. 

A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017) -- 3/5
Liked the idea of a silent ghost as the protagonist; liked the representation of said ghost as a sheet with two eyeholes. What I didn't get was the central relationship. We just see so little of the husband and wife together prior to the car accident that their mourning across separate planes of existence functions purely on an abstract level. 

mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017) -- 3/5
Just like the sink, I was NOT braced. 

The Gift (Sam Raimi, 2000) -- 3/5
Southern Gothic supernatural thriller with a STACKED cast. (Cate Blanchett, Greg Kinnear, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, J.K. Simmons, Giovanni Ribisi.) Atmospheric with eerie frames a'plenty.

William Gibson: No Maps for These Territories (Mark Neele, 2000) -- 1/5
Superficial interview in the backseat of a car about nothing 

The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1971) -- 3/5
Discomforting stuff. I, too, have no interest in seeing the re-make. I also just don't care for the basic premise. (Yes, it's a man being objectified for once, but only in the service of depicting women as sex-starved maniacs.)  

Aimee and Jaguar (Max Faberbock, 1998) -- 2/5
Based on a true story about a love affair between two women (one a Good German, the other a Jew) amidst WWII. Sorry, but there's just no competing against Carol or Blue is the Warmest Color, or the Willow/Tara relationship on Buffy. 

Better Than Chocolate (Anne Wheeler, 1999)  --1/5
See above. 

Southside With You (Richard Tanne, 2016) -- 1/5
Before Sunrise 
Before Sunset
Before White House

The Electric Horseman (Sydney Pollack, 1979): 2/5

A confrontation between Redford’s scruffy and soulful 70s and Fonda’s buttoned-up and self-satisfied 80s. Radically, the 80s win.

The Squid and the Whale, rw (Noah Baumbach, 2005): 4.5/5

My father wasn’t an intellectual, but he certainly was a narcissist. I recognized a lot here and laughed more than a couple of times.

The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach, 2017): 4/5

My father wasn’t an artist, but he certainly was a narcissist. I recognized a lot here and laughed more than a couple of times.

Sinister (Scott Derrickson, 2012): 3/5

Delivers some Halloween-appropriate chills before its overblown last act.

Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016): 2/5

A beautiful and boring critique of late capitalism.

Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016): 2/5

A beautiful and boring critique of late adolescence.

Le Cercle Rouge, rw (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970): 4/5

Tarantino naming his production company after Godard is certainly an obfuscation of the fact that the French movies he really borrows from the most are Melville’s elaborate, tri-focused gangster movies: this one, plus Le Deuxieme Souffle and Army of Shadows (freedom fighters acting like gangsters). Granted, they are likely both indebted to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Brawl in Cell Block 99 (S. Craig Zahler, 2017): 3/5

Never over-reaches its authentic B-movie ambitions. As such I give it the compliment of rating it a B.

Stranger Things, Season 2 (The Duffer brothers, 2017): 2/5

More action and fewer character moments and Spielberg quotes.

Atomic Blonde (David Leitch, 2017): 2.5/5

I certainly enjoyed watching Theron knee people in the face and get kneed in the face by people (who wouldn’t), but the one thing her character can’t defeat is the absurdly complicated plotting.

This is Us, Season 1 (Dan Fogelman, 2016): 4.5/5

Expert middlebrow.

*Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villenueve, 2017): 4.5/5
Manages to stay true to the original's concerns, elaborate on our ongoing posthuman dilemmas, and look and sound pretty cool in the bargain.  Maybe not that great in the long run, but I was just thankful for a reason to worship in the House of Cinema.

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017): 2/5
Live-action cartoon music video, for 2 hours.  Cool car chases, with stunts rendered meaningless by CGI.  Utter bullshit.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Noah Baumbach, 2017): 2/5
Aka "Drive, He Whined."  For the love of God, please, all of you, shut the fuck up.  Actually made me appreciate Midwestern WASP stoicism.

