Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

I knew going in that this would not be a jolly holiday flick. It's about prisoners of war, after all. Still, I could think of no more appropriate season to watch it.

In 1942, British Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence (Tom Conti) remains a leader among the POWs at a camp in Indonesia, serving as a bilingual liaison relatively amiable to the Japanese officers, especially the otherwise harsh Sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano), who says the title. But neither Lawrence nor Hara is as focal as rebellious new POW Major Celliers (David Bowie) or even Captain Yonoi (Ryuchi Sakamoto, doubling as the composer), who, for all his strictness, tends to show Celliers favor, apparently for a reason he'd rather not admit to himself....

Klaus (2019)

Wow, a brand new Christmas movie in the IMDb top 250. Has that ever happened before? And how long can we expect it to stay up there? There seemed no better choice for me to watch on Christmas itself.

The setting appears to be 19th-century Scandinavia, in an alternate timeline where the Santa Claus legend hasn't started yet. Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) is in a postal academy out of sheer nepotism and wants to flunk out and return to a spoiled life without obligation, but his father will not oblige him so easily. Instead, he is assigned to the far-northern, remote island town of Smeerensburg, where he must deliver 6,000 letters in one year or be disowned. The unfriendly citizens are caught up in a clan feud and have no desire to write to anyone. Jesper is about to give up when he accidentally delivers a kiddie drawing to hermit Klaus (J.K. Simmons), who has made many unused toys and decides to press Jesper into delivering one to that kid. Jesper spreads word among the children that letters to Klaus result in nighttime toy deliveries, and the legend begins to take shape.

Sully (2016)

I haven't seen many pieces of entertainment, in any medium, based directly on events that I heard about when they were news. In this case, it's hard for me to believe that the event happened nearly 11 years ago.

I speak of the "Miracle on the Hudson," in which long-time pilot Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) lands a damaged commercial plane on a river instead of heading for either of two nearby airports. Everyone survives, but that's not the end of Sully's troubles. He develops PTSD symptoms, he and wife Lorraine (Laura Linney) are not crazy about all the public attention, and the National Transportation Safety Board, while impressed at his landing skill, thinks he made a dangerously wrong decision and should not be allowed to fly again. Can he convince the Board that its analyses are incorrect?

The Traitor (2019)

Thanks partly to a late start on my part, I didn't connect with the Meetup group that invited me to this showing, even afterward. Still, I overheard many people discussing it as they left, so I got a good sense of prevailing emotions. It's not the kind of movie you can be quiet about once you've seen it.

Based on a true story and spanning decades, it begins when Tommaso Buscetta is already established as Don Masino, "the Boss of Two Worlds." When he's served a fair amount of time for drug trafficking in Brazil and lost far too many relatives to infighting in the Sicilian Mafia (or Cosa Nostra, as they prefer to call it), he decides to spill all kinds of secrets to the legal authorities. This is almost unprecedented at the time, and you can guess how dangerous it is, especially in areas where Cosa Nostra is actually popular.

A Soldier's Story (1984)

Uh-oh, another little-mentioned '80s drama. Fortunately in my eyes, this one came out the same year as Amadeus, which could easily overshadow something good. And most of the on-screen soldier stories I can think of aren't bad.

In World War II, CPT Richard Davenport (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) is sent from Washington, DC, to a Louisiana army base to investigate the anonymous fatal shooting of SGT Vernon Waters (Adolph Caesar) a short way from base. Given Waters' race and the setting, the KKK is the first suspect to jump to most minds, but of course, to have the first suspicion be correct would render the movie pretty lame. The local colonel allows only three days to solve the case, and that's not the last obstacle set in Davenport's path by officers who would prefer that he not be there. Those who appear to have nothing against Black people still fear likely reactions to a Black officer investigating and possibly arresting White soldiers....

Autumn Sonata (1978)

This is only the second Ingmar Bergman film I've seen in color, as well as the first with dubbing rather than subtitles, because that's what the DVD offered. The dub dialog is finely chosen, but the accents are so heavy that I didn't immediately realize it was English. Regardless, I could appreciate the advantage of not having to read the whole time, even if I had to remind myself not to get distracted by the slight disconnect between the words and the lip movements.

Famed pianist Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman, with the similarly named but unrelated director for once) visits her eldest daughter, Eva (Liv Ullmann), for the first time in ages. She is unpleasantly surprised to find her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), living there too. Helena has limited mobility and apparently some sort of brain damage, her speech rarely intelligible to anyone but Eva. Eva's husband, Viktor (Halvar Björk), is also present but mostly keeps to himself, especially when Charlotte and Eva are conversing, since these two have considerable issues with each other.

They Call Me Trinity (1970)

I mentioned in my last review of a spaghetti western that it came close to comedy. Now I've seen one that actually has comedy among its genres listed on IMDb and Wikipedia.

The title character (Terence Hill), who's never called by any name except in the first scene, wanders into a town where his brother, Bambino (Bud Spencer), happens to be impersonating a sheriff while waiting to reunite with a fugitive gang. Bambino resents Trinity's laziness and proclivity to fights, but he'll take what help he can get to settle a conflict involving pacifistic Mormon settlers (who seem more like Amish to me), a land-grabbing major (Farley Granger), and some Mexican bandits out to take undue advantage of hospitality.

The Greatest Showman (2017)

For my other full viewing on a plane lately, I selected another spectacle, this one depending much more on audio, which thankfully was not defective this time. I had heard mixed reviews, but the high praise from some individuals who dis a lot of today's blockbusters got me curious.

The story follows P.T. Barnum, starting in childhood but quickly moving to young adulthood (when he's played by Hugh Jackman). Unsatisfied with a lower-class life, perhaps especially after marrying former rich girl Charity (Michelle Williams) and having two daughters with her, he takes great risks to seek success in the entertainment field. When his wax museum flops, he launches a freak show that becomes apparently the first example of what leaps to mind when we hear "circus" outside depictions of ancient Rome. Its tawdry nature makes it controversial even at the time, so he has to try harder to gain the respect afforded aristocrats.

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

My plane headset had a bad case of feedback, so I missed at least a third of the dialog herein. I almost opted on that basis not to review the movie. But I had chosen it partly because I suspected that it was the kind of spectacle that didn't count on viewers paying close attention to dialog. Besides, for anything important I missed, I could (and did) check a synopsis later. Which confirmed my suspicions.

By the mid-26th century, technology has greatly advanced, not least for cyborgs, but if you're living in Iron City rather than the floating metropolis of Zalem, things look rather gritty. It is in the former location that a nearly dead cyborg who doesn't remember her name (Rosa Salazar) finds her human brain in a mostly new body thanks to scrap-hunting engineer Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz), who calls her Alita in honor of his departed daughter. As Alita seeks an identity—not necessarily her old one—she discovers her knack for fighting as well as a few good contexts for her to do so, from joining the aggressive motorball races to hunting criminal cyborgs. But she still has some key things to learn, including what her incipient boyfriend, Hugo (Keean Johnson), has gotten himself mixed up in....

Take Shelter (2011)

Although IMDb lists horror among the genres of this picture, it's more of a psychological thriller. There is little violence, and nobody dies, tho that doesn't prevent a horror classification. The R rating appears to be entirely for swearing. Still, it at least hints at horrific premises. An immediate sequel, if there were one, might just delve into them.

Ohio construction worker Curtis (Michael Shannon) is under a lot of stress lately. He keeps getting nightmares that produce rare physical symptoms, perhaps as a result of inordinate fear. These dreams are consistent enough in theme -- a storm provoking maniacally hostile behavior in people and animals -- that he starts to take them as prophecy. Moreover, when awake, he keeps sensing signs of an intense if not bizarre imminent storm that nobody else senses. Not daring to ignore these, he seeks to expand an old storm shelter. In doing so, he defies employer rules, financial wisdom, and the convention of being honest and candid with one's wife, in this case Samantha (Jessica Chastain).

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)

As October draws to a close, I've grown a little tired of genuine, often R-rated horrors, so I picked another comedy. I do have another purportedly scary movie on the way, but it's less Halloween-y.

Despite the Mrs. Muir-parodying title, no one is named or nicknamed "Mr. Chicken." Presumably, it refers to protagonist Luther (Don Knotts), whose propensity to getting spooked outdoes Scooby and Shaggy. But between a desire to advance his thus-far dismal career at a small-town Kansas newspaper and a desire to impress Alma (Joan Staley), a boarding house neighbor currently dating snide reporter Ollie (Skip Homeler), he agrees to spend the night at a reputedly haunted mansion around the 20th anniversary of an alleged murder-suicide and report on his experience. Obviously, something happens, but what will others make of Luther's story? In particular, what will the mansion's owner, Nicholas (Philip Ober), who plans to tear it down soon, do about this?

