Once again, it’s been a while since I’ve written. I lost a bit of steam on everything after completing my “100 Years” project, and a lot of difficult work stuff happened as well that occupied much of my summer and fall. Things have quieted now, though, and I’m itching for a new project. I have an idea to start soon, but for now I want to catch up on what I’ve seen this year. Just some quick capsule summaries:
The Power of the Dog – Hated it, pretty passionately. Everyone felt miscast–even New Zealand felt miscast. The whole thing fit like a bad pair of pants, and I thought it was truly dreadful. 4/10
The Baby-Sitters Club Season 2 – Killed too soon by Netflix; this series was a real blessing. 10/10
Spencer – I remember being quite impressed by Stewart, and I liked this more than I liked Larrain’s previous work in Jackie. Still the same dreamy vibe, but it connected a bit more to the story here for me. 8/10
20th Century Women – Second viewing, and this movie is an all-timer for me. Beautifully shot, wonderfully acted. Captures an aching sort of nostalgia that tends to ping me quite a lot when a move can tap into it. 9/10
Turning Red – Wanted to like it, didn’t. 5/10
L.A. Story – Some good gags, and Sarah Jessica Parker is pretty great. Wish there were a little more to it. 6/10
The Maltese Falcon – Tip of the top. 10/10
The Dropout – Seyfried is really killer in this–it’s really just a showcase for that batshit performance. For the rest, though, it’s probably best to just read Carreyrou’s book. 6/10
The Third Man – Again, one of the greats for me. That first shot of Lime sends shivers every time. 9/10
Game Night – Hear me out, this movie is fucking great. A true, honest adult comedy that just nails it moment after moment. 8/10
Enemy – Ehhhh, not sure what I watched here. 5/10
The Proposition – I feel like every Australian movie I’ve seen is just misery. This one’s pretty decent, though, despite the unremitting violence and gore. 7/10
Severance Season 1 – Absolute batshit. I don’t remember the last time I was this fascinated and totally hooked by a premise. It started to lose me a bit when it got deep into the mythology, but I can’t wait for Season 2. 8/10
Jane the Virgin – Watched half of Season 1. Wasn’t for me, but I can see the appeal. 5/10
Mr. Robot – Watched about a season and a half. Wasn’t for me, and I can’t see the appeal. 3/10
Succession – Probably a top 10 show all-time for me at this point. Every episode is a feast. 10/10
Silicon Valley – Watched the first 4 seasons before eventually giving up. Too much bro, from too many unlikeable men. And the strangest thing was it wasn’t even funny. Like, stone-face, I’m not even cracking a smile at most of it. (Except for this joke, which woke the wife up.) 4/10
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse – I’m a notorious comic book hater, but I thought this was pretty great. Love the animation technique, and the soundtrack was amaaazing. 8/10
Under the Skin – Not at all what I was expecting. Didn’t really connect with me, but I respect the effort. 5/10
Pieces of a Woman – First 15 minutes, that insane birth scene: incredible. Everything after that failed on every level, but the first 15 minutes was pretty memorable. 4/10
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster – I remember watching this when it came out and hating it. Now we’re all a lot older and wiser, and also I’m a therapist. This was pretty interesting, but could have used some edits. (Looking at you, Lars.) 7/10
Val – Interesting to see the juxtaposition here between current Val and old Val. Current Val seems to have a lightness, a twinkle, a sense of humor, but old Val seems to have had issues with everybody he’s ever worked with. Hard to parse that distinction, and the movie doesn’t have the self-awareness or the perspective needed to address it. 6/10
Hale County, This Morning This Evening – A little impressionistic for my taste, but decent. 6/10
The Game – I miss those old Michael Douglas thrillers–he really had a streak going for a while. I think this one holds up pretty well, although I’m not sure the ending works if you think about it hard enough. 7/10
Looper – This one’s pretty great. Some smart, interesting time travel. 8/10