My Cousin Rachel (Roger Michell, 2017): 2/5
Anemic.  Manages to make a twisted romance by Daphne de Maurier (Rebecca, The Birds) into a snooze.

Half Nelson, rw (Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden, 2006): 4/5
In which the schoolgirl Drey (Shareeka Epps), with a few forlorn glances, pierces into the protagonist's conscience and steals the movie, much like Bruno in The Bicycle Thief.

Masked and Anonymous, rw (Larry Charles, 2003): 2.5/5
Maybe not quite as smart as it seemed back then... the singer is still pretty good.

Donnie Darko (Richard Curtis, 2001 theatrical version): 3/5
Finally managed to get through this... entertaining, but still not sure what the hulabaloo and cult status are about.  Never cared much for "Reality/Unreality?" plot lines.

Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (John Marbury, 1999): 2/5
Hadn't realized that Bacon found his signature style of portraiture so early--by the late 1940s.  But Jesus, what an obnoxious queen.

A Funny Story About Six and Nine, aka 6ixtynin9 (Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 1999): 2/5
Amusing but derivative low-budget Thai crime/comedy, in the manner of QT.

Prince of the City, rw (Sidney Lumet, 1981): 3/5
Serpico loses his earring and goes straight, clean-shaven.  Thankfully, NYC never looked grimier.

The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1971): 4/5
Wow... what a weird, wild slice of Southern Gothic melodrama.  I thank Sofia Coppola for bringing it to my attention.  But I'm not much interested in seeing her re-make.

Docs:

Eva Hesse (Marcie Begleiter, 2016): 5/5
Hesse's German-Jewish origins, family trauma, undeniable talent, turbulent marriage, and meteoric career conjure up comparisons with Sylvia Plath.  But she didn't kill herself, reducing commercial potential for bio-pics and teenage idol worship.  Finally, she gets her due in a doc that rightfully establishes her as a major American artist of the 1960s.

It Might Get Loud (Davis Guggenheim, 2008): 2/5
Page, Evans, and White never seem to connect, and they perform as solo guitarists in their respective bands, so the film's "guitar summit" climax is a lame exchange of riffs that goes nowhere.

Joss Whedon

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Seasons 1-7: 4.5/5
Would've been 5/5 if Season 7 didn't blow so hard. Also, Alyson Hannigan and Amber Benson --to DIE for! I can't believe how late I am to the party.

The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2011) -- 3/5

Alyson Hannigan

How I Met Your Mother, Season 1 (2005) -- 3.5/5
Oh my god that Ted Mosby character (main central character) is so baneful. Just Google "Ted Mosby Sucks" and you'll see a million articles/message boards explaining why. 

Date Movie (Aaron Seltzer, 2006) -- 1/5

American Pie (Paul Weitz, 1999)-- 1/5

American Pie 2 (JB Rogers, 2001) -- 2.5/5

American Wedding (Jesse Dylan, 2003) -- 1/5

American Reunion (John Hurwitz, 2012) -- 2/5

Rip It Off (Gigi Gaston, 2002) -- 1/5


Amber Benson 

Attack of the Gryphon (Andrew Prowse, 2007) -- 2/5

King of the Hill (Steven Soderbergh, 1993) -- 4/5
A beautifully shot, sweet little film. Acting was solid amongst the kiddies. Oh and there's a young Adrien Brody to boot who is simply delightful. Currently reading the A.E. Hotchner memoir the film's based on. 

The Killing Jar (Mark Young, 2010) -- 2/5

Race You to the Bottom (Russell Brown, 2005) -- 1/5

Latter Days (Jay Cox, 2005) -- 2/5

Strictly Sexual (Joel Viertel, 2008) -- 1/5

Chance (Amber Benson, 2002) -- 2/5



The Box (Richard Kelly, 2009) -- 2/5

Mister Lonely (Harmony Korine, 2007) -- 1/5

The Lost City of Z (James Gray, 2017) -- 2/5

Love

The Lovers (Azazel Jacobs, 2017): 2/5

The Lovers, rw (Louis Malle, 1958): 3.5/5

Power

Mozart’s Sister, rw (Rene Feret, 2010): 3.5/5

The Queen (Stephen Frears, 2006): 2/5

War

Au Revoir, Les Enfants, rw (Louis Malle, 1987): 3.5/5

Mr. Klein, rw (Joseph Losey, 1975): 4/5

Plenty (Fred Schepisi, 1985): 2/5

Sickness

*The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, 2017): 3/5

The Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2016): 1/5

Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, 2007): 2/5

Sad White Men (cont.)

