Widows (Steve McQueen, 2018): 2/5

Unsatisfying as either social commentary or heist film. Agree with Michelle that Elizabeth Debicki’s height is the movie’s best special effect.

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross, 2018): 2.5/5

I’m a great champion of documentaries in the poetic mode, but this one didn’t do much for me.

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018): 3.5/5

Everything in the world is about sex except sex, which is about power. The bunnies were the greatest symbols/images from 2018 (that weren’t in Roma), but I still prefer the provocative and bananas The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

Vox Lux (Brady Corbet, 2018): 2/5

It didn’t earn the evocation of mass shootings for emotional effect—or even address it, really. I was disappointed in Natalie Portman’s multi-accented performance. And what exactly was I supposed to be feeling during the final concert? Was it a triumph or an empty spectacle? Do you think the director knows?

Green Book (Peter Farrelly, 2018): 2.5/5

I get its mild but broad, sit-commy appeal. What I don’t get are the people who exited the theater exhilarated and thrilled. I read about these people!!

Juliet, Naked (jesse Peretz, 2018): 3/5

Entertaining and forgettable. A good performance from Ethan Hawke and a terrible one from (the usually reliable) Chris O’Dowd.

Vertigo, rw (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958): 5/5

He just can’t help himself. He just has to lose her all over again. Watched with Veronica.

The Line Up  (Don Siegel, 1958): 3/5

Another movie from 1958 featuring great footage of late-50s San Francisco. This one’s an OK police procedural with a fun performance by Eli Wallach as a psychopathic hit man. #ColumbiaNoir

Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner, 1958): 4/5

The first (?) of the stoic, sociopathic killers/criminals with a code/method—preceding Pickpocket, Le Samourai, Taxi Driver. One of Scorsese’s favs. #ColumbiaNoir

Inglorious Basterds, rw (Quentin Tarantino, 2009): 3/5

More of a collection of scenes than a movie. Thanks to my low expectations, it was more entertaining than I remembered. Watched with Rosa.

The Holy Mountain, rw (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2973): 5/5

“Your sacrifice completes my sanctuary of one thousand testicles.”

Missing Link (Chris Butler, 2019): 2.5/5

What exec thought a kids movie needed Zach Galifianakis’ brand of melancholy self-hatred?

High Life (Clair Denis, 2019): 2.5/5

All the big symbols are left unmentioned: like the ship (in a movie obsessed with pregnancy) serving as a seed travelling toward the great round void/womb of a black hole. What’s left is quite a lot of bizarre, unmotivated behavior.

The Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983): 2.5/5

Watched this with Jack on May 4 (Star Wars day). He was excited at the prospect of a movie with Han Solo, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker but was only sporadically entertained, even by the (fucking) Ewoks. Also really weird that it contains a bunch of shots not in the original but still (now) outdated and bad-looking.

Cold Water (Olivier Assayas, 1994): 3/5

A victim of the overhype of the unobtainable. Unavailable for many years because of the (pretty great) use of music in a (pretty great) party scene. At one point, they start a song over and listen to it again. When have you ever seen that?

High Maintenance, Season 3 (Ben Sinclair & Katja Blichfield, 2019): 3.5/5

Continues to feature my favorite tone of any show on TV: warm, funny, open to the unexpected, and interested in people of all description. This season was less consistent than the two previous, but the (ahem) highs were just as high.

The Last of Sheila (Herbert Ross, 1973): 3/5

A sort-of parody of Agatha Christie penned by Stephen Sondheim and Tony Perkins, with all the puzzly self-satisfaction that that suggests. All is not as it seems, you see? Richard Benjamin proves once again why he’s one of the most unlikely stars in movie history.

The Bay (Barry Levinson, 2012): 2.5/5

Not as horrific as Levinson’s Toys.

Dragged Across Concrete (S. Craig Zahler, 2019): 4.5/5

My favorite movie this year so far, and one of the best movies ever in the Tarantino mold. Funny and novelistic. A great performance from Gibson, full of anger and self-loathing.

Thief, rw (Michael Mann, 1981): 4/5

I saw this in the theater when I was 13, and I can’t really see it as anything other than really cool. Cool music, cool visuals and cool performances by Caan, Weld and (the great) Robert Prosky. Influential.

Barry, Season 2 (Alec Berg & Bill Hader, 2019): 3.5/5

Very amusing. Hader, Stephen Root, and Henry Winkler are all aces.

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