Top Gun: Maverick – Literally spent a whole therapy session talking about this. As a film, I didn’t buy it–it just doesn’t have the magic of the original, and it all felt very modern in the most garish and retrograde sort of ways. (Death Star? Really?) As fan service, it had its moments (hello Miles Teller’s mustache). But as a meditation on aging, film history, and the decline of the American empire…it did cause some feelings. 6/10
Jackass Forever – Speaking of aging and the decline of…everything. But this gave me the fuzzies. Love those bastards. 8/10
The Tragedy of Macbeth – I’m not enough of a Shakespearean scholar to have an opinion on the adaptation, but the witch was amazing and the cinematography was to die for. 9/10
What We Do In the Shadows – Just really, really funny. Dumb, but hilarious, and the most reliable laugh out loud moments I can think I’ve seen in a long time. Shoutout to every line reading Matt Berry ever does. 9/10
Better Things – Oofda, top 5 show all time? Absolute brilliance throughout. I want to live in that world and I wish it could have gone on 10 more seasons. 10/10
Shiva Baby – A little one-note, but still quite good. Not sure what to make of Sennott. 6/10
Belfast – Pretty good, wish it were better. 6/10
Sound of Metal – Maybe the only movie this year that I’m still thinking about on a near-daily basis. Shocking, beautiful, transcendent. Shoutout to Paul Raci, and this beautiful scene. 9/10
Malcolm X – It’s crazy how little I learned about Malcolm in school. Wish this had been a little shorter as a film, but Denzel’s a powerhouse and Spike knows what he’s doing. 7/10
Everything Everywhere All At Once – Good Lord, what a movie. Needs a rewatch, because there’s only so much that I could absorb–it’s an onslaught. So much of it was really firing on all cylinders, but I felt it started to lose steam at the end–a little bit of a Return of the King problem with five different endings. I think it suffered from wanting to be just one too many things. 8/10
The Master – This feels of a piece with The Phantom Thread for me, and a departure from the warmth of his earlier movies. Total control though, and a fascinating movie. Love it. 9/10
Ad Astra – This did not really work for me. Some really odd tonal shifts, like it didn’t know what movie it was trying to be. 6/10
Forgetting Sarah Marshall – No, terrible. Recommendation from a friend. 3/10
Dark Victory – Little after school special for me. 5/10
Quiet Place Part 2 – First one was interesting. This was less so. 6/10
You Were Never Really Here – Could have used a little more meat on the bones, but had some really memorable moments. 7/10
The Many Saints of Newark – A travesty. Fuck this movie. 2/10
Dick Johnson is Dead – A top 100 movie for me at this point, and maybe a top 5 documentary? Stunning, beautiful, heart-rending. The most humanistic portrayal of loss and acceptance I can think of. 10/10
Listen to Me Marlon – This makes me like “Val” a lot less in retrospect. 8/10
Richard Jewell – Such an interesting story, and the lead performance by Hauser was great. But Clint Eastwood is an asshole and this is some pretty reprehensible and irresponsible filmmaking. 3/10
Alien – Second viewing, and I just can’t quite find myself meshing with this one. 4/10
10 – Watched this on the recommendation of Karina Longworth’s new podcast season. I honestly loved it–funny, smart, etc. Could have done without Bo Derek’s dreadlocks, but otherwise it felt really sweet to me. 7/10
Quo Vadis, Aida? – Brutal. 8/10
Better Call Saul Season 5 – I never quite connected to this show, despite being a massive Breaking Bad fan. The disparate plot threads never really felt like they hung together. 6/10
Happy Death Day – Inoffensive, not great. 5/10
Disobedience – Deeply depressing is how I like my romance movies. 8/10
Swiss Army Man – Similar to EEAAO, this didn’t stick the landing. A lot of the movie felt quite magical, but the revelation at the end as to the identity of the woman made the whole thing feel quite icky. 7/10
9 1/2 Weeks – Speaking of ick. 4/10
Cabaret – Second viewing after really revolting against this in college. On second watch, it instantly shot to my top 100. Love the music, love Sally, and I loved watching history poking at the edges of every frame. 9/10
The Guilty – Some good twists and turns, not adding up to much. 7/10