The Electric Horseman, rw (Sydney Pollack, 1979): 1/5

The Swimmer, rw (Frank Perry, 1967): 1/5

Death
Blood on the Mountain (Jordan Freeman & Mari-Lynn Evans, 2016): 4/5

Obit. (Vanessa Gould, 2016): 3/5

Baskets, Season 2 (Jonathan Krisel, 2017): 3.5/5

Didn't make it through Season 1, but this was perfectly binge-able. Great performance from Louie Anderson as his mum.

Person to Person (Dustin Guy Defa, 2017): 2/5

I have little memory of having watched this.

The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016): 2.5/5

For the first half, I thought Refn had actually made a coherent movie. Alas.

Hail, Caesar (Coen Brothers, 2016): 2/5

The Coens’ worst movie? I haven’t seen The Ladykillers. They display an increasingly tenuous grasp of tone.

Carlito's Way, rw (Brian De Palma, 1993): 3/5

A lot of bunk in here, including Pacino's accent, but great set-pieces.  Boogie Nights wouldn’t be the same without it.

The Leftovers, Season 3 (Mimi Leder, etc., 2017): 4.5/5

The best of the three seasons. Epic and Metaphysical. With actual answers, if that’s what you’re into.

T2 Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 2017): 2/5

A friend said it was about the difference between being in your 20s and being in your 40s. I wish I had seen that movie.

Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970): 2/5

A fine yellow-toothed performance, but the movie is bloated.

Five Came Back (Laurent Bouzereau, 2017): 3/5

Both rushed and drawn out. Had a lot more fun with the book.

Miles Ahead (Don Cheadle, 2015): 3/5

Born to be Blue (Robert Budreau, 2015): 3.5/5

Oh those wacky, drug-addled, aging jazz greats! Interesting that Miles is in both but Baker is not. BtbB raises then immediately drops interesting problems of representation/recreation, so I guess I have to track down Kate Plays Christine.

Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016): 3/5

Really good lead performance, but the movie never really sticks to a particular take on the woman beyond “weirdo,” and the climax, despite being programmatic, comes out of nowhere.

Twin Peaks, The Return (David Lynch, 2017): 5/5

Images and atmospherics. Also, funny. If you don’t think you’ll like it, you’re probably right.

* It (Andy Mushiettu, 2017): 2.5/5

Feel-good horror

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016): 2/5

Some pretty big, amazing images here—considering it’s a piece of shit.

Snowden (Oliver Stone, 2016): 3/5

Traditionally entertaining. I am remarkably untroubled by what he revealed.

Feud: Bette and Joan (Ryan Murphy, 2017): 4/5

Jerry and I are the two straight(ish) people under the age of 60 who liked this.

The Big Sick (Michael Showalter, 2017): 2/5

Proving that true life is full of cliches.

Colossus (Nacho Vigalondo, 2016): 3/5

Charlie Kaufman movie of the year.

The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003): 3/5

Interesting! Accidentally breaks rules I never even noticed existed.

The Founder (John Lee Hancock, 2016): 3/5

At what point does Travis Bickle or Walter White or Michael Corleone move from protagonist to antagonist? And what does it mean for the audience and character if this can never really be done?

The Beaver Trilogy, Part IV (Brad Besser, 2015): 2/5

Being an artist is depressing. Watching The Beaver Trilogy itself would be better.

