Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015): 2/5

As cool and globe-trotting as Miami Vice, but not as beautiful and even more boring and incoherent, if possible. Made $19.7M on a $70M budget. Is that it for Mann?

Four Weddings and a Funeral, rw (Michael Newell, 1994): 4/5

Expert entertainment. Hugh Grant’s stumbly, blinky schtik has, in the intervening 25 years, transformed (for me) from annoying to sort-of charming, possibly because it’s now so obvious how young he is here. Andie MacDowell is pretty.

Avengers: Endgame (Anthony & Joe Russo, 2019): 3/5

Most of the talking is good, and most of the fighting is terrible. Possibly I’m not in the movie’s demographic.

Serenity (Steven Knight, 2019): 1.5/5

Before the twist is revealed: who cares? After the twist is revealed: Snort. Who cares? Diane Lane is pretty.

Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot, 2019): 3.5/5

Would be Spike Lee’s second or third best movie, probably, although possibly it’s not strident enough to merit the comparison. Interesting investigation of who owns something.

Euphoria, Season One (Sam Levinson, 2019): 3.5/5

Not really boundary pushing—there were pearl-clutching (although probably producer-generated) complaints about the drug use but the main character soon goes 12-step. How bourgeois! So just a soap opera, but well shot and acted.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, rw (Sergio Leone, 1966): 3.5/5

Hadn’t watched it in a decade or more, and I was surprised how little I thought of it. Three characters with changing relationships/loyalties, etc., done better in Le Deuxième Souffle, Army of Shadows, and Le Cercle Rouge.

Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019): 3/5

Tom Burke is terrific, but Honor Swinton Byrne barely holds the screen (possibly purposefully, but it’s still to the film’s detriment.) Man, are we following the wrong character, here.

Silent Light, rw (Carlos Reygadas, 2019): 5/5

Each scene has a shocking sensuousness. Still feels unlike any other movie I’ve seen.

The Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmusch, 2019): 3/5

Not much there there, but I was amused, especially in the first half.

20th Century Women, rw (Mike Mills, 2016):4/5

Superb ensemble acting from Gerwig and Crudup—and a career high for Bening. I related.

Diamonds of the Night (Jan Nemec, 1964): 5/5

One of the greatest opening shots in film, and I loved the ambiguous and dreamy mix of present, past, future and fantasy. 67 perfect minutes.

Un Chant d’Amour (Jean Genet, 1950): 4/5

Sexy. So the confinement within societal and sexual norms is the source of both violence and desire?

Les Visiteurs du Soir (Marcel Carné, 1942): 2/5

Stately and inert, but at least now I know where David Lynch got the eerie idea that the devil can be in two places at once. Between 1938 and 1945 Carné makes Port of Shadows, Hotel du Nord, Le Jour Se Leve, Les Visiteurs du Soir, and Children of Paradise. This is my least favorite.

Castle in the Sky, rw (Hayao Miyazaki, 1986): 3.5/5

Straightforward and super-imaginative adventure movie with a couple of killer sequences.

I Know Where I’m Going (Powell and Pressburger, 1945):2.5/5

Not much rom and not much com, and it leans heavily on the “Wee bairn! The pipers on the heath, laddie! She was a bit pit oot!” stuff. Between 1943 and 1948, P&P make The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Volunteer (which seems to be 45 bald minutes of war propaganda), A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I’m Going, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes. This is my least favorite.

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