The Terminator – Showed these to Holly. I had forgotten how dark and grim this first one is, because I spent most of my childhood watching the more kid-friendly T2. 8/10
Terminator 2 – Almost too kid-friendly. Could have done without all the cutesy Arnold lines. And Furlong is quite bad. But the special effects totally hold up and it’s still probably slightly better for me than the original. 8/10
Being John Malkovich – A memory I’ll always love. Holly took a gummy, which she does not do often, then looked through our watchlist. She turns to me and says “What’s this Being John Malkovich about?” I laughed and said this is the perfect movie to watch–I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive me. 9/10
Yellowjackets – We stopped after 5 episodes. Appreciated Ricci’s performance, but everything started to feel more soapy than dramatic. 3/10
Bob’s Burgers – I’m up to season 5, and I love this show. Reliable laughs, warm characters–it’s great. 9/10
Ronin – Fairly incomprehensible? Needed a script cleanup. 5/10
Backdraft – Pretty bad, but the special effects were something to behold. 4/10
The Orphanage – On second viewing, I found this to be a lot less scary and a lot more heartbreaking. Really solid work. 9/10
Harlan County USA – Spellbinding. One of the best documentaries I’ve seen. 9/10
The Lost Daughter – I didn’t stop thinking about this for weeks. 9/10
10 Things I Hate About You – Way better than it had any right to be. 7/10
The Crown Season 5 – This season really sort of sucked. I’ve loved the series, but there were a lot of weird gymnastics happening to make us side with Charles and the whole thing felt that it lost the magic that earlier seasons had. 4/10 for this season.
Abbott Elementary – Seems we’re alone on this, but both of us tapped out midway through the season. Just not doing it for me. Too few characters, everybody is one-dimensional, and leans too heavily on standard “The Office” tropes. Worst of all: it’s just not that funny. 5/10
The Card Counter – I think I find Schrader rather boring. And I can’t stand Tiffany Haddish. 4/10
[Rec] – This movie was bananas, but I sort of liked it. 5/10
The Fountain – Second viewing. I remembered this feeling quite profound, but upon rewatch it felt a little silly. 6/10
Yes God Yes – Ho-hum. 6/10
Point Break – SO silly that it sort of worked? Can’t believe I never came across this as a kid, I would have eaten it up. 6/10
Flee – Didn’t like this as much as Persepolis, which covered similar ground. 7/10
Edge of Tomorrow – Not sure when Groundhog Day became its own genre, but this was reasonably fun. 6/10
For All Mankind – Fantastic doc, but is eclipsed for me by the newer Apollo 11. 7/10
One Night in Miami – This movie pushes several of my well-worn buttons: filmed version of a play, dramatization of real-life events (that didn’t even happen), etc. The performances were fine, but it just isn’t going to do much for me. 5/10
Bombshell – Again, I’d rather just read a book about this. 5/10
Shutter Island – I think this is my third watch–I want to like this way more than I do. Convoluted, transparent, overly long, etc. Stop trying. 4/10
Blue Valentine – I remembered disliking this movie in college, but I loved it here. Really depressing look at subtly abusive dynamics. 8/10
Magnolia – There are some performances that work less well here (Moore, Walters) and every once in a while I wish the script had been cleaned up. But overall it’s a masterpiece, and I was glad to share it with Holly. 9/10
Station Eleven – This made me mad. There were moments of real beauty, but it was weighed down by an impenetrable script and characters who felt more like ideas than people. The exception to this was young Kirsten, played by Matilda Lawler, who was an absolute revelation and the best performance I’ve seen from someone that age. 3/10
10 Cloverfield Lane – Dumb, semi-fun. Ending blew it. 5/10
Suspicion – I forgot I had seen this and spent half the movie trying to remember what movie it reminded me of. This stars Cary Grant as a PUA which rubs me the wrong way and also just doesn’t quite work with him. And again, the ending blew it. 6/10
His House – Pretty interesting as a movie about the immigrant experience, less effective as a horror movie. 7/10
Winkie's Diner 