The Handmaiden (Chan-wook Park, 2016): 2.5/5

Q: How many twists until you say ‘Who gives a fuck?’ A: four

* mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017): 4/5

Aronofsky plunders Polanski and the Bible (again!) and makes a gonzo horror art-film that goes for it viscerally and intellectually. Pretty crazy stuff.

A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017): 3.5/5

Sad White Dead Men

Dolores Claiborne (Taylor Hackford, 1995) -- 3/5
I saw a list ranking best Stephen King adaptions and this was in the top 10 or 20, I forget which. David Strathairn's character is repugnant beyond the pale... kinda took me out of the movie. I guess I prefer portrayals of domestic abuse to be more nuanced? (e.g. Alexander Skarsgard in Big Little Lies.)

This Is Where I Leave You (Shawn Levy, 2014) -- 2.5/5
Read the Jonathan Tropper novel first --typical white male boo hoo hooey. 

Raw (Julia Docournau, 2017) -- 2/5
What!! A vet school filled with ONLY super hot, sexy, lascivious students? Also, why are they only working on horses and cows? What about dogs and cats? Anyway it was gross. 

The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007) -- 3/5
This was also on the list of best Stephen King adaptations. Decent romp, sad ending. 

Girls Season 6 (Lena Dunham, 2017) -- 4/5
Ended with a whimper, not a bang. Which is weird because this show had so much banging in it it was like watching porn at times. 

Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders, 2017) -- 1/5
They really need to stop hiring white people to play Asian characters. Mess of a movie. I only watched because of Juliette Binoche. 

Deepwater Horizon (Peter Berg, 2016) -- 2/5
Another American Joe Hero movie. Forgettable. 

Frontline: Sick Around the World (Jon Palfreman, 2008) -- 5/5
It'd be nice if Congress watched this and took notes and maybe get a few new ideas.

The Invention of Lying (Ricky Gervais, 2009) -- 2/5
First 20 minutes is hilarious, then it drags.

Parting Glances (Bill Sherwood, 1986) -- 2/5

American Pastoral (Ewan McGregor, 2016) -- 2/5
Can anyone recommend a good Phillip Roth novel for me? I haven't read any of his work yet. Should I just start with Goodbye, Columbus?

Taxidermia (Gyorgy Palfi, 2006) -- 2/5

The Innocents (Ann Fontaine, 2016) -- 2/5

The Infiltrator (Brad Furman, 2016)-- 2/5

Brothers (Susan Bier, 2005)-- 4/5

Frantz (Francois Ozone, 2017) -- 2.5/5

Song to Song (Terrence Malick,, 2017) -- 2.5/5
Better than Knight of Cups, but that's not saying much is it?

My Man Godfrey (Gregory La Cava, 1936) -- turned it off

Christmas in Connecticut (Peter Godfrey, 1945) -- 3.5/5

How to Marry A Millionaire (Jean Negulesco, 1953) -- turned it off

Sabrina (Billy Wilder, 1954) -- 3/5

Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955) -- 2/5
Marlon Brando's number was awful. Wtf why is this a classic? 

Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, 1986) -- 2/5

Tampopo (Juzo Itami, 1986) -- turned it off

Silence (Martin Scorcese, 2016) -- 1/5
If you were to ask, I couldn't tell you what happened in this movie or who the characters were.

Desert Hearts (Donna Dietch, 1985) -- 2/5

Staying Vertical (Alain Guiraudie, 2017) -- 3/5
Has all the trappings of the kind of French cinema I like: provincial France and accompanying townies, the explicit and inexplicable, temporal languishing that still maintains direction.

The Red Turtle (Michael Dudok de Wit, 2017) -- 2/5

Catfight (Onur Tukel, 2017) -- 3/5
Second-longest fight scene after the Roddy Piper and Keith David's in They Live. Nowhere near as amazing/memorable though. 

Re-watched Tiny Furniture (Lena Dunham, 2010) -- 4/5

It (Andre Muschietti, 2017) -- 3/5
It was thrilling to see it on the big screen, but It doesn't stay with you in any way once you exit the theater. Maybe It's the nostalgia talking, but I prefer the original. R.I.P. Tim Curry. 