The Lighthouse (2019)

I don't think I'd ever seen a horror movie in a theater before, apart from a Rifftrax edition of Octaman, which made it more of a comedy. I had long assumed that horror, in contrast to comedy, was usually more effective when watched alone. It was high time I tested that theory.

Despite taking some inspiration from the Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy of 1801 in Wales, this story is set somewhere in New England around 1890. A young man who much prefers "Winslow" to "lad" (Robert Pattinson) starts a four-week job assisting old man Wake (Willem Dafoe) in tending a remote isle's lighthouse. Winslow's first sign that he's not going to enjoy it is how ill-kept the place is. His first sign of something strange going on is that Wake insists, against written protocol, that Winslow stay away from the light at the top. Most of the time, the two men have trouble getting along. Their stresses only get worse after bad weather prevents Winslow from leaving on time. At least one of them loses his grip on sanity....

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

The very title told me that I was unlikely to enjoy this movie. Nevertheless, it has strong recommendations from multiple horror-loving sources, and I didn't doubt its influence, predating all other slasher flicks that I know of except Psycho. And hey, if I could tolerate the saw scene in Scarface, I might be fine with this.

Five young adults take a van to rural Texas, because someone's been desecrating graves for macabre art where the grandfather of two of them was buried. The area is so remote that a gas station attendant says there won't be any gas for hours. The gang hangs out at the dead grandfather's old house, and two of them head out for fun. They get more excitement than they bargained for, as do the others when they come looking. You probably don't need a hint, but there is a slaughterhouse nearby....

Hereditary (2018)

Reception of this film varies wildly. Critics tend to laud it as a new classic, most general audiences give it average to moderately high ratings, and CinemaScore makes it out to be a dud. If nothing else, I would see Toni Collette in a horror role for the first time since The Sixth Sense. (She was getting sick of those and doesn't normally like horror, but this script called to her.)

The story begins with the apparently natural death of a reclusive, mysterious old woman who was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, but given what else happens, it probably wasn't that. She had had a complicated relationship with her daughter, Annie (Collette), who doesn't know how to feel about her death. Annie's 16-year-old son, Peter (Alex Wolff), is a little more rebellious than most because of past incidents that defy recovery. Her 13-year-old daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), is far stranger and more disturbing, no doubt thanks to far more exposure to Grandma. As the title implies, Grandma's legacy lives on, in a bad way. But genetics has only a little to do with it. Of greater concern are her occult interests...and the locals who share them....

A Quiet Place (2018)

This was one of those times that I felt like I knew enough just from the trailer, with a couple extra details from a review or two. It's certainly simple in concept. I also postponed my viewing in the off chance that I found it too scary for comfort. But one of the few genuinely promising horrors on my queue could not be ignored all month.

The cast is quite small, because few people or animals are left alive by late 2020. For months, a blind but excellently hearing species has been annihilating and, I assume, devouring them. Our focus is on a single family living in a rural area, making trips to an abandoned town as needed. So great is their dread of attracting monsters that they rarely even whisper, opting for sign language and going barefoot everywhere. And lest you think that the plot amounts to a now-typical couple of days in their lives, the mother (Emily Blunt, actual wife of costar and director John Krasinski) is heavily pregnant....

The Ghost Breakers (1940)

Thought I'd add a genuine comedy to my October reviews. No, this is not much of a predecessor to the Ghostbusters movie series or even the Filmation Ghostbusters TV series. Dialog indicates that this kind of "ghost breaker" merely attempts to debunk rumors of hauntings. In any case, this movie is adapted from a play that had already been made into two silents, so there had to be some appeal to the writing.

Lawrence (Bob Hope) has a radio show in which he reports on crimes. One such report gets him enough unwelcome attention to spark a series of antics, ultimately landing him and his valet, Alex (Willie Best), on a ship to Cuba, along with newly met Mary (Paulette Goddard). Mary's going to check out her inheritance of Castillo Maldito on nearby Black Island, said to be a haunted treasure trove. Lawrence decides to accompany her, partly because he finds her lovely and partly because some greedy soul is trying to scare her away from the estate, both with rumors of haunting and with more solid threats.

Scream (1996)

When this came out, I was well aware of it but too young to watch it unaccompanied, and I doubt any adults in my life would have obliged. It wasn't really my genre anyway, or I would have seen it just a few years later. But since it made waves and retains moderately high ratings, it seemed useful for my education if nothing else.

In a small town whose apparent claim to fame has been a brutal murder almost exactly a year ago, more brutal murders suddenly crop up, this time targeting high school students. Sidney, daughter of the previous victim, narrowly escapes an attempt and can report that the killer wears a vaguely Munchian "Ghostface" mask and grim reaper cloak. He clearly knows the targets rather well, so paranoia spreads among ostensible friends.

Thelma (2017)

Having nothing to do with Thelma and Louise, this marks a truer transition to my pre-Halloween viewings than in my previous review. I knew very little going in: only that it was a recent supernatural horror, more popular on Rotten Tomatoes than on IMDb.

Norwegian college frosh Thelma has no friends at first, thanks partly to her overly controlling parents, whose Christian fervor has led her to abstain from alcohol among other things. When she first sits near attractive classmate Anja, Thelma gets the first seizure she can remember -- and subtly strange things happen nearby, such as lamps flickering and two birds smacking the window. A doctor tells her that there's more to her medical history than she ever knew. This is something more mysterious than epilepsy, no doubt triggered by stresses such as feeling what she considers forbidden desires, though she becomes more open to leaving her comfort zone. And whatever lies within her is capable of havoc, especially in her sleep, when the mind is less inhibited by ethics....

Caché (2005)

This may have been the most esteemed movie of the 2000s that I hadn't seen yet. I almost said "popular" instead of "esteemed," but it's mainly popular with the analytic types; its IMDb rating is a respectable yet hardly superb 7.3. With reviewer comparisons to Rear Window, I had to take a look.

An anonymous source sends videotapes of the outside of a home to its occupants, sometimes accompanied by crude drawings of an apparently violent nature. In the eyes of the Parisian police, this is not enough of a threat for them to do anything. Georges thinks of a prime suspect, Majid, but is reluctant to tell wife Anne who and why, much to her impatience. The reason pertains to a very old shame of his.

Down by Law (1986)

Yeah, another R-rated, male-heavy, female-nudity-including crime flick already. But that's about where the similarity ends. This one is directed by Jim Jarmusch, whom I hear about often enough that I wasn't content to have seen only his Broken Flowers.

Zack (Tom Waits, whom Jarmusch also directed in a couple music videos), a fired DJ in New Orleans, accepts an odd job delivering a car and then gets arrested, because the police knew of a body in the car that he didn't. He's soon joined in a cell by Jack (John Lurie), a pimp caught trying to do business with a girl he then learns is underage. Their next cellmate is Bob (Roberto Benigni), who did kill somebody, but he claims self-defense. They don't get along easily, but when Bob sees an opportunity to escape, they band together and brave the bayou.

The Bank Job (2008)

I chose this almost at random from my list, not knowing much about it. Obviously a heist flick, and the only actor's name I recognized offhand was Jason Statham. Well, I liked Snatch. Of course, this was bound to be a bit less ludicrous, since it claimed a basis in fact.

In 1971, Terry (Statham) and his petty criminal associates learn from his seductive friend, Martine (Saffron Burrows), of a rare opportunity to rob a London bank by stealth rather than threat of violence. They dig into a basement vault and raid the safety deposit boxes, the contents of which the owners tend to keep secret even afterward. Only in the vault does the gang discover that Martine isn't in this for general wealth; she has in mind a certain box with incriminating evidence. They soon realize that the police are not their biggest concern....

Sansho the Bailiff (1954)

My only prior taste of director Kenji Mizoguchi was Ugetsu, which I basically liked but would be very selective in recommending, because it's pretty sad. Well, in my experience, directors never stop at just one sad movie. I'd had my warning.

The title character is the villain and doesn't get nearly the most screen time. The main focus is on two siblings, Zushiō (male) and Anju (female). Their troubles begin when their father, a governor, is dismissed and exiled for showing too much compassion. When they are 13 and 8, respectively, slavers capture them and their mother, sending the latter elsewhere. Most of the film is set 10 years later, by which time Zushiō has lost all hope and a good deal of virtue. But after Anju hears evidence from a new slave that their mother is alive on Sado Island, she gives serious consideration to a risky escape attempt....

Life with Father (1947)

Nearly a year after my first Michael Curtiz comedy, I've tried a second. I'm afraid the restoration, at least on the DVD sent by Netflix, leaves something to be desired, less for the faded Technicolor than for the audio feedback that makes some dialog hard to understand. This probably has something to do with the movie passing into the public domain in 1975.

