Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019): 2/5

Frantically tries to entertain, but can’t even muster a decent who-done-it.

Foreign Correspondent, rw (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940): 3.5/5

An expert entertainment. Joel McCrea is terrific, of course, and the airplane crash is startlingly direct. George Sanders rules, naturally.

Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi, 2019): 3.5/5

Borrows extensively from many different movies and has trouble resolving it all tone-wise. Still, Taika is aces as Hitler.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma, 2019): 5/5

Sublime. Michelle, when you see this one, I think you’re going to really love it.

The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola, 2013): 2.5/5

Easily my least favorite of Coppola’s movies exploring her pet theme: characters imprisoned by their own privilege.  

Ash is the Purest White (Jia Zhangke, 2020): 3/5

A strong woman and the week men in her life. Says something profound about the modern history of China, probably.

Under the Skin, rw (Jonathan Glazer, 2013): 5/5

Harrowing, brilliant and full of striking and original images. ScarJo’s best and sexiest performance.

Onward (Dan Scanlon, 2020): 2.5/5

A movie about a fairy tale world where magic is running thin—made by Pixar, a company whose magic is running thin.

Bombshell (Jay Roach, 2019): 1.5/5

A charmless, ugly and redundant tale. To show how humiliating it is for Margo Robbie’s character to lift up her skirt and show Roger Ailes her panties, Roach has Robbie lift up her skirt and show the audience her panties. This is progress?

The Hunt (Craig Zobel, 2020): 3.5/5

Surprisingly kicky retelling of the Most Dangerous Game.

Platform (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2020): 2.5/5

A vertical prison with one cell per level. Two people per cell. A platform full of foot moves down through the cells, but it only has enough food for the top floors. Is it an allegory? We’ll never know.

The Long Goodbye, rw (Robert Altman, 1973): 4/5

I was surprised how much of the movie’s screen time is devoted to the alcoholic, cuckolded and kind of boring (despite Sterling Hayden’s unfettered histrionics) writer. However, the highs of this movie (pun intended) are very high.

Judex (George Franju, 1963): 2.5/5

Like Assayas, Franju loves Louis Feuillade.

Busting, rw (Peter Hyams, 1974): 4/5

I saw this one in the theater at age 7, and I still remembered every detail about the scene where the fat woman gets shot in the market (which I believe was shot in the now-hot Grand Central Market downtown). Classic ultra-cynical, funky 70s police fare. Gould and Blake are both at their mumbly finest. The dated ideas about gay people and people of color at least tell us how far we have come.

Doctor Sleep (Mike Flanagan, 2019): 2/5

Forgettable and an hour too long. Supposedly very true to the book, so I hope Steven King is happy.

Better Call Saul, seasons 4 and 5 (Vince Gilligan, 2019, 2020): 4/5

Loving everything involving the great Bob Odenkirk. Naturally, the cartel stuff serves as a handy crucible for Jimmy/Saul, but they spend too much time on that side of it for my taste. The last couple of episodes of season 5 were show highlights for me thus far.

Devs (Alex Garland, 2020): 3.5/5

Does Alex Garland believe we have free will? I’ll be fucked if I know. Still a reliably enjoyable headtrip.

Toby Dammit (Frederico Felllini, 1968): 2/5

An ugly and self-loathing mishmash. Since it was only a 1/3 of a movie (the other parts directed by Malle and Vadim, as if you didn’t know), it was mercifully short. Makes me very reluctant to rewatch any of Fellini’s later fantasias (Satyricon, Roma, Casanova), which I liked once upon a time.

The Whole Town is Talking (John Ford, 1935): 3.5/5

Edward G. Robinson in a dual role, and the always-charming Jean Arthur. Ford displays a mastery of lightly comic tone throughout.

Lured (Douglas Sirk, 1947): 3/5

Plays like one of Hitchcock’s lighter thrillers. Efficient storytelling, rich characters, a good red herring or two. George Sanders rules, naturally.

Shockproof (Douglas Sirk, 1949): 4/5

Wonderfully bonkers and emotionally intense. Part Going Straight life-beyond-prison movie and part Lovers on the Run.

Written on the Wind, rw (Douglas Sirk, 1965): 5/5

Trashy, vivid and compelling.

The Tall T, rw (Budd Boetticher, 1957): 4.5/5

The great outdoors of Boetticher’s movies are very pleasurable to watch, now perhaps more than ever. At an hour and 18 minutes, this one’s a brief gem, adapted from an early Elmore Leonard novel.

One Cut of the Dead (Shin’ichiró Ueda, 2017): 3/5

In the first half hour, a film crew making a zombie movie is attacked by real zombies. Then the movie pulls back to reveal that this is a movie, and we follow behind the scenes to see how they made it. Strangely, this “real” crew is not attacked by zombies. Go figure.

This is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi, 2011): 3/5

Panahi is stuck in his house, and I can relate. I appreciated the despair and doubt, the halting and failed attempts at understanding and creating.

Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019): 4/5

The movie’s significant emotional power comes from the juggled timeline, making all the happy times sadder and the sad times more nuanced and melancholy. Good acting abounds.

Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962): 4/5

Some absolutely killer samurai fighting, contrasted with static storytelling tableau.

La Chienne, Toni, La Bête Humaine (Jean Renoir, 1931, 1935, 1938): 3/5

Filled with criminal acts of all description yet imbued with a gods-eye view of humanity that somehow forgives it all. Humans…what are you going to do?

Normal People (Lenny Abrahamson, 2020): 2.5/5

Promisingly romantic start, but then both characters descend separately into clinical depression. Weird!

Onibaba, rw (Kaneto Shindo, 1964): 4.5/5

Two women living in an existential field of reeds kill samurai and throw them down a profoundly yonic black hole in the ground. A new neighbor stokes new-found (and profound) sexual feeling of the younger one. One of the best masks in cinema.

Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray, 1955, 1956, 1959): 5/5

Startlingly shot and deeply felt. Full of sudden tragedy and hard-won redemption. I especially loved Aparajito, which contrasts so movingly the village and the city, but its power is doubled by the trilogy.

The Big City (Satyajit Ray, 1963): 3.5/5

Entertaining tale of a housewife exhilarated to be getting a job for the first time.

The Only Son (Yasujiro Ozu, 1936): 3/5

A mother gives up everything to send her son to be educated in Tokyo. What is success, anyway?

A Hen in the Wind (Yasujiro Ozu, 1948): 2.5/5

Surprisingly standard “Woman is poor and has to turn to prostitution” storyline. See The Life of Oharu, Street of Shame, Osaka Elegy—and probably some movies not by Mizoguchi, too.

The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (Yasujiro Ozu, 1952): 3.5/5

After watching A Hen in the Wind and The Only Son, it was a pleasure to watch some folks who have some dough, at least. A tale of marital disconnection with a satisfying happy ending.

Tokyo Story, rw (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953): 3.5/5

I appreciated how large-scale this was, with so many characters sketched so specifically. I remain surprised this is the Ozu that people have decided is the masterpiece.

The End of Summer, rw (Yasujiro Ozu, 1961): 3.5/5

The love lives of (at least) three characters, gently contrasted. Ozu’s second-to-last film, and one that is already shadowed by death. All these 3.5s: Ozu the most consistent director? I always adore the tones of his movies, which tend toward the placid and peaceful. There is hardship, but Ozu doesn’t punish either his characters or his audience. Drinking and smiling abound.

The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960): 2/5

One of my least favorite stories: one misery after another is visited upon a woman. Lars von Trier would love it, I’m sure. Beautifully shot.

The Insect Woman (Shohei Inamura, 1963): 2.5/5

Here’s “one misery after another is visited upon a woman” again. At least this one has tons of perversion.

Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993): 2/5

This is one of two movies that I feel asleep during in the theatre (the other was Woody Allen’s Another Woman). I forgive myself, because this movie is truly boring.

Blind Chance (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1987): 2/5

I guess the point is: for god’s sake don’t fly to Paris.

Stray Dog (Akira Kurosawa, 1949): 4/5

Cop loses gun and hunts the guy who has it, who is on a robbery and killing spree. Satisfying as a detective story, and Mifune’s debut performance as a rookie cop driven by guilt is riveting.

Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa, 1965): 3.5/5

Engrossing but overlong story of a rural hospital overseen by a saintly despot. Since it’s 1965, I suppose this is Kurosawa’s entry into the roadshow-prestige-picture-with-intermission trend.

Rashomon, Derzu Uzala, rw (Akira Kurosawa, 1950, 1975): 5/5

Still good.

The Gentleman (Guy Richie, 2020): 2/5

Full of smug monologues and wasted actors of merit.

Taipei Story (Edward Yang, 1985): 2/5

A somnambulist couple is very, very, very slowly ground down by a Taiwan that only seems to offer opportunity.

Run (Vicky Jones, 2020): 2/5

Each episode worse than the last

Robocop, rw (Paul Verhoeven, 1987): 4.5/5

Nasty, brutish and short.

Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (David Amito, 2018): 3.5/5

A faux 70s horror movie about opening up the gates of hell, padded out with some documentary footage about how anyone who watches the movie dies. Not everything works, but it is chock full of eerie scenes.

The Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson, 2020): 4/5

An unseen UFO hovers above a small town, making spooky noises. Some terrific one-ers, including a mind-boggling dash across town and a tension-building scene where a switchboard operator (it’s the 50s) discovers that the sound is coming from all over the town. Really nice grasp of the power of audio.

The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini, 1966): 1.5/5

Are all the actors being instructed to be extremely stiff and robotic? Is the movie’s extremely static nature a bug or a feature?

Nightfall (Jacques Tourneur, 1956): 3/5

At 1:18, the movie is swift and unique. Aldo Ray is a real stiff, but Anne Bancroft, Brian Keith and especially James Gregory are all terrific.

The Deeper You Dig (John Adams, 2020): 3/5

Ari Aster has succeeded in bringing Bergman to contemporary American horror. A ghost story that flows out of real trauma.

Intimate Lighting (Ivan Passer, 1965): 3.5/5

Charming and slight sketch of 24 hours of family of musicians. Pleasant tone.