Good Movies, December 2021-January 2022
- Somewhere in the Night, 1946 - ★★★. “I was once a great thief and a magnificent scoundrel.”
Good lines in this one, but just okay line readings.
- Black Widow, 1954 - ★★★. Am I to assume that Van Heflin, of all people, doesn’t own a hat rack
- The Music Lovers, 1971 - ★★★★. Everyone in this film gave it their all, which is a metric ton more than any sane person ever would.
- Better Off Dead…, 1985 - ★★★. You can buy every piece of tat from Christmas Vacation but there’s no Jenny Meyer cookbook?
- The Apartment, 1960 - ★★★★★. Next Christmas we’re all gonna party like this
- The Matrix Resurrections, 2021 - ★★★ (contains spoilers). Lana Watchowski: there, I made this one super clear. Nobody could possibly watch this movie and misread the lessons. Me: therapists and gardeners are the baddies now.
- The Boston Strangler, 1968 - ★★★★. They make movies like this all the time now. Some of them are great, but most seem to just exist for the true-crime obsessive. This movie is doing a bit more work than a typical whodunnit: experimenting with split screen narrative tricks, and horny world building as the cops chew through suspects.
- Stormy Weather, 1943 - ★★★. Starting the year with a light musical.
- Don’t Look Up, 2021 - ★★. What if Armageddon was written by the VEEP crew
- Prisoners, 2013 - ★★★★. Watched on Sunday January 2, 2022.
- Terror in a Texas Town, 1958 - ★★★★. A movie absolutely begging for an Oscar-bait remake starring Brad Pitt as the bad guy who’s always eating stuff.
- People Will Talk, 1951 - ★★★. One thing they got very right is when a bunch of professors hang out they become nine very quickly.
- Falling Down, 1993 - ★★★★ (contains spoilers). “I’m the bad guy? When did that happen?” Like, immediately, friend. Right off the bat.
- Some Came Running, 1958 - ★★★★★. I want to hang out in every room and spend a great deal of time with every character.
- The Stranger by the Shore, 2020 - ★★★★. A 60 minute movie? I thought that was illegal.
- Kaleidoscope, 1966 - ★★★. I bet Brad Pitt loves this movie.
- The Mob, 1951 - ★★★. Mink-dyed hamster coat.