Based on a play based on a book based on the life of Clarence Day, Jr., this adaptation focuses more on his stockbroking father (William Powell) and his mother (Irene Dunne), somewhat peculiarly calling each other "Clare" and "Vinnie" respectively. The plot meanders, thanks partly to four sons having their own concerns, but an overarching theme is that Clare was never baptized and keeps rebuffing Vinnie's requests for him to rectify that. More broadly, he wants to run the household like he does the office, with little success. He's not the only stubborn family member.

Tully (2018)

Jason Reitman was my favorite director to rise to prominence in the 2000s, with the triple whammy of Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air. Alas, he couldn't maintain the momentum, leading to a series of less esteemed efforts. Tully looked like a partial recovery. I was also curious to see a second hit from writer Diablo Cody.

Middle-aged Marlo (Charlize Theron) starts the movie heavily pregnant for the third time, her other children being 8 and 6. Her rich brother (Mark Duplass) offers the gift of a night nanny, a concept she had never known before. At first she declines, but before long, she's too drained, and not just in the breast-pumping sense. Enter the title character (Mackenzie Davis), a 26-year-old nonconformist who proves quite competent at taking care of all infant nighttime needs other than nursing -- and goes above and beyond the call of duty for the family. Once Marlo gets past the discomfort of a rather intimate connection to someone she hardly knows, she values Tully tremendously.

Ex Machina (2014)

Generally, I like stories that focus on artificial intelligence, including, yes, A.I. So why did I put this one off so long? Probably because the ads made it look intense. More so than it turned out to be, I'd say. It's not the kind of movie that lends itself to sincere previews, which may be why it suffered financially from limited release.

Sometime in the very near future, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a sweepstakes to spend a week at the extremely private mountain facility where his tech company's CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), has been secretly working alone on androids. It appears that only two are presently active: servile and silent Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) and the far more focal Ava (Alicia Vikander), who doesn't quite look human yet but has a lovely face. Nathan assigns Caleb to interact with Ava, albeit with a clear wall between them, to determine whether she's both conscious and relatable. Unfortunately, Nathan and Ava do not see eye to eye, and the latter badly wants to escape, so Caleb will have to pick a side. And of course, any movie set in a secluded area with no cell reception -- where a power outage means a lockdown, no less -- is bound to have something dreadful happen.

Thieves' Highway (1949)

Why do I keep forgetting that I've seen so many Jules Dassin movies? Did I just assume I'd know more in French than in English, because I started with Rififi? (The man was born in Connecticut, for crying out loud.) Or is it just that none of them live up to that one in my mind? Anyway, this one came out the year between The Naked City and Night and the City, so you could bet it's urban and noir.

Nick (Richard Conte) returns from war to find his produce-farming father legless from a vehicle accident and almost certainly swindled by San Francisco-based dealer Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Nick decides with neighbor Ed (Millard Mitchell) to take two truckloads of in-demand apples to Figlia and drive a harder bargain than Nick's dad did. AFAICT, that's the extent of the justice Nick has in mind. But he underestimates what depths Figlia will go to for extra profit.

Badlands (1973)

My previous exposure to Terrence Malick consisted of his co-writing of Dirty Harry, which I liked; and his solo writing and direction of Days of Heaven, which I found dull and forgettable. With his 20-year career hiatus, he doesn't have an extensive filmography, and the few other titles I recognized seemed pretty unpromising. So why'd I see this, his debut as a director and as a producer? Partly for its reception and partly for my first Meetup in a while.

Only afterward did I learn that the story is inspired by true events, albeit under different names and with a lot of details changed. Kit (Martin Sheen, younger than I'd ever seen before), a 25-year-old newly fired garbageman, takes a shine to 15-year-old Holly (Sissy Spacek, also younger than I'd ever seen before). Her father (Warren Oates) disapproves, of course, but Kit is undeterred. Things escalate quickly, and Kit shoots the old man dead. Kit and Holly take to living in the wilderness, but they can't stay put for long, and Kit perceives little choice but to kill again....

Baby Driver (2017)

Sometimes I drag my heels about checking out something popular simply because I don't like the title. I was OK with Baby Doll, but this title is stranger (I didn't know of the Simon and Garfunkel song), and an R rating means no place for a literal baby. Turns out "Baby" is the nickname of Miles (Ansel Elgort), a youthful-looking driver in his early 20s.

In particular, a getaway driver for a network of armed robbers. Years ago, he stole a car from crime boss "Doc" (Kevin Spacey, eheh), who was impressed and let Baby work off his debt. Alas, he's done such a good job that Doc may never let him retire. Between his burgeoning relationship with waitress Debora (Lily James) and the increasingly troubling jobs, it won't be long before Baby takes the big risk of rebelling....

Blow-Up (1966)

My only previous sample of director Michelangelo Antonioni was L'Avventura, which was by no means an adventure movie. That may explain why I had told Netflix I was not interested in his first English-language feature. But sometimes I open my mind further and add previously nixed entries to my queue. And after all, this one inspired The Conversation, which I liked.

Thomas (David Hemmings), a London fashion photographer, takes some shots of an affectionate couple at the park. The woman (Vanessa Redgrave) doesn't want anyone else to see those pictures, but Thomas feels no obligation to surrender them. Later, after, y'know, blowing them up, he discovers the probable reason for her objection: There's a gunman hiding in the trees....

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Well, how do you like that: I said before, "I doubt I'll take a chance on Australia or The Great Gatsby." What changed my mind? My dad's invitation to watch the DVD with him. By this time, I had forgotten Baz Luhrmann's involvement and started wondering whether I would find the story more engaging than I had in the F. Scott Fitzgerald book.

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) narrates from a mental hospital how he knew his most captivating New York State neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, perhaps practicing for the same year's The Wolf of Wall Street). Gatsby is an obscenely rich man of mystery, throwing lavish parties attended by just about everybody for miles around. But he confides in Nick that it's all an effort to draw the attention of the woman he loves, who happens to be Nick's cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan). She married man's man Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) back when Gatsby felt too poor to marry. With Nick's help, Daisy does come back into Gatsby's life, but of course this means inviting trouble....

Europa (1991)

Not to be confused with the previous year's Europa Europa, this film went by Zentropa (the name of a fictitious railroad company) in the U.S. Director Lars von Trier must have been arrogant even back then, because he flipped off the Palme d'Or judges for not awarding it. Still, it is far more popular today than the winner, Wild at Heart. I decided to see why.

Leopold (Jean-Marc Barr), a young American of German descent, decides to show some mercy to Germany in the months after World War II by taking a job there as a sleeping car conductor for Zentropa, where his uncle (Ernst-Hugo Järegård) works. From the train windows, he sees that the nation is hardly in peacetime as the U.S. military clashes with the "Werewolf" resistance. It turns out that the inside of a train isn't much better for neutrality, as friendly folks, including a love interest (Barbara Sukowa), seek to involve him in their sordid plans with or without his knowledge or consent.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)

I enjoyed the first two entries in this trilogy more than most viewers, but I couldn't be sure that I'd like the threequel. Some posters show the vampires at the beach by day, suggesting excessive deviation from the previous setup. Interestingly, while IMDb votes reflect diminishing returns for the series, Rotten Tomatoes reports a gradual climb. I didn't dare check it out in a theater and might never have gotten around to streaming it, but after my dissatisfaction with an art film, I needed...well, a vacation.

Dracula (Adam Sandler) appreciates the many happily married couples at his hotel, not least his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and son-in-law Johnny (Andy Samberg), but they make him miss his long-gone wife. Mavis thinks his stress comes from being too busy for family time, so she arranges a vacation on a cruise ship that caters to monsters but still has a place for humans like Johnny. Indeed, Captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn) is human -- and immediately sparks the romantic interest of Drac, of all monsters. He's concerned that this is not what Mavis had in mind for their trip. He should be more concerned with how Ericka really feels....

Chloe in the Afternoon (1972)

This is also known, more faithfully to the original French, as Love in the Afternoon, but I prefer the title not taken by an unrelated Billy Wilder movie. I hadn't set out to start at the end of Éric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales series; it's just the one I'd most heard about, even more than My Night at Maud's. And if Chris Rock remade it in 2007, it must have some enduring value.

Frédéric seems like a fine husband and father, but he rather misses the thrills of being unattached. Enter Chloé, homeless ex-girlfriend of a friend of Frédéric. The two of them start meeting in secret with an emotional intimacy that Frédéric doesn't share even with his wife, Hélène, but he still loves Hélène too much to pursue a ménage à trois. Unfortunately, Chloé is less satisfied with the arrangement. She has more new-wave ideas, if you will, about what their relationship can be....

