* Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021): 4.5/5

Every frame and every scene is a great pleasure. Kind of like a book of intertwined short stories. Cooper Hoffman is superb. 

The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021): 4/5

A (more) homoerotic version of There Will be Blood, with admirable amount of masterbation. The first time I watched it, I completely missed a key plot point near the end, and I didn’t like it much. Then I rewatched, noticed a lot of visual evidence that I didn’t realize was evidence the first time and ended up liking it much better

 

The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021): 3/5

The first third is insightful, trippy and new, but the last two thirds is all dumb fisticuffs. So basically it mirrors the trilogy that precedes it. 

The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021): 1.5/5

Square, dull and pedantic. Will the rapist triumph????? The people who say this is like Rashomon (including Ridley Scott on WTF) do not understand Rashomon, which is about (among other things) uncertainty with regard to the nature of reality itself — not about all the characters making themselves the hero. And it’s definitely not about how we all have our version of the story but we should believe the woman/victim. So dumb. 

 

C’mon C’mon (Mike Mills, 2021): 3.5/5

Mike Mills is obviously a really open guy, emotionally — and that leads to some stunningly feeling places. I related to much of it quite intensely, but I can only imagine how precious a non-parent would find it. 

 

The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021): 3.5/5

Richly expresses some normal and taboo feelings about ones own children — stuff I’ve heard expressed with candor many, many times. Universal stuff and the polar opposite feeling as that expressed by C’mon C’mon. I love how Gyllenhaal just watches these great actors do their thing, but the result doesn’t explode with meaning. 

Azor (Andreas Fontana, 2021): 2/5

As if you’re watching Martin Sheen and Harrison Ford’s characters from Apocalypse Now hang out for an hour and 20 minutes, then Sheen pops upriver one afternoon to discover that Kurtz Is just yet another errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill. Maybe more depressing but certainly less dramatic. 

 

* Spider-Man: No Way Home (Jon Watts, 2021): 3/5

Lots of action, little jibber jabber. Good job. 

 

* Sing 2 (Garth Jennings, 2021): 3/5

I remember people used to say that as the Boomers died off, Sgt Pepper would stop being named as the number one album in Rolling Stone, etc, and would be replaced with a U2 album, probably Joshua Tree. Thank god that never happened. But now when the old lion in this movie comes emotionally out of retirement to play a song that is universally adored, it’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. And it kinda works.

Belfast (Kenneth Branagh, 2021): 2/5

A memory piece with no plot or even incident, really, unless you count “Then we went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The end.” I was not emotionally engaged. 

 

The Reason I Jump (Jerry Rothwell, 2021): 3/5

Doc which consists of about 45 minutes of hanging out with non-verbal autistic kids, with voice over from a manuscript written by a non-verbal autistic kid. Beyond Interesting and a great opportunity for self-reflection on one’s life own filters and assumptions.  But that 45 minutes is padded out with long pillow shots and cliched emotional vistas with music. Argument for shorter docs and movies in general.

  

Spencer (Pablo Larraín, 2021): 3/5

It’s in the Sofia Copolla school of ‘poor little rich girls in the cage of their privilege.’ But it’s a little hard to emphasize with her predicament. Don’t we all hate attending family Christmases? Personally, I endeavor to not behave like a neurotic mess during them, and I reserve a special respect for those who succeed. The movie is unlike Jackie in that Jackie O is desperately holding the reins of history, instead of failing to not disappear up her own butt. Still, some beautiful stuff therein.

 

Jakob’s Wife (Travis Stevens, 2021): 3/5

A reverend’s wife gets turned into a vampire and starts asserting herself. I could see the indie version being good (Phantom Thread?), but this one was low-budget fun and full of spraying blood. 

 

tick, tick … Boom!  (Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2021): 1/5

Yes, that’s really what’s it’s officially called. I struggled over several days to finish this movie, which I pretty much hated all aspects of. Tuneless songs and merciless mugging. I understand that the kids these days like it, with their Tiks and their Toks, which…they can have it.

 

Polytechnique (Denis Villeneuve, 2009): 3/5

Restrained, aestheticized, riveting and pointless. It does manage to be ABOUT hatred and violence against women as opposed to just BEING hatred and violence against women. 

 

Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013): 3/5

Situations change and flip and the characters change with them, which I like. As with Incendies (and Polytechnique for that matter), it’s actually the “worst case scenario death child abuse murder” vibe that repels me. Perhaps Villeneuve equates this with seriousness. Gyllenhaal is good, and Hugh Jackson is acting his balls off but is just ok. 

 

Asako I & II (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2018): 3.5/5

Its simplicity, sincerity, placidty and clarity makes the main character’s enigmic knot of sadness easy to accept and access.

 

Good Time, rw (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2017): 3.5/5

Emotional, spontaneous, nervy, raw and lawless. 

 

Sopranos, six seasons. (David Chase et.al, 1999-2007): 5/5

I didn’t love every moment or every episode or every season (looking at you Season 2). But overall, an epic achievement. The characters don’t change much and it has a sitcom-ish tendency to reset at the end of an episode or season. Still it’s packed with colorful characters that become deeper with each passing episode. Full of rich, dark and profoundly true quotes and observations about fathers and substitute-fathers and sons, and husbands and wives, growing up, the value of friends, dreams and loyalty. Plus, Burt Young riddled with cancer and covered in blood, inhaling a cigarette and listening to Sister Golden Hair. For me, Season 5 was a knockout.