Incredibles 2 (2018)

I always liked The Incredibles, even before I developed a major interest in the superhero subgenre. At the same time, I've never been sure how to rank it among Pixar flicks. It was more mature than previous entries, clearly earning its PG for better and worse. Before long, I understood that it owed a lot to both the Fantastic Four and Watchmen, also for better and worse. I had trouble buying and being patient with some of the character actions. But nothing else from Pixar had me more interested in a sequel (at least until Inside Out), even if we had to wait even longer than we did for Finding Dory.

Viewers who wanted to see the Parrs/Incredibles years down the line may be disappointed that the action in I2 picks up where TI left off and the ending might be less than a week later. Matters had been even less resolved than I remembered: While the family has reached an agreement to keep using their innate powers for good, they still lack the legal right. And good overall PR. And a house. Early herein, things start looking up for them when hero-worshiping billionaire Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) offers them a spare house and a sponsored mission, involving hi-tech equipment from his sister, Evelyn (Catherine Keener), that might just change public opinion on supers. Unfortunately for Bob/Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), his tendency toward collateral damage has cost him a favored spot in the mission, so for now, only Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) gets to do fieldwork; he'll have to make do as a househusband. But she might be in over her head when the Screenslaver, who specializes in hacking and mesmerism, singles her out for challenges in protecting the city.

Monster in a Box (1992)

When I put this on my queue, I must have looked closer at the reception than at the description. After realizing that I didn't have to look up "monologist," I worried that it would be no more engaging than My Dinner with Andre. But at least it promised a subject of interest to me, and it runs only 89 minutes. Besides, I've watched monologists other than stand-up comedians on stage that long; how hard could a screen version be?

The only person we see is middle-aged Spalding Gray. The title refers to his work in progress, the first draft of the novel Impossible Vacation, having more than 1,900 pages at the time. (Lest you envision a Wonder Boys fate, it would later be published with 240.) He has only so much to say about the story itself, talking more about what's been happening in his life during the writing. Or in between bouts of writing. Some accounts get pretty tangential, but they never feel irrelevant.

Ronin (1998)

No, it's not set in Japan. The title features in dialog for exactly one scene, when a minor character summarizes the legend of the 47 ronin, simplified for those who don't know about seppuku. The point is an implicit parallel: Where the ronin were samurai who lost their honor upon losing their lords, the main characters herein are post-Cold War laid-off secret agents, similarly inclined to become mercenaries if not thugs.

A multinational team of such mercs—Sam (Robert De Niro), Vincent (Jean Reno), Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård), Seamus (Jonathan Pryce), Larry (Skipp Sudduth), and Spence (Sean Bean)—assembles in Paris. Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), from an Irish mob, assigns them to grab a heavily guarded suitcase before a Russian mob acquires it. Unfortunately for them, they don't know each other or their employer well, and when dealing with ex-spies...

Woman in the Moon (1929)

One of the most esteemed Fritz Lang movies is Metropolis, a rare silent sci-fi classic. Unfortunately, he didn't stick with the genre much (the Dr. Mabuse series is better described as fantasy in my book), but his wife, Thea von Harbou, had another sf story in her. It would not be a longer version of Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, because Lang prefers dark to fanciful.

IMDb says it runs 95 minutes, but that's only for the U.S. theater cut; the one I received runs 209 minutes. I suspect that the cut parts were mostly in the first half, before the journey to the moon even begins. That part is dominated by a question of who exactly will go. Old, largely discredited Professor Mannfeldt will, because it was his idea to search for gold in lunar mountains. Entrepreneur Helius, arguably the protagonist, is the first volunteer. His assistant and crush, Friede, won't brook his objections to her coming along, and her new fiance, fellow assistant Windegger, would hate to have them leave without him. Then there's Turner, a suave gangster (there's the Lang I know) who coerces his way into the mission so his gang can claim the gold. Only after launch do they learn of the sixth passenger, preteen stowaway Gustav, whose ideas of the moon and space come from magazines.

Falling Down (1993)

The premise of this movie daunted me by sounding gritty. That said, director Joel Schumacher isn't known for grit. If anything, people wish he were more serious. In spite of his low popularity, I generally like what I've seen of his work, not least for his ability to fill the screen. If this was off the beaten path for him, so much the better for broadening my perception.

Bill (Michael Douglas) starts in a familiar scenario: an L.A. traffic jam. His first act to make him stand out is to leave his car, telling the objector behind him that he's walking "home." Lest you think this a retelling of After Hours, know that it's actually his former home, where ex Beth (Barbara Hershey) doesn't welcome him at all, but he'd hate to miss their young daughter Adele's birthday. As the plot progresses, we see more and more signs of why Beth got a restraining order: Bill becomes a formidable enemy to pretty much everyone he meets along the way.