The Fallen Idol (1948)

My viewings since Netflix slowed down deliveries have trended more recent. I had to look back two months for a review of a movie older than this and three months for another '40s entry. But I still have a taste for the era. And despite not enjoying much from Carol Reed, even with help from Graham Greene, I still give him a chance.

Philippe (Bobby Henrey) is the maybe seven-year-old son of a French ambassador in London. For most of the story, his parents are away, and we never see him in school, with a tutor, or with other kids, so he gets into a lot of minor mischief like adopting a wild snake. His primary supervision consists of two servants: Mr. Baines (Ralph Richardson), whom he reveres for spinning exciting yarns; and Mrs. Baines (Sonia Dresdel), whom he hates for being a strict caretaker. Philippe observes insufficiently stealthy meetings between Mr. Baines and a young woman (Michèle Morgan) he subsequently claims is his niece. To less innocent eyes, it's obvious why they don't want Mrs. Baines to see them together. Philippe believes he can keep a secret, but Mrs. Baines is too suspicious to remain in the dark for long....

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Whew, glad this format allows titles of that length. Say what you will about that clunker; it did more than anything else to get me interested. Sure, Brad Pitt said this was his favorite of his own works, and it got many honors, but if not for the title, I would have neglected to put it on my queue.

The story begins shortly before 19-year-old "Bob" Ford (Casey Affleck) joins the James gang, of which his older brother, Charley (Sam Rockwell), is already a member. Bob has admired Jesse (Pitt) since childhood, but you know the saying "Never meet your heroes"? Between Jesse's behavior and Bob's unwanted entanglement with gang treachery, collecting a reward on Jesse starts to look like a good idea.

Missing (1982)

The '80s were good for popular comedies, fantasies, and adventures on screen, but only a handful of serious works from the decade enjoy esteem to this day. Checking out an '80s drama I never hear about is a slight gamble. But this one got a lot of honors back in the day and retains high marks across rating sites. That plus its basis in a true story drew me in.

In what is implied but never specified to be Chile during Augusto Pinochet's '73 coup, Charlie Horman (John Shea) and his wife, Beth (Sissy Spacek), find their lives as American migrants disrupted. Charlie's activist journalism may have caught up with him, because he disappears. Beth can't find out where he was taken or whether he lives, tho she refuses to believe he'd go into hiding without ever notifying her. Charlie's estranged father, Edmund (Jack Lemmon), flies in to help with the search for answers.

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Huh. I hadn't realized going in that Disney had no production or distribution claim on this movie. Or on Spider-Man: Homecoming, whose tags I've since corrected. Better be careful with these things. Regardless, the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to follow Avengers: Endgame does retain continuity, being set some eight months later.

Peter Parker (Tom Holland), still in high school, goes on a class trip to various European nations. With its inadequate planning, this would be a pretty lame vacation if not for Peter secretly being Spider-Man and thus a fated danger magnet. In this case, the danger takes the shape of rampaging elemental giants, which Spidey takes on with help from a new super stranger (Jake Gyllenhaal), aptly nicknamed Mysterio. He may be reminiscent of both Iron Man and Dr. Strange, but many Marvel fans already know him better than that....

Dazed and Confused (1993)

Before I knew much about this, I expected it to be a John Hughes piece. Then I learned that Richard Linklater was at the helm. As I read of the 1976 setting and the lack of a central focus, I realized it must be more like American Graffiti for the next generation. Fine by me; I much prefer AG to many modern teen comedies.

Summer vacation is just beginning for an Austin neighborhood. Some high school seniors, especially grade repeater Fred O'Bannion (early Ben Affleck), are fiercely hazing all the imminent freshmen they can find. But halfhearted hazer Randall "Pink" Floyd (Jason London) invites primary victim Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins) to a night on the town with other late teens and one twenty-something, David Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey in his silver screen debut). All the while, Pink is putting off a pledge not to do drugs, which he must sign to be allowed to stay on the football team.

Toy Story 4 (2019)

To me, the Toy Story series has been almost the antithesis of the Cars series. TS1, while flawed, was destined for classic status. TS2, while not feeling necessary, outdid it in my book. TS3, which I had long assumed would never happen, became my all-time favorite animated feature (tho I may revise that assessment with further viewings). Could TS4 continue the pattern?

A mere two years after the events of TS3, old toy cowboy Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks) has lost favor with owner Bonnie, who's starting kindergarten. He's taking this decline better than he did in TS1, but his way of coping is to support Bonnie clandestinely against the advice of others; like the emotions in Inside Out, he prioritizes nothing over the happiness of "his kid." With his guidance, she makes an ugly yet fairly impressive arts-and-crafts toy named Forky (Tony Hale), who initially doesn't have the mindset for a sapient toy at all. By the time Forky's getting cooperative, Woody's eyes stray to a familiar sight in an antiques shop window, giving him a riskier new priority and prompting buddy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) to go on his own rescue mission....

The Lower Depths (1957)

Not for the first time, Akira Kurosawa directs an adaptation of Russian literature, albeit a Maxim Gorky play in this case. I see that another Japanese director beat him to it by 36 years, but of course, that silent version can't possibly be as popular overseas. This one includes quite a few actors I've seen in many other movies, but the only name likely to mean something to you is top-billed Toshirō Mifune.

Like Dodes'ka-den, it follows lots of people in a shantytown and dumpsite. Unlike Dodes'ka-den, it takes place mostly in one large room (yeah, one of those plays), in a tenement with tilting walls. You could say that the action begins with the arrival of a new elderly tenant, who serves not only to stand in for the audience as a newcomer but to try to improve the sorry situations of others. He seems almost saintly, if a bit prone to well-meaning lies, but shows evidence of a guilty past.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2002)

Cowboy Bebop is easily my favorite action anime series, partly for its relatively normal premises. I still had some trepidation in approaching the movie, released a few years after the last episode (but taking place in between two late episodes, AIUI). After all, Serenity disappointed many Firefly fans. And was CB:TM made only for people who'd seen the entire show, which I haven't yet? The answer turns out to be no, and I'll fill in the rest of you shortly.

In 2071, Mars is so terraformed that you could hardly tell it from a near-future Earth. In a Martian metropolis, terrorists spread an illness unknown to doctors and seemingly impossible to trace. With no leads, the authorities post an enormous bounty on the perpetrators, calling the attention of a ragtag band of perpetually underfunded bounty hunters (some of them slangily called "Cowboys") aboard the spaceship Bebop. Yeah, they ought to care anyway, but they try not to.

America America (1963)

My reviews have slowed because of a big project I'm doing (unrelated to movies). For this reason, it was an especially bad time to receive a 174-minute disc. Nevertheless, I was a bit curious to see Elia Kazan's favorite of his own oeuvre—realizing that it was less so for quality than for personal relevance as the history of his uncle.

The plot's actually rather plain: In the late 1890s, young man Stavros, like many other Europeans, wants to move to the U.S. But unlike in other such stories I've seen, he takes an awfully long time to acquire enough money for a third-class ticket. One disadvantage he has is in being a Greek in Turkey. Most of his comrades either don't want or can't hope to leave, but after witnessing some of the Armenian genocide and realizing the Greeks might be next, Stavros won't accept his dad's plan for him to gradually pay the family's way to Constantinople.

Rocketman (2019)

I've been listening to Elton John a lot lately, no doubt under the influence of ads for this. To me, even his more obscure songs are never worse than decent. The bio would have to be quite a bomb to keep me away. My folks came too.

The film begins with the artist (played in adulthood by Taron Egerton), in one of his wildest costumes, crashing a session of what might be Alcoholics Anonymous and announcing quite a few addictions and other behavioral problems. At the host's prompting, he starts telling his life story. From there, we mostly get unnarrated flashbacks, starting when he was five-year-old Reggie Dwight.

Booksmart (2019)

I wasn't particularly taken with what I knew of this movie going in. Sure, I was a high school nerd once, but it's not really my scene anymore, and modern comedies are always a gamble for me. But it had been a while since I last accepted a Meetup invitation. Besides, I liked Eighth Grade, and this might not be so different.

Valedictorian Molly and her one friend, Amy, feel pretty good about having prioritized study over everything else -- until they learn that their party-going classmates also got into prestigious schools. Now they, especially Molly, want to attend a wild pre-graduation party so they don't miss out on the experience altogether. Their first major obstacle is even finding the party they have in mind, since they received no personal invitation. Obviously, it wouldn't be much of a story if they didn't end up forming interesting memories, but will their efforts be worth the costs?

