Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Sometimes I can't believe my luck. When I put this next in my queue, I had no idea it was set around Christmas, with plenty of audiovisual trappings thereof. That said, the time of year is no more important to the plot than it is in Die Hard (both produced by Joel Silver). Doesn't even rate a mention in the KKBB Wikipedia synopsis.

New York burglar Harry (Robert Downey Jr.), on the run from police, accidentally enters a room where acting auditions are being held -- for just the kind of character he is. The casting director (Larry Miller) sends him to L.A., where PI "Gay" Perry (Val Kilmer) is supposed to train him for a screen test playing a PI. He also runs into former friend/crush Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), now a struggling actress, and smittenly tells her he's a real detective. In no time, Harry and Perry (yes, it gets confusing if you don't listen closely) witness the disposal of an actual, rather high-profile murder victim. Not long after, another reported death means something more personal to Harry. Against Perry's advice, he tries to solve the mystery himself with what he learned from a fictitious novel series.

3-Iron (2004)

On one hand, I've grown leery of R-rated Korean features, which aren't all as watchable as Parasite. OTOH, writer-director Kim Ki-duk did a peaceful yet adequately engaging job with Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring. And 2004 was a great year for cinema in my book.

In a modern South Korean city, a possibly homeless young man, Tae-suk (Jae Hee), puts flyers on doors, picks the locks of those that leave the flyers on long enough to suggest that the residents are on vacation, and then bums around before a hasty getaway. The Netflix description makes it sound like a slice-of-life that never goes anywhere, but that would be misleading. The plot starts to progress when he stumbles on a former photography model, Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon), who decides to run away with him from her physically abusive husband, Min-gyu (Kwon Hyuk-ho). She's content to go everywhere with Tae-suk -- until they discover a corpse and become implicated. And Min-gyu has an in with a dirty cop....

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Yeah, that's two consecutive theater viewings of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. And sadly, I've had only a dozen theater viewings in the nearly 2.5 years since the last Spider-Man movie. But a friend had an extra ticket and invited me mere hours in advance, so how could I put this off?

The action begins right where Far from Home leaves off: Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) has posthumously outed Peter Parker (Tom Holland) as Spider-Man -- and framed him for Mysterio's crimes and death. There is not enough evidence for a trial, but the public is divided on whom to believe. The bad publicity causes trouble for Peter's friend Ned (Jacob Batalon) and tentative girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) by association. Peter asks Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a widespread amnesia spell, but by belatedly requesting exceptions, he distracts Strange to the point that the spell becomes too dangerous and Strange traps the workings in a container -- too late for it to have no effect whatsoever. Not only will everyone remember, but people from alternate universes who know Spider-Man's identity cross over, including five villains from the first two Spider-Man silver-screen series: the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina), the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), the Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Electro (Jamie Foxx). Guess it would've been tough to fit the rest in.

The Good Earth (1937)

All I really knew going in was that this would be my first viewing from the '30s in nearly four months, that it was based on a Pearl S. Buck novel, and that the Academy nominated it for Best Picture. Of course, Oscar nods from the '30s tend not to look so good anymore, so I tempered my expectations.

The exact period is ambiguous, but sometime after the arrival of trains and before the first World War, northern Chinese farmer Wang Lung (Paul Muni) has an arranged marriage to kitchen slave O-Lan (Luise Rainer, becoming the first winner of consecutive Oscars for leading roles). They have a good life for a while, gaining wealth and kids, until a famine yields tragedy and drives them to seek relief in the south. The chaos of an attempted revolution changes their fortune, but a new high for wealth goes to Lung's head, and his arrogant decisions, not least a second marriage to Lotus (Tilly Losch), threaten to tear the family asunder.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Initially, I put this title off because I felt like I'd already learned all there is to know about it. Then I put it off more when I learned that Ben Stiller starred and directed (he's even more of a red flag for me than Will Ferrell) and Jack Black was among the highest billed. But recently, I heard an interview in which Robert Downey Jr. reflected fondly on it. Maybe it would be worth a viewing after all.

The production of a modern Vietnam War epic is going slowly and over budget, apparently because the director (Steve Coogan) doesn't know how to work with prima donnas. At the advice of the gritty writer of the book being adapted (Nick Nolte), he sends the five main actors deeper into the jungle for a more authentic experience. Little does any of them know that this jungle is home to a strong gang of heroin manufacturers, who mistake the fake soldiers for Drug Enforcement Administration officers (do they have international jurisdiction?). The actors, in turn, take a little while to realize that the criminals aren't other actors.