The Fountain (2006)

Hoo boy, Darren Aronofsky. When he's not directing straightforward downers like Requiem for a Dream, he's spinning dark mind screws like Pi and Black Swan. My favorite work of his is The Wrestler, more for Mickey Rourke's performance than anything else. Throw in TF's box office failure and a considerable discrepancy between its ratings on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, and I had a real gamble on my hands. But Aronofsky didn't regret taking chances, so it didn't seem wrong for me to do the same. Besides, I tend to like love stories better with sci-fi/fantasy elements.

Netflix describes the story as taking place over a millennium, but there are only three times with which we need concern ourselves, all distinct enough not to disorient us much with the many jump cuts. Probably the most screen time is spent in the present, when surgeon Tom (Hugh Jackman) strives to find a cure for cancer before his wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz) dies of it. Izzi has been writing a story set primarily in the 16th century, in which Queen Isabella (Weisz again) assigns conquistador Tomás (Jackman again) to find the Tree of Life guarded by Mayans. The other segments show an enhanced Tom, now "Tommy," in the future, staying by the Tree of Life while flying to a nebula that Izzi had identified as Xibalba.

Rang De Basanti (2006)

This time I didn't wait so long since my last Bollywood viewing. It's also unusual for me to have seen two movies in a row that appear on IMDb's top 250, partly because I've seen most of them. I hadn't exactly planned that, but when something's been on my radar for a while, I start to give it priority.

Sue, a young Englishwoman, goes to India in order to make an indie film about five real historical young men who gave their lives for India's independence movement. Unable to find actors the conventional way, she hangs with her friend Sonia's rather irresponsible college buddies and decides they'd be great for the roles. Unfortunately, they have trouble relating to revolutionaries when they have almost no love for their backwater "free" country and can't see themselves dying for any cause — until a tragedy causes them to feel that they could use a new revolution.

Paris, Texas (1984)

The only other picture I'd seen directed by Wim Wenders was Wings of Desire, which is distinctive but seems weak on plot. I decided that if I were to take another chance on him, it would be his most popular English-language effort.

For about four years, thirty-something Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) has been out of contact with everyone who knows him. Then he's found half dead on the edge of the Mojave Desert, and his L.A.-based brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), picks him up. Walt and wife Anne (Aurore Clément, who sounds like she could have come from another Paris) have been raising Travis's son, Hunter (Hunter Carson), now seven. Travis wants to reestablish a connection to Hunter as well as his own wife, Jane (Natassja Kinski), who had also disappeared around the same time and hasn't returned. Understandably, this desire worries Anne, who doesn't want to lose custody of Hunter, especially to someone who might abruptly abandon him again. It doesn't help that Travis remains tight-lipped about why he left in the first place.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

I didn't review the first Ant-Man, partly because I'd watched with jet lag and partly because I didn't think there was much to say. It has a few entertaining action sequences, but the inane premise of giving a power suit to a recidivist criminal for the sake of a "second chance" makes it possibly my least favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (and I've seen all to date). I wouldn't mind so much if it were more comedic, as the casting of Paul Rudd suggested it would be. Nevertheless, critics have liked the latest entry better, so I wasted little time in going out to see it.

In the wake of his rebellious aid to Captain America, Scott Lang (Rudd) has been under house arrest for nearly two years -- presumably much better than prison, especially when bonding with his young daughter during her joint-custody visits, but he has to get creative to fight boredom. Then he has a suspiciously realistic "dream" involving Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), wife of inventor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Janet had not been heard from since she used Pym nanotech to shrink down into "the Quantum Realm" decades ago. Scott leaves a message for Hank, whose adult daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) then arranges for his surreptitious break from house arrest, against his wishes, so that they can puzzle out a way to bring Janet back, hopefully before the feds come to check on Scott. The solution will, of course, involve Scott donning the Ant-Man suit again, this time joined by Hope in the Wasp suit.

Darkest Hour (2017)

I'm not sure why I didn't watch this sooner. It looked like one of the more promising Academy Best Picture nominees of the year. Maybe on some level, I thought I already had too good an idea of what it offered, so I gave it a lower priority.

This window on the life of Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) covers about a month in 1940, starting with the resignation of Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) and ending with Churchill's best-known speech, incidentally in connection with the retreat from Dunkirk. The main focus is on him contending with officials who would rather appease Hitler than keep fighting him, including Chamberlain and Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) -- who might be able to get Churchill deposed if they can prove that he won't consider peaceful options.