The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972) -- 2/5

Devil (John Erick Dowdle, 2010) -- 3/5

Insidious (James Wan, 2011) -- 3/5

Fences (Denzel Washington, 2016) -- 3/5

Inserts (John Byrum, 1974) -- turned it off

Master of None, Season Two (Aziz Ansari, et. al., 2017): 3.5/5
A charming tone goes a long way.

The Blackcoat's Daughter (Oz Perkins, 2015): 3/5
A glacial and ultra-controlled meditation on horror motifs. See The House of the Devil, The Witch, I Am the Pretty Thing Who Lives in the House and, well, The Shining first—and see if you feel like you need more.

Song To Song (Terrence Malick, 2017): 2/5
Diminishing returns, The Movie.

Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017): 2/5
Screeches from the gate and loses momentum early. Probably my favorite movie by Wright.

Silicon Valley, Seasons 1-4 (Mike Judge, et. al, 2014-2017): 4/5
Expertly plotted to ensure maximum binge-itude. Consistently amusing, with the humor flowing straight from the well-drawn characters. 

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992): 3.5/5
Douglas Sirk, Kenneth Anger, and Barbara Eden walk into an abattoir....

The Mummy (Alex Kurtzman, 2017): 2.5/5
Not good, but at least it was watchable and short. Why did everyone decide this movie was safe to pan? Maybe because it (like the similarly received Dark Tower) was nakedly presented as a franchise-opener? People just looooove to pretend they hate franchises.

Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017): 3/5
I certainly enjoyed drooling over a beautiful woman kicking ass in a metal mini (and I ask myself why bros would generally prefer to watch big hunky men instead. Hmmm...), but is this really feminist? The movie boldly asserts that we all should be judged not by our gender but by how well we can knee someone in the face.

Logan (James Mangold, 2017): 1.5/5
Mangold remakes Cop Land, sort of, wherein an aging star makes one last bid at relevance. On-the-nose references to Shane abound. Surprisingly grim, gory, humorless, and unpleasant.

*Dunkirk [IMAX 70mm film] (Christopher Nolan, 2017): 3.5/5
Solemn spectacle.  106 minutes of stiff upper lips overwhelmed by cinematic technique, on a screen the size of an apartment building.  I admired the experience of it, but I can't say I much enjoyed it.  And I found myself not thinking about it much afterward; perhaps that's the consequence of its lack of narrative cohesion?

Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017): 4/5
Says more about being black in America than a dozen well-intentioned Oscar-bait films.  Love its understated horror/comedy.  Bunuel, Polanski... Peele?  

Okja (Bong Joon-ho, 2017): 2/5
So cartoonish you'd think it was for kids, but then they keep dropping the F-bombs...

Feud: Bette and Joan (Ryan Murphy, 2017): 5/5
Transcends camp into real feeling.  Mamacita = best Teutonic servant since Max von Mayerling.

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, rw (Robert Aldrich, 1962): 3.5/5
Much improved by knowing its intimate production history.

The Last Tycoon, season 1 (Billy Ray, 2017): 2/5
Embalmed.  What's worse, portrays Monroe Stahr as more pretty boy than boy genius.

Ozark, season 1 (Bill Dubuque, 2017): 3/5
Breaking Bad lite, but entertaining.

Friends From College, season 1 (Nicholas Stoller & Francesca Delbanco, 2017): 3.5/5
Too often ridiculous and over the top, with a carefully selected soundtrack of 90s indie nostalgia... so why was I laughing so much?  A: good comedic actors in a classic screwball love triangle.

Demon, rw (Marcin Wrona, 2016): 4/5
Another European family party film in the grand guignol tradition of The Celebration and Melancholia.  A wedding is held in a Polish country village where Jews disappeared during the war.  The groom is an outsider.  What could go wrong?

American Anarchist (Charlie Siskel, 2016): 3/5
Profile of the surprisingly sympathetic yet confounding author of The Anarchist's Cookbook (a book that testifies to the efficacy of good research--the author never made a bomb in his life; he just looked it up at the library).