Paris Song (2018)

This is one of those films too obscure for its own Wikipedia page, tho it gets a brief mention on director Jeff Vespa's. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if not for its inclusion in a Jewish film festival. (Judaism doesn't really feature in the plot.) But the few dozen people to have rated it on IMDb had given it an 8.0, and the plot sounded interesting. Besides, Vespa himself would be at the theater to talk about it, so my parents and I went.

In 1925, Amre Kashaubayev is invited from the Kazakh Steppe to represent the USSR in a sing-off in Paris. He accepts, partly because he wants to call the outside world's attention to the Kazakh people, many of whom want independence. Of course, Soviet officials would prefer that Leonid Sobinov place higher. They don't want Kashaubayev consorting much with westerners like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Lee Abbott. And they definitely don't want him making contact with Mustafa Shokay, exiled leader of the Kazakh independence movement. You should have a good idea what happens.

Foxcatcher (2014)

I've seen Steve Carell in semi-serious films before, most notably Little Miss Sunshine and The Big Short. This is my first time seeing him in something not remotely humorous. Between this, the character's mental issues, and the basis on a real person, I can only assume that he was trying for an Oscar. He did get a nod, but Eddie Redmayne had it in the bag that year.

Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and his slightly older brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), already have Olympic gold medals for freestyle wrestling by the start of the story in 1986. Out of the blue, Mark is invited to Foxcatcher Farm in Pennsylvania to join the new Team Foxcatcher under wealthy heir John E. du Pont (Carell) and hopefully win the World Championship. He accepts. Dave is less keen on coming, because he has a wife and kids with a life elsewhere, but John grows to want him at any price, partly because he's reputedly the better wrestler and partly because the team doesn't take practice as seriously as John wants. It seems that the three of them can hardly get along all at the same time, and especially with John's emotional issues, things will get ugly.

Top Secret! (1984)

In elementary school, I loved wacky nonstop comedies like The Naked Gun and Hot Shots. Today, I believe that Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker never quite recaptured the magic of Airplane! and all lost their momentum for good by the mid-'90s. But what about halfway between AP and TNG?

I'm guessing TS is set in the early '60s, based on protagonist Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer's screen debut) resembling an Elvis Presley character but clearly mocking the Beach Boys for his opening number. It's also set mostly in an East Germany that looks more like the Third Reich. As a guest singer, Nick enjoys a privileged status but is strongly advised to keep his nose clean. He stops doing so when he falls for Hillary (Lucy Gutteridge), a wanted member of the curiously French Resistance. Together, they seek to free her father (Michael Gough, 11 years before reuniting with Kilmer for Batman Forever), a scientist forced to make weaponry for the government.

The Old Maid (1939)

I've seen enough late-'30s and early-'40s dramas about the love lives of class-conscious 19th-century women to conclude that it was a fad. This one debuted in between Jezebel and Gone with the Wind and had at least three of the former's actors.

Charlotte (Bette Davis, 3 years before her turn as Charlotte in Now, Voyager and 25 before starring in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte) develops an interest in Clem (George Brent), an old flame of her married cousin Delia (Miriam Hopkins). Clem dies in the Civil War (the Union side, FWIW), and Charlotte opens an orphanage for children of war casualties, with a special fondness for one child, Tina (Marlene Burnett) -- short for Clementina, which should tell you why. Delia also finds out why and jealously talks Charlotte's rich fiance (Jerome Cowan) into calling it off -- with a lie about Charlotte's health, just in case he would've accepted her anyway. Unable to sustain the orphanage, Charlotte allows Delia to adopt Tina unofficially. After being widowed, Delia allows Charlotte to move in as well. By this time, Tina sees Delia as her mom and Charlotte as her aunt. This spells tension between the sisters.

Fast Five (2011)

The Fast and the Furious franchise never looked like my thing. Nevertheless, when a silver-screen series reaches eight entries and anticipates two more, my curiosity builds. FF is reputedly both the best of the bunch and a key turning point, with a reduction in focus on street racing in order to reach a broader audience. In fact, it was supposed to be a conclusion, but there was too much demand. I could only hope that forgoing my usual policy of watching the predecessors first wouldn't leave me confused.

Three U.S. fugitives -- Dom (Vin Diesel), Mia (Jordana Brewster), and Brian (Paul Walker) -- partake in an elite grand theft auto job in Rio de Janeiro, but when they find something fishy about the scenario and their other partners' priorities, things go rather sideways. In taking matters into their own hands, they make an enemy of Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), a criminal kingpin who practically runs Rio. Not having many good options for escape, they get the bright idea to steal all of Reyes' stockpiled cash -- what they don't destroy of it, anyway -- and split it with their six or seven accomplices. This would be challenging enough without the additional factor of Javert-like special agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) tracking them down, albeit with the help of more conflicted Officer Neves (Elsa Pataky).

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

I made a point to rewatch the 1964 Mary Poppins first. Good thing I did, because judging from my memory, I must have dozed off during "Stay Awake" and missed all the rest as a kid. Pity: It seems more enjoyable to an immature mind with little idea how actual adults behave. I feel like I got more out of Saving Mr. Banks. Still, there was enough of merit in MP to keep me interested in the sequel.

In 1934, some 24 years after Mary left the Banks estate, her former ward Michael (Ben Whishaw) is a flaky banker and widowed father of three on the verge of losing their old house if he can't find a share certificate. His sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) lives elsewhere in London but pays frequent visits to help. Michael's two oldest kids, tweens Annabel (Pixie Davis) and John (Nathaniel Saleh), have had to grow up a bit in the year since their mother died, and youngest Georgie (Joel Dawson) can be a handful. Before long, the titular event happens, and the ageless mage (Emily Blunt) intends to do the Bankses a good turn once again.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

What kind of Marvel Cinematic Universe fan would I be if I didn't see this, of all entries, in the theater? My dad finally came back, too. The main complaint I've seen about it is that it's hard to talk about without spoiling. Well, I'll give my typical level of skirting the edge. Chances are, if you have enough interest to see Endgame, you either already saw key previous entries or won't mind learning some of what happened in them, most notably the ending of Infinity War.

I had expected most of the movie to consist of the remaining heroes seeking out and fighting Thanos for the Infinity Gauntlet so that they could undo his sudden annihilation of half the life in the universe. Actually, they don't take long to overpower him, but the gauntlet has been emptied of the Infinity Stones, and Thanos probably isn't lying when he says he destroyed them. (What, no periodic repetitions in his war on overpopulation?) For the next five years, they have no hope of reversal -- until Ant-Man returns from the Quantum Realm and reports that it offers a possibility for time travel. (Told you he had weird physics.)

Mean Streets (1973)

Martin Scorsese is one of those people whose works I check out almost entirely because he's popular, not because I like his track record. It's a matter of cultural education. This time, I opted to check out his earliest collaboration with Robert De Niro and arguably his first hit feature.

Both IMDb and Netflix summarize the plot as a minor crook, Charlie (Harvey Keitel), working his way up the mob ladder, but that's not what I recall. Netflix adds that he's in Little Italy (no points for guessing which city) and dating a woman with epilepsy, Teresa (Amy Robinson), whom we never see having a seizure, but her condition is important insofar as other mobsters wouldn't approve the relationship. Neither summary mentions De Niro's character of Johnny Boy, who's a cousin to Teresa, a buddy to Charlie, and a debtor to dangerous men.

Mirai (2018)

This 2018 Best Animated Feature nominee, the final one I've viewed, must have received the least attention of the five, at least in the West. After all, the director is Mamoru Hosoda, not Hayao Miyazaki, and the production company is Studio Chizu, not Studio Ghibli. But the fanciful poster drew me in.

Kun, age 4, initially welcomes newborn sister Mirai (whose name means "future") but becomes irritable as his parents pay less attention to him and as Mirai proves too limited in abilities to offer fun. When neither parent watches, however, Kun meets people he shouldn't be able to meet. It begins with the household dog turning into a man with a tail. Then Mirai appears as a 14-year-old, incongruously calling him "big brother." Other strange encounters and travels ensue from there, giving Kun new perspectives on his family and himself.

Pale Rider (1985)

If anyone could and would make a serious western in the mid-'80s, it was Clint Eastwood. Indeed, PR made more money at the box office than any other '80s western, partly, I suppose, because Eastwood didn't direct any others that decade. Of course, this was no guarantee of high quality to me.

