What movies did you see last week? (9/5-9/11)

Easy Street (1917) - Another fine Chaplin short, but the same feelings arise here for the prior shorts of his I've seen, although I'd probably rank this above the others.  He's charming and fun but he doesn't make me laugh quite like Buster Keaton.  7/10

My Night At Maud's (1969) - It's fairly interesting and I sort've loved that ending and its themes, but there were some long stretches where I found myself tuning out. That's probably on me. 7/10

Outer Space (1999) - A wickedly powerful short film and a testament to what editing and sound design can accomplish.  I haven't seen The Entity but I may have to now just to see how different it is from Outer Space.  It sucks you in and holds you tight into this unrelenting nightmare. 8/10

Jurassic World Dominion (2022) - The worst of a terrible trilogy.  I don't think this spoil anything, but there's a scene where Chris Pratt and co. are in a frozen tundra type of environment and they're all out and about without jackets, not freezing their asses off, but to add insult to injury, Pratt falls INTO the ice after it breaks, comes out wet, and then immediately hops onto something and is completely dry except for a tuft of hair in the front.  I know this feels like I'm harping on something small here, but the film is filled with garbage like this.  There's a review on Letterboxd for this film that puts it best: "I've let Colin Trevorrow shit in my mouth four times now and I'm starting to think it's my fault."  3/10

The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) - This is maybe the best the Pink Panther series has been since A Shot in the Dark (to be fair, there's only one film in between, the woeful Inspector Clouseau). Christopher Plummer has maybe the most interesting character here and Sellers & Lom are a hoot, as usual.  I've still got five films in the series to watch, but I'm already confident that they'll all be diminishing returns. 7/10

Sword of the Beast (1965) - Fantastic film. The fight scenes here are stellar.  8/10

The Cousins (1959) - Pretty great and a wonderful inverse of the actors from Chabrol's previous Le Beau Serge.  Major props to Jean-Claude Brialy, who is such a punchable dick in this movie.  7/10

Please Stand By - 6 / 10

Father of the Bride (1991) - 7 / 10

Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin - 7.5 / 10

Twin Falls Idaho - 7 / 10

Morbius - 2 / 10

Marcel the Shell With The Shoes On - 8 / 10

Mermaids (1990) - 7.5 / 10

Funny People - 5 / 10

REWATCHES //

In the White City (1983) RIP Alain Tanner

Where the Boys Are (1960) Underrated! Both fulfills and upends the mid-stride ‘teen beach movie’ craze and does so with sweet, sarcastic charm and facade-riddled sadness. Dolores Hart is about a thousand times better than she needs to be—a few years later she quit acting to become a nun and remains the only Academy voter in a habit. 7.5

Cookie’s Fortune (1999) Much improved rewatch; you know I love the Altman style, the addled ensemble (Glenn Close is hilariously deranged) and all the inside-feel small-townisms. Whoever said it’s like a Christopher Guest updated Faulknerian soap, they weren’t very wrong. Served with Charles S Dutton’s catfish enchiladas — he could be such a likable actor on screen (further reading: The Piano Lesson, Honeydripper). 7.5

The Fly (1986) About the repercussions of an unfulfilled promise of a cappuccino. Love the chemistry, not the slime. 7 or more.

Double Team (1997) Commando riff with a disastrously dull second act. Otherwise, ludicrous quasi-fun, especially a carnival set piece that must’ve been the scene Tsui Hark brought Sammo Hung in for? Come for that scene, stay for Mickey Rourke’s tiger antics, Dennis Rodman’s horrible basketball puns, and the wildest product placement you’ll ever see for Coca Cola. 4.8 on IMDb, I’d go a point higher.

The Karate Kid (1984) Johnny Lawrence was the real hero hit send.

FIRSTS //

Seven Sweethearts (1942) Another seven dwarfs infusion to the romcom like Ball of Fire, with a similar (very dated) conflict of You Were Never Lovelier. Mostly a charm. RIP to Marsha Hunt (104--passed a few days ago). She had this, Kid Glove Killer, & The Affairs of Martha all out in ’42….. What a wonderful and underappreciated talent. Here, she’s totally sending up Tallulah/Bette Davis and having a ball. 6.5

The Confessions of Felix Krull (1957) Just picture Wes Anderson doing his take on Tom Ripley. Now forget that picture. Clever but toothless and uneven and long. Horst Buchholz became a major German star with this and Monpti (w/ Romy) the same year. He has some funny scenes but more irritating ones. 6.

Deadhead Miles (1972) Director did the underrated feminist-exploitation pic Unholy Rollers the same year. Scripted by Malick (he remixed the idea in the better-formed The Gravy Train a few years later). Apparently, Alan Arkin took creative control and improvised a vaguer looseness out of this wide-rights trucker comedy.... and then Paramount never really released it. For a spell, it reminded me of Scarecrow or California Split but mostly: Dumb & Dumber. 6

Fathers & Sons (1992) Strange morph of father-son Hallmark movie (Jeff Goldblum; Rory Cochrane) and weirder genre stuff - psychics, psychedelics, boardwalk serial killers. It all becomes overly meller and cheapie by the end, but something hurt and captivating about it all. I was reminded that Goldblum's a pianist and his hands always need something to do - anyone have a favorite hand perf from him? 4.9 on IMDb.

Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case (1980) Dry, this-then-this courtroom drama but well-acted and with an ending title card that leaves you in the chill of it.

White Sands (1992) "Bob? I can be a Bob." First act is great - NCFOM starring Dafoe? I desperately wanted more scenes of him and M Emmett Walsh trading barbs and finding digested notes within people. Becomes far too convoluted, overlong, shrug-inducing. 5.5 or so.

The Mack (1973) No dice, Tarantino - he called this the best of its subgenre but the Scarface rise is not only played to a predictable tee, but doused in lots of smugness. There are dozens of better blaxploitation movies. 5