I Called Him Morgan (Kasper Collin, 2014): 4/5
I didn't much know or care about trumpeter Lee Morgan, but Collin's expressive use of 16mm film pulled me in.  The five minutes detailing Morgan's death (shot by his wife in a club during a NYC blizzard) are sublime.

*Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison, 2017): 5/5
Surprisingly linear found-footage doc, occasionally punctuated by bursts of nitrate decomp and musical avant-gardisms.  Hypnotically demonstrates the Klondike-early Hollywood connection: gold rushes based on exploiting natural resources and labor.

Nobody Speak: Trials of a Free Press (Brian Knappenberger, 2017): 4/5
American oligarchy launches a buy-out of the First Amendment.  Scary.

Long Strange Trip (Amir Bar-Lev, 2017): 3.5/5
Tragic story of an enormously gifted guitar player driven to self-isolation and destruction by success, duty, spinners

Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932): 3.5/5
Another "notorious" pre-Code flick that can't possibly live up to the hype. But Gable and Astor mesmerize as they get steamy in the tropics; Harlow is a clunky third wheel

There Will Be Blood when Wonder Boys and Matchstick Men Nightcrawl in The Place Beyond the Pines, rw (Sad White Men, 2000-2015): 4/5

Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) -- 1/5

A Taste of Honey (Tony Richardson, 1961) -- 2/5

Bang Gang: A Modern Love Story (Evan Husson, 2016) -- 1/5

Inserts (John Byrum, 1974)-- 1/5

30 for 30: Catching Hell (Alex Gibney, 2011)-- 3/5

Idiocracy (Mike Judge, 2003) -- 2.5/5

In the House (Francois Ozon, 2012) -- 3/5

The Young Pope: Season 1 (2017) -- 2.5/5

Re-watched Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Filho, 2012) -- 1/5 (original rating: 3/5)

Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, 2012)-- turned it off

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (Alex Gibney, 2012) -- turned it off

The Void (Jeremy Gillespie, 2017) -- 1.5/5

Girls Seasons 4-6: 4/5

Orange is the New Black Season 5 -- 5/5

Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017)-- 2/5

The Conjuring (James Wan, 2013) -- 3/5

Sinister (Scott Derrickson, 2012) -- 3/5

The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005) -- 3/5

Midnight in Paris, rw (Woody Allen, 2011): 3/5

Charade, rw (Stanley Donen, 1963): 3/5

Life (Daniel Espinoza, 2017): 3.5/5

Long Strange Trip (Amir Bar-Lev, 2017): 2.5/5

Moana (Ron Clements, 2016): 3/5

Okja (Bong Joon-ho, 2017): 1.5/5

Kong: Scull Island (Jordan Vogt-Roberts, 2017): 1.5/5

Staying Vertical (Alain Guiraudie, 2016): 2/5

Alien: Covenant (the rotting corpse of Ridley Scott, 2017): 2/5

Oh, Hello on Broadway (Michael John Warren, 2017): 3/5

Glow, Season 1 (Liz Flahive, et al., 2017): 3/5

The Founder (John Lee Hancock, 2016): 2/5
Fascinating and morally bankrupt, "the first Trumpist film of the new era"

Allied (Robert Zemeckis, 2016): 2/5
Marion Cotillard is stunning, Brad Pitt bloated & confused.  Will make you appreciate The English Patient.

The D Train (Jarrad Paul & Andrew Mogel, 2015): 2/5
Homobromance similar to:
Chuck and Buck, rw (Miguel Arteta, 2000): 2.5/5

Effie Gray (Richard Laxton, 2014): 2/5

Prisoners (Denis Villenueve, 2013): 3/5
Smart genre film or dumb art film?

Zodiac, rw (David Fincher, 2007): 4.5/5
Fincher's intentions remain fuzzy, but image, sound, and vibe are extraordinary.  Was 2007 the last great year for American cinema?  (There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James...)