On the outskirts of a fictional California town named for Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart), who owns most of it, LaHood's not-so-coy hoods, led by his son Josh (Chris Penn), wreak havoc on the less successful gold miners, trying to drive them away. The LaHoods claim to own the land, but their actions bespeak an illegal desperation, and the only "lawmen" ever in the vicinity are mercenaries led by Marshal Stockburn (John Russell). Things start to look up for the prospectors when a man who never gives his name (you know who) comes out of nowhere and protects Hull (Michael Moriarty), one of the few brave enough to go into town anymore. Hull gives him room and board, tho semi-fiance Sarah (Carrie Snodgress) has misgivings -- until they see his clerical collar, whereafter everyone calls him "the Preacher." Nothing like a man of faith to inspire mass confidence in a cause, but how much can the miners depend on a wanderer?

Battleground (1949)

Wings is my favorite war silent this side of The General, so it was about time I saw another William Wellman war flick. This came more than 20 years later -- later than anything else I've seen from Wellman, in fact -- but it still seemed likely to work for me. Even if few people in '49 wanted to see more about WWII.

The titular ground is that of the Battle of the Bulge, specifically during the Siege of Bastogne in Belgium, which places it in December 1944. It actually takes a while for any violence to turn up, and a lot of that is aerial bombing, which doesn't leave much room for honest-to-goodness battle with the focal characters, the 101st Airborne Division of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment. As war movies go, it has a low body count.

Shazam! (2019)

One summary I've seen of why DC Comics movies haven't done as consistently well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they aren't as good at individually balancing dark and light. Sometimes they try to recapture the magic of the Dark Knight Trilogy; sometimes we get the pure unseriousness of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. Both methods tend to produce reputedly bland results. Trailers made Shazam! look like an instance of the latter, but positive responses across rating sites led me to check it out.

Billy Batson (Asher Angel), age "basically 15," finds himself magically transported from Philadelphia (what, not a fictional city as usual for DC?) to the lair of wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou again), who half-coerces Billy to take up his name and mantle as champion against the forces of evil. Doing so turns Billy into an adult super (Zachary Levi), and the old Shazam dies before he can provide further guidance. Not immediately knowing how to turn back, and having no real friends in his new neighborhood, Billy confides in his same-age foster brother, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), who's quite the fan of Superman and Batman. Together they figure out what Billy can do, including turning back into his kid form by saying (usually shouting, for no good reason) "Shazam," which also produces smoke and an apparent EMP. He'll have to master his gifts quickly to take on a new supervillain in town, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).

Dodes'ka-den (1970)

You won't find the titular term even in a Japanese dictionary, but I expect to remember it for a long time, because it is spoken many times in this Akira Kurosawa film. Specifically, it's teen Roku-chan's impression of a trolley sound as he shuffles around a slum all day. I'm not sure whether he hallucinates or just immaturely (as with mental retardation) likes to pretend to be a trolley driver, but children taunt him, adults generally avoid him, and his mom frets about him. His imagined world isn't ideal; he complains about lazy maintenance men. Nevertheless, he's probably happier than his neighbors.

Roku-chan is more a framing device than a protagonist; our attention is mostly on others in his unenviable environs. These include two filthy drunkards, an overworked and abused girl, a homeless man and his young beggar son, a cuckold who treats all his wife's kids as his own, a henpecked husband who stands up for his wife, a haunted-looking man who never speaks, and an elder gentleman quite kind to troublemakers. None of their stories really overlap; they just alternate in the spotlight.

Brigadoon (1954)

This may be the first film I watched because of a vocabulary lesson. Dictionaries make the titular place sound akin to Xanadu or Shangri-la, albeit often with less emphasis on utopian qualities and more on separation from the outside world. When I learned that the source was a Lerner and Lowe musical and this version had Vincente Minnelli directing and Gene Kelly starring, I opted to take a chance in spite of a mixed reception.

Two New Yorkers, Tommy (Kelly) and Jeff (Van Johnson), go hunting for sport in Scotland and stumble on a curiously unmapped farming town. They can tell that the citizens are unaccustomed to visitors, but Charlie (Jimmy Thompson), feeling great about his imminent wedding, urges their welcome. As it happens, Tommy rapidly falls in mutual love with the bride's sister, Fiona (Cyd Charisse), nearly forgetting his fiancée back in New York. But Jeff can't shake the feeling there's something too fishy about Brigadoon, and he'd like to forget the whole thing....

Old Yeller (1957)

This is one of those movies of which people, at least in my circles, talk about only one moment. In the past, this would tell me that I had no need to watch it. But I learned from The Crying Game that there might be a whole lot more worth viewing.

In the wake of the Civil War, the Kansan Coates family has been subsistence farming long enough that adolescent Travis barely remembers how cash looks and single-digit Arliss didn't know the concept of money before the first scene. Their father goes to rectify this by taking a job that will keep him away from home for months. Soon the remaining family encounters a stray, yellowish (hence the name) mutt who initially causes trouble. Travis would like to be rid of the dog, but Arliss begs to differ, and their mother takes pity on the kid with no playmate otherwise. Gradually, Travis recognizes the redeeming values of "Old Yeller."

Pickup on South Street (1953)

Wow, not only had it been six months since my last arguable film noir; it had been nearly a year since my last black and white film noir. I thought I generally liked this genre, but perhaps I fear on some level that they can negatively affect my worldview if I don't space them.

A man nicknamed Skip (Richard Widmark) stealthily lifts a wallet from a woman named Candy (Jean Peters). This would not be an uncommon New York City occurrence, except that the wallet contains a special microfilm that Candy was supposed to deliver on behalf of ex-boyfriend Joey (Richard Kiley). Skip doesn't already know about the microfilm, and Candy has no clue what's on it, but Joey acts as though his life depends on it. He insists that Candy do whatever it takes to recover the microfilm, through legal or illegal channels, with the considerable cash he gives her. She finds his secret dirtier than she thought, and neither she nor Skip likes what they've gotten mixed up with....

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

My parents felt that Spike Lee's first non-honorary Oscar was a long time coming and thus were glad when he got one for Best Adapted Screenplay for this. It sounded like they wouldn't have been surprised if he'd gotten more for it. The film certainly has received a lot of awards at other ceremonies. So I had to check it out, albeit with a little trepidation.

In 1972 Colorado Springs, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington, son of Denzel) dares to take an invitation to become the first local Black policeman. When he sees an ad for the Ku Klux Klan, he calls on a whim and, sounding naturally "White" enough, arranges a meeting to join it. Not looking nearly as White as he sounds, he persuades vaguely similar-sounding co-worker Philip "Flip" Zimmerman (Adam Driver) to go in his stead. With a little help from others on the force, they monitor just how much of a threat this Klan chapter is.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Initial reactions by others were unpromising: The movie opened with a lower IMDb score than any other Marvel Cinematic Universe entry currently holds. Thankfully, this was a rare occasion that the score went up in the weeks afterward. Even if it hadn't, I'd probably have checked CM out, partly because I've never regretted an MCU viewing and partly to determine whether the naysayers were having a knee-jerk reaction to what they perceived as bad feminism.

As superhero flicks go, it gets off to a pretty confusing start. A woman (Brie Larson) initially known only as Vers (pronounced "Veers") can't remember anything from more than six years ago, when Starforce commander Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) found her, gave her a transfusion of his Kree alien blood to grant her superpowers, and began training her to use them in a space war against the shapeshifting Skrulls. Skrull commander Talos (Ben Mendelssohn) takes her prisoner and unearths, if you will, memories she didn't know she had, hinting at her hailing from Earth -- and the existence of a valuable experimental engine there. A damaged escape pod lands her in L.A. in what soon proves to be 1995. With help from S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury (a youngish-looking Samuel L. Jackson), she hopes to reach the engine before anyone can misuse it, but she also has a priority to learn more about herself, the Skrulls, and the Kree.

Five Deadly Venoms (1978)

I'm not sure why I added this cult hit, called merely Five Venoms on Netflix, to my streaming list. Maybe I wanted to ensure that even genres I rarely watch -- martial arts, in this case -- remain available. Maybe the slim lineup of 20th-century features had a hand in my decision. Most likely, it had come up in some discussion of influences on Quentin Tarantino or whatnot. In any event, I watched it recently for the sake of variety.

In what I presume to be several centuries ago in China, a kung fu master on his last legs asks his one remaining student, Yang Tieh, to seek out his long-gone five previous students and, if they've turned to violent crime, kill them. (No middle ground, eh?) He doesn't know what names they're using or even their faces, since they always wore masks, but Yang can meet a man likely to provide further hints and can then keep an eye out for anyone using distinctive fighting moves. Each of the five employs a different style, and Yang has been hastily trained as a jack of all styles and master of none. The master thinks Yang's only hope of defeating any of the five is to ally with one of them, so he'd better hope they're not all evil.

The Prophet (2014)

I read the Kahlil Gibran book long enough ago that I don't remember much of it, but I know I liked it. It presents some pretty unusual takes on philosophy, and even in the few places where I disagreed with title character Al Mustafa, I could enjoy the poetic presentation. Of course, there isn't much of a plot to the book, so any screen adaptation would have to add to it.

Indeed, Mustafa (Liam Neeson) isn't even the primary focal character in this movie. That honor goes to Almitra (Quvenzhané Wallis), a prepubescent girl who has said nothing in the two years since her father's death. Feeling unwelcome at school, she stubbornly follows her mother, Kamila (Salma Hayek, also a producer), whose job is to care for Mustafa during his house arrest. It's fortunate that Almitra didn't wait any longer to make his friendly acquaintance, because a surly sergeant (Alfred Molina, again with Hayek) shows up to usher him to a ship to his homeland, essentially changing the sentence to exile from his present environs. Many villagers slow their travel to the harbor, expressing gratitude to Mustafa and listening to any wisdom he has to offer. But Almitra overhears that the sergeant has a nastier plan for him....

Amazing Grace (2006)

What's this, another Black history movie centered on a White man already? (Not to be confused with last year's documentary.) Well, it wasn't my first choice. I was cat-sitting at my parents' house and discovered that they had rented the DVD. Their streaming connection is a bit shaky for a whole feature film, so I gave the disc a whirl.

Despite what the trailer (presented at the start of the DVD!) would have you believe, this story is not really about the titular song, tho poet John Newton (Albert Finney) appears in two scenes. It's more about William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd), an MP and one of England's most prominent abolitionists, starting in 1782 and continuing to 1807. In addition to the rigors of supporting legislative proposals of dubious viability, he faces severe colitis, subsequent laudanum addiction, a strain on his friendship with William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch) after the latter becomes prime minister, and obnoxious pressure to marry one Barbara Spooner (Romola Garai).

Green Book (2018)

Wow, the latest Best Picture didn't even make the upper half of my family's expectations. Sure, it ranks high on IMDb, but based on the sheer numbers of nominations, I had initially figured on The Favourite or Roma. My parents seemed to anticipate Black Panther or BlacKkKlansman in light of the Academy's newfound diversity kick. And after Bohemian Rhapsody netted quite a few awards, I hadn't ruled out a big slap in the face to the harsher critics. Only after GB's win did I feel a strong urge to check it out.

Future actor Frank Anthony Vallelonga, a.k.a. Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), is a nightclub bouncer in the Bronx in 1962. When the club closes for repairs, he hears of an opening for a driver for "a doctor," who turns out to be honorary doctor and star jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali). Don seeks not just a chauffeur but an agent and bodyguard of sorts, because the Don Shirley Trio (the other two musicians being White) will be touring the Deep South in a racially inhospitable era. Despite pressures from family and friends not to associate closely with a Black man, Tony appears more concerned about spending eight weeks away from home and potentially missing Christmas Eve. He names a high wage, and Don matches it. You can guess the general shape of the story from there.

The Color of Paradise (1999)

Director Majid Majidi was not a complete unknown to me. I liked Children of Heaven pretty well. IMDb confirms that I saw Baran, but I don't remember what happens in it. TCoP was his one movie made in between those two.

Eight-year-old Mohammad is blind, as is his actor. His sisters and grandmother love him no less for that, but widowed father Hashem's love is less certain. Not knowing how to raise such a family in poverty, especially when hoping to win a new bride, Hashem keeps trying to make Mohammad someone else's problem, as by leaving him at a boarding school or apprenticing him to a carpenter. (Iran, or at least that area of it, must not have had great child support services at the time.) Only a crisis near the end affirms Hashem's positive feelings.

Apollo 11 (2019)

I have not seen First Man, partly because of how I feel about previous Damien Chazelle hits and partly because I don't trust its accuracy. But this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first human lunar landing, so I felt like honoring the event somehow. Besides, an esteemed documentary was bound to teach me something.

Unlike most docs, this one has no narrator, unless you count contemporary audio clips from Walter Cronkite among others. Nor do we have anyone speaking directly to the camera, as in a portion of an interview. It's all old, sometimes previously unpublicized footage. The only additions are periods of dramatic, often bass-heavy music, using only '60s instruments.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

After how much I enjoyed HtTYD2, I decided that if the threequel was any good, I would not wait long to see it -- this time in a theater. This being an evening show, I avoided the noisy brats who detract from some family features while still getting reinforcement of positive reactions from older viewers.

There's less of a time jump from the second movie than there had been from the first. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), now 21 and chief of Berk, leads successful viking raids on dragon captors' ships. This presents two problems: Their isle is running out of room for newcomers, and they've gained the attention of powerful enemies. When the most accomplished dragon hunter, Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham), demonstrates how dangerous he is, the Berkians pull up stakes. They want to make their next camp their new permanent home, but Hiccup has designs on reaching the fabled hidden world his late father (Gerard Butler in flashbacks) spoke of, where dragons should be safest. Unfortunately, his personal alpha mount, Toothless, gets distracted by the first female of his species to appear in ages, which is what Grimmel has in mind.

Murder by Death (1976)

I swear I didn't mean to rent two Peter Falk flicks in a row. Ironically, the point was to see something rather unlike the first. Certainly the genre is different, and Falk is no worse suited to comedy. I still knew this to be a gamble, partly because Neil Simon wrote it.

Eccentric millionaire Lionel Twain (Truman Capote, the only time he acted without narrating or playing himself) summons ten humans and a terrier, all famous detectives or their companions, to his secluded mansion for "dinner and a murder." There is no dead body when they arrive, but the atmosphere is deliberately creepy, and they narrowly evade several traps. The blind butler (Alec Guinness) notes his employer's macabre sense of humor but appears unaware of any actual danger. At dinner, Twain announces that someone will be murdered in an hour and that the victim and culprit are both at the table; whoever correctly solves the mystery gets a million bucks. He leaves the room, and the guests are reluctant to split up....

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Gena Rowlands has been one of those actors I've heard of repeatedly but couldn't place. It made sense to remedy this by seeing the first role for which she got an Academy Award nomination, in a movie significantly more popular than the one for her second, Gloria. Incidentally, both were directed by her husband, John Cassavetes, who got an Oscar nod only for AWUtI.

In what might be a New York suburb, Mabel (Rowlands) lives with husband Nick (Peter Falk), their three prepubescent kids, and Nick's fairly active mom (Katherine Cassavetes, John's mom). Despite this crowd, she spends more time alone than she's comfortable with, leading her to bad behavior -- not that she's such a winner around others either. In fact, midway through the movie, after some inappropriate child supervision, she gets involuntarily committed. We don't see her at the institution; the third act skips ahead six months to her release, which might just be premature.

Cold War (2018)

It's been a while, Paweł Pawlikowski. I see you're still writing and directing B&W tragedies set in post-WWII Poland and running less than 90 minutes. Well, I respected the last one well enough....

OK, this story takes place only partly in Poland and across more than a decade. Wiktor is a music director rapidly smitten with a vigorous younger singer, Zula. The main hangup between them comes in the form of politics: While neither is fond of the communist regime, Zula prefers her homeland to France, Germany, or Yugoslavia. She marries another man and Wiktor takes up with another singer, but Zula and Wiktor still have feelings for each other. Both their lives get messy.

The Constant Gardener (2005)

Someone's been dropping DVDs on the giveaway shelves at my apartment building. This was the only one to interest me so far. I didn't know any more than the gawky title when it was new, but once I read that it was a political thriller from John le Carré, I figured on checking it out. His work had been hit (The Spy Who Came In from the Cold) and miss (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) to me, but at least I'd get a better feel for him.

English diplomat and, yes, gardener Justin (Ralph Fiennes) falls for Amnesty International activist Tessa (Rachel Weisz) and agrees to take her to Kenya, where he's headed for work. They marry, but much of her present activity remains unknown to him. When she dies in a remote area, it's clearly murder, but by whom and why? He soon learns that she was on the verge of blowing the whistle on a shady, powerful drug company, which now threatens to off him too if he keeps sniffing around.

In Harm's Way (1965)

This picture must have felt familiar to John Wayne. Twenty years earlier, he had played a major role in They Were Expendable, another naval story that pretty much begins with the Pearl Harbor attack. Only this time, however, does he get the very top billing, which is saying something when second goes to Kirk Douglas.

Both Rockwell Torrey (Wayne) and Paul Eddington (Douglas) have trouble staying in the military's good graces, Rock for using non-textbook maneuvers to ill effect and Paul for being generally unruly after learning of his wife's unfaithful debauchery. Still, at times like these, the Navy can't be too choosy in whom it retains if not promotes. While on shore, Rock meets his ensign son, Jeremiah, for the first time since Jere was four; their interactions are awkward, of course. All three of these men take special interest in at least one nurse (Rock's nurse being played by Patricia Neal), but war makes having a girlfriend hard even when she's within the same armed force.

