rewatched Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993): 3/5
Meg Ryan's mostly silent performance behind the wheel of a car during the initial radio broadcast might be the finest work of her career—she has to sell us on Annie falling in love with Sam just by hearing him talk about his late wife, and while I wouldn't call her reactions subtle, there's a palpable wealth of raw feeling in them.
Dave Chapelle: The Dreamer (Stan Lathan, 2023): 2/5
For me, this special barely works. It's not that it simply falls short as a comedy special, but rather that it is a considerable departure from what earned Dave Chappelle the title of GOAT during his peak years. In contrast to the hysterical jokes and powerful societal examinations in specials of the past, The Dreamer offers lazy, lackluster humor and tons of self-righteous social commentary in the guise of thought-provoking analyses. It's honestly whatever at this point.
Moscow on the Hudson (Paul Mazursky, 1984): 3.5/5
Surprised by how much time the film initially spends in Moscow—Robin Williams speaks subtitled Russian for basically an entire reel. And his performance during that stretch is admirably restrained, with very little desperate clowning. Fish-out-of-water comedy kicks in once Vladimir defects, of course, and the film vacillates thereafter between warmly observing New York City's melting pot (virtually everyone we see is a recent immigrant and/or a person of color) and shamelessly inventing contrived dramatic crises.
Green Room (2015, Jeremy Saulnier): 3/5
Saulnier's good at escalating intensity and realistic violence, not so great with writing memorable characters or hiring actors who can compensate with force of personality. And while I admire how brutal things get, two survivors taking revenge in the woods (act three) isn't half so nervily effective as is the entire band trapped in the green room with a surly behemoth (act two).
Wonka (Paul King, 2023): 2/5
You know, for kids!
The Curse (Nathan Fielder, 2023): 4.5/5
High brow cringe, secondhand embarrassment, and self-aware satire are personified in this unsettling yet brilliant dark comedy drama that parodies white liberal America, reality television, and insecure relationships while also tackling sensitive subjects like gentrification, cultural appropriation, and exploitation. Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder, and Benny Safdie are a collective force to be reckoned with in this unconventional and boundary-pushing TV series.
The Rehearsal (Nathan Fielder, 2022): 4/5
My love for Nathan Fielder is like a 13 year old girl's love for Taylor Swift.
Ferrari (Michael Mann, 2023): 2/5
The Adam Driverization of every biography of Italian brand names.
Eileen (William Oldroyd, 2023): 3/5
Extra star for Anne Hathaway. Eileen never succeeds in persuading me to give a damn about its title character, whose personality is too flatly stunted to be of much interest. The movie comes to life exclusively via Hathaway's playfully and knowingly anachronistic performance, which does a surprisingly credible job of channeling Rita Hayworth in Gilda by way of Veronica Lake in Sullivan's Travels.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, 2023): 1/5
Limited and repetitive. Consistently struck me as labored and pretentiously art-damaged, leaping around in time without any clear purpose (certain shots trigger others, but the overall rhythm tends toward obfuscation rather than associative meaning) and remaining so narratively oblique that it's hard to be sure of what you've witnessed even at the end. Plus the movie's almost parodically solemn, devoid of human joy or thrilling, purely cinematic energy.
Stuart Little (Robert Minkoff, 1999): 1.5/5
Aggressively inoffensive trifle (which I now learn has virtually nothing to do with E.B. White's book). Bland-o-rama all around, and I kinda hate the "realistic" mouse design, which results in a lot of weirdly off-putting facial expressions that don't mesh with Michael J. Fox's voice. Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan.
Sleeping Dogs Lie (Bobcat Goldthwait, 2006): 2/5
A movie about the repercussions that ensue when a nice young woman confesses to her fiancé that she once, in a collegiate fit of curiosity and boredom, blew her dog. It's an earnest treatise on the potential pitfalls of exposing every crevice of your past and soul to those you love. Goldthwait's direction is amateurish though and the movie looks terrible due to the shitty DV cameras of that era.
The Color Purple (Blitz Bazawule, 2023): 2/5
Never understood how Walker's novel and/or Spielberg's adaptation could work as a musical—why not add Broadway razzle-dazzle numbers to Sansho the Bailiff while you're at it?
Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023): 2.5/5
An ambitious exploration of a troubled icon marked by Ridley Scott’s uneven direction and Joaquin Phoenix’s unbalanced performance. Alternating between Scott at his best in masterful sequences of epic scope and some of his blandest filmmaking yet, it lands with a mixed result.
All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh, 2023): 2.5/5
Petite Maman for sad gay men. Also, he didn’t get to tell his ghost parents about Brexit?
At War with the Army (Hal Walker, 1950): 2/5
More like At SNORE with the Army!!!
Summertime (David Lean, 1955): 3/5
Like a dance-floor remix of Brief Encounter - in color! in Venice! Bracingly cynical with exquisite tension, this is an exhausting, doom-laden adventure through the desert on four flat tires. Loved Fitzcarraldo? Settle in for Michael Caine hauling multiple jeeps up a mountain via a winch.
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