Cabaret, rw (Bob Fosse, 1972): 3.5/5

Docs:

Off the Rails (Adam Irving, 2015): 2.5/5

Peace Officer (Scott Christopherson & Brad Barber, 2015): 2/5
Local police are now armed and trained like the military--ad nauseum

TV:

I Love Dick, season 1 (Jill Solloway, 2017): 3.5/5
My enthusiasm for the pilot has been, um, deflated

Big Little Lies (David E. Kelly, 2017): 2/5

The Night Of (Steve Zaillian, 2016): 4.5/5
Graphic displays of chronic exzema more horrific than murder scene evidence

American Crime, season 1 (John Ridley, 2015): 3/5
Casting helps network crime series seem like a cable crime series

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (André Øvredal, 2016): 3.5/5

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Fuck Them (David Yates, 2016): 2/5

Big Little Lies (David E. Kelley, 2017): 3.5/5

Girls, Season 6 (Lena Dunham): Who gives a shit

White God (Kornél Mundruczò, 2014): 2/5

Phoenix (Christian Petzold, 2014): 2.5/5

Twin Peaks, Season 3, first two eps (David Lynch, 2017): 5/5

The Sentinel (Michael Winner, 1977) -- 2.5/5

The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, 2016) -- 2/5

My King (Maiwenn Le Besco, 2016) -- 3/5

Miss Sloan (John Madden, 2016) -- turned it off

The Brand New Testament (Jaco van Dormael, 2016) -- 2.5/5

Under the Sun (Vitaly Mansky, 2016) -- 4/5

The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015) -- 2/5

La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016) -- 2/5

Denial (Mick Jackson, 2016) -- 2/5

Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones, 2015) -- turned it off

Frenzy (Hitchcock, 1972) -- 3.5/5

Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016) -- 4/5

Snowden (Oliver Stone, 2016) -- 3/5

The Eyes of My Mother (Nicolas Pesce, 2016) -- 2/5

Jackie (Pablo Larrain, 2016) -- 3/5

The Sea of Trees (Gus Van Sant, 2016) -- 1/5

Westworld Season 1 (2016) -- 4/5

Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992) -- 2/5

*The Lost City of Z (James Gray, 2017): 2.5/5

La La Land (Damien Chazelle, 2016): 3.5/5

Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, 2016): 1.5/5

Rules Don't Apply (Warren Beatty, 2016): 1/5

Win It All (Joe Swanberg, 2017): 2/5

Tickling Giants (Sara Taksler, 2017): 3/5

Promised Land (Gus Van Sant, 2012): 2/5

Yella, rw (Christian Petzold, 2007): 4/5

Mauvais Sang (Leos Carax, 1986): 4.5/5

Jackie, rw (Pablo Larrain, 2016): 5/5

The Club (Pablo Larrain, 2015): 2.5/5

No, rw (Pablo Larrain, 2012): 4/5

Tony Manero, rw (Pablo Larrain, 2008): 3/5

Post Mortem (Pablo Larrain, 2010): 2.5/5

Julieta (Pedro Almodovar, 2016): 2.5/5 

Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016): 2/5

20^th Century Women (Mike Mills, 2016): 3.5/5

The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016): 3/5

Genius (Michael Grandage, 2016): 1/5

Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016): 2/5

Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016): 1/5 

Barbara, rw (Christian Petzold, 2012): 3/5 

Even the Rain (Iciar Bollain, 2010): 3.5/5

Howard’s End, rw (James Ivory, 1992): 3/5

Rouge, rw (Stanley Kwan, 1987): 2/5

The French Lieutenant's Woman, rw (Karel Reisz, 1981): 4.5/5

A Special Day, rw (Ettore Scola, 1977): 3/5

Five Came Back (Steven Spielberg et al, 2017): 3.5/5

Tower (Keith Maitland, 2016): 3.5/5

Gimme Danger (Jim Jarmusch, 2016): 2.5/5 

Danny Says (Brendan Toller, 2015): 2.5/5