Duck, You Sucker (1971)

Another movie set in Mexico, but this one's pretty darn different. As a '70s western with an odd title, it seemed likely to be offbeat. As a Sergio Leone spaghetti western also known as A Fistful of Dynamite, it seemed more than likely to appeal to me, even if it's not put on the same tier as the Man with No Name trilogy or Once upon a Time in the West.

A family of armed robbers led by Juan (Rod Steiger) comes across a wanted former IRA terrorist, John (James Coburn), who carries far more than a fistful of dynamite wherever he goes. Juan wants to convince, if not coerce, John to join him in an extra large bank heist. But there are bigger things going on in the midst of the Mexican Revolution, and everyone's bound to get involved whether they want to or not.

Roma (2018)

A friend of my family warned that he found this deathly boring. This is someone who usually favors movies about ordinary people in ordinary situations. Then again, he also really liked The Favourite, which I didn't. I figured I'd tune in to Roma if only because it's one of the top contenders for Best Picture. If it bored me too, at least I was streaming at home, so I wouldn't feel bad about discontinuing the viewing.

The title refers to a Mexico City neighborhood. Set there in the early '70s, the story, despite an R rating, is based mostly on writer-director's Alfonso Cuarón's personal childhood memories. It follows Cleo, a maid at a house that includes four children, their parents (albeit on the verge of a breakup), their grandma, second maid Adela, and a dog. Things start happening for Cleo when she gets pregnant -- and her boyfriend disappears right after hearing so.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

I picked this almost at random among the many theater offerings on Monday evening. Queen is one of my favorite bands, but I'd been putting it off because of the highly mixed reviews, with far more positive vibes from the general public than from critics. Then I remembered that Get on Up demonstrated that I could enjoy a reputedly middling musician biopic, and Pitch Perfect 2 taught me that good music alone can make a viewing worth my while.

The story begins shortly before Farrokh Bulsara (Adam Rauf), the man who would become Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek), joins the band that would become Queen. The titular song comes together about 40 minutes into the 154. After that, the focus is less on the band's rise and more on its trouble staying together, particularly with Freddie being such a prima donna. And a hot mess.

Floating Weeds (1959)

Some filmmakers and critics, including Roger Ebert, count this film among their top ten. So why do I never hear about it? Oh, right: because it's directed by Yasujirō Ozu. And is neither Tokyo Story nor one of his temporal titles (e.g., Late Spring). You have to get deep into old, foreign, artistic cinema to discover this. Well, despite not getting much out of TS or LS, I decided to look for what a few other Americans saw in FW.

In the summer of '58, a kabuki troupe led by one Komajuro comes to the town where his ex-mistress, Oyoshi, and their adult son, Kiyoshi, reside. Kiyoshi knows his father only as an "uncle." Komajuro's current mistress and co-star, Sumiko, doesn't want him seeing Oyoshi again. When he won't comply with her wishes, Sumiko hires fellow actress Kayo to seduce Kiyoshi and thereby embarrass Komajuro.

The Razor's Edge (1946)

Despite having seen Of Human Bondage and The Letter, I've had a hard time remembering any of what W. Somerset Maugham wrote. My memory of this film may break that pattern, because he himself is a supporting character in it (played by Herbert Marshall). The character's role is roughly that of Nick in The Great Gatsby, for perspective and exposition rather than influence on the plot.

The story begins in 1919 and ends an indefinite amount of time after the crash of '29. Larry (Tyrone Power), a shell-shocked WWI vet, abandons a lucrative job offer to travel in search of meaning. To Isabel (Gene Tierney), his fiancee and the niece of proud aristocrat Elliott (Clifton Webb), this is absurd, so she turns over the ring. When they meet again, Larry has found what he craved and Isabel has married his friend (John Payne) for money, which didn't turn out so well. Now she wants Larry again, but marital status aside, there's the obstacle of his feelings for long-time friend Sophie (Anne Baxter), who needs emotional healing of her own....

Stan & Ollie (2018)

I'm a little disappointed at how many adults today seem ill-acquainted with Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Granted, I haven't watched any of their work since childhood. Their only (barely) feature-length film that I've seen is Way Out West (1937), whose making, incidentally, kicks off this story.

At the peak of their world-famous careers, Stan (Steve Coogan) and Ollie (John C. Reilly) are nearly broke, thanks to a series of divorces and bets. Their different approaches to pursuing more money in the face of an obstinate Hal Roach (Danny Huston) lead to the comedy duo splitting up. When reunited in 1953, they do a series of live performances in the U.K. to generate hype for an upcoming movie. Alas, their stage producer (Rufus Jones) has had trouble booking good venues, and Stan has trouble contacting their movie producer for details...and hiding his worries. Tensions rise, both between Stan and Ollie and between their respective wives, Ida (Nina Arianda) and Lucille (Shirley Henderson). It doesn't help that Ollie has gotten no healthier in his early sixties.

The Class (2008)

It's a little strange that I should see this film in 2019. The last time I heard anyone talk about it was a decade ago, when it was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards. Mainly I got intrigued by the preview, but to wait this long, I must have also felt some reluctance.

It certainly doesn't boast an original premise: François Marin (François Bégaudeau) teaches ninth-grade French in a Parisian school with an all-White staff and a mostly non-White, foreign-born student body, about half of whom Marin already knows from a previous year. This is based on Bégaudeau's semi-autobiography. (Most of the cast members use their real first names.)

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Am I on a romantic drama kick? No, these things just happen sometimes. I checked my Netflix queue to make sure the next delivery is different.

Modern Indianapolis teen Hazel has cancer in her thyroid and lungs. She shows signs of depression until she finally clicks with someone in her support group: slightly older teen Gus, whose bone cancer cost him a leg. Hazel has a policy against getting too close to anyone, since her condition limits how much they're likely to do together, but he's just so endearing....

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

I have seen disappointingly few films likely to get major Oscar nods this year. Since Barry Jenkins also directed Moonlight and this is closer in popularity to that than to Dear White People, I gave it priority.

In early-'70s Harlem, a young man nicknamed Fonny gets charged with rape of a random stranger, Victoria. Fonny's girlfriend, Tish, doesn't believe the testimony for a moment, not just because she trusts him but because quite a few details don't add up. Getting the jury to see it her way is another matter, as Victoria leaves for Puerto Rico and Officer Bell evidently has it in for Fonny. Complicating the situation is Tish's newfound pregnancy, blessed by some relatives and condemned by the more zealous. Regardless, Tish's family already had trouble making ends meet.

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

I liked Wreck-It Ralph so much that I was almost disappointed to learn of a sequel -- because it might negate my fanfic in the works! Nevertheless, I understood why not everyone thought highly of W-IR. The complaints I've read mostly trace to the same problem: the difficulty of making a family movie about video games. Disney sought to appeal to children, adults, boys, girls, old-school gamers, new-school gamers, and non-gamers. This meant dilution, so some viewers wanted more pandering to their demographic than they got. Thus, I was not surprised that the sequel chose a new titular focus that promised to be more universally relatable, and I was only marginally surprised that both my parents came with me.

Six years after the events of W-IR, Ralph (John C. Reilly), hulking designated villain of early-'80s game Fix-It Felix Jr.; and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman), a player character from relatively modern kiddie racing sim Sugar Rush, maintain a sibling-like close friendship, hanging out together when the arcade's closed for the night. (Apparently, her inability to leave her game has been fixed, even if she still glitches.) When Sugar Rush has a hardware malfunction, all its characters must look for new lodgings and vocations. Ralph and Vanellope hope to save the game (NPI) from a permanent shutdown by entering the Internet and buying a replacement part on eBay. Of course, they need to raise money online fast, whether by gaming or making viral videos. Amid this strain, friendship also gets strained. And as the title implies, Ralph's tendency to wreck things whether he wants to or not still causes trouble.

Seven Beauties (1975)

Oh, hello, another downer about oppression in Europe. This one stands out first and foremost for making Lina Wertmüller the first woman (of only five to date) to garner an Academy Best Director nomination. If no one had told me, I would not have guessed that a woman directed it.

Pasqualino "Settebellezze" (Giancarlo Giannini) starts as a smooth criminal who will defend his sense of honor in defiance of the law, but as soon as he kills his sister's wretched boyfriend, his life is largely a series of cowardly decisions to maximize his chances of life at the cost of honor. This includes pleading insane, volunteering for the army in World War II, and deserting at the first opportunity. When he ends up in a concentration camp, he puts his ladies' man wiles to the test, hoping to win mercy from the ice-cold commandant (Shirley Stoler).