The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)

This was the first sequel ever to get an Academy Best Picture nod, but I hadn't known that going in. Bing Crosby as a priest in a Leo McCarey movie could have been a spiritual successor to the previous year's Going My Way, which, while probably the least popular Best Picture of the '40s, made a comfortable viewing for me. I was up for more comfort.

Father Chuck O'Malley (Crosby) becomes the...principal?...of an inner-city Catholic school for first- to eighth-graders. He takes a more casual approach than Sister Superior Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman), which leads them to lock horns on occasion, not least regarding whether to give leeway to failing eighth-grader Patsy (Joan Carroll) in light of her domestic difficulties. But they agree on one thing: Their building won't serve their purpose much longer. Sending everyone to another parish across town is hardly their first choice. What they'd really like is for CEO Horace P. Bogardus (Henry Travers) to give them his newly constructed office building next door for free. Considering Bogardus hates kids, this may take a miracle.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Yes, I've been watching comic book movies at an unusual frequency lately. But I wanted to watch another movie in a theater for the first time in months, this one was on at an acceptable time, and I'm pretty sure my dad was willing to pass on it.

The last two words of the title refer to either an East Asian terrorist gang or the magical artifacts worn by its leader, Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung). Xu Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), son of Wenwu, was trained to be an assassin but ran away to San Francisco, where he serves as irresponsible valet Shaun. His long-time friend and co-worker Katy (Awkwafina) has no idea of his background until, after a decade, Wenwu's men come to steal the jade pendant Shang-Chi got from his late mother, Ying Li (Fala Chen). Certain that they'll go after his estranged sister, Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), for her pendant, Shang-Chi heads for Macau, and Katy insists on joining him to learn more. He doesn't know what his dad's up to, but it can't be good.

Control (2007)

In retrospect, I wouldn't have chased a musical biography with a biography of a musician. Still, that's about where the similarity ends.

The story focuses on Ian Curtis (Sam Riley) starting in 1975, shortly before he marries Debbie (Samantha Morton) and becomes the lead singer of Joy Division, the British post-punk rock band. I'm afraid the timeline isn't very long, because he dies at age 23. And no, the cause is not drugs or a plane crash.

Hamilton (2020)

For all the popularity of the Broadway musical, I was reluctant to check it out. Anachronistic music and blatant racial/ethnic inaccuracy in a story based on true events seemed like punchlines, yet it was clearly not played primarily for laughs. Weirdness without humor is often off-putting. Then I remembered liking Jesus Christ Superstar and decided I had no excuse.

This is not really an adaptation of the play but a screening of a 2016 production thereof, complete with the sounds of a then-live audience. It covers a period roughly from the first time Alexander Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote and composed it) met Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom, Jr.) to, well, the last time. You should already know what that means. If you badly need an early U.S. history lesson, let's just say for now that he helped George Washington (Christopher Jackson) in the Revolutionary War and became Secretary of the Treasury.

1984 (1984)

In these polarized days especially, I've heard many references to the George Orwell book. I came to realize that I shouldn't just rely on what people say about its content. At the same time, I doubted that I would enjoy reading the whole thing. After all, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World succeeded at shocking me, but I gave up when it took too long to show any signs of plot progression. So I chose what appears to be the most popular screen adaptation. Subsequent perusal confirms that it does not deviate far from the source material; there are just a few shifts in Newspeak labels for some reason.

In what had been the future at the time of writing, there are three world superpowers, and the one awkwardly called Oceania extends as far as England. Winston Smith (John Hurt) serves in London's Ministry of Truth but seems less satisfied than the average totalitarian party member. He meets Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), who outwardly presents as an ardent member of the Junior Anti-Sex League but swiftly seduces him into a forbidden relationship. Of course, it's no secret that "Big Brother" (Bob Flag) has eyes everywhere, and Winston is not prepared to pay the price....

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

I browsed Netflix for a good end to the month and came across this title. Why wasn't it on my list already? After all, I liked The Conjuring, and the first sequel was reputed to be almost as good. I'm just not in the habit of watching horror sequels.

Around Christmas of 1977, shortly after their Amityville incident, paranormal experts Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) are invited to the London Borough of Enfield. The Hodgsons, consisting of mother Peggy (Frances O'Connor) and four kids, have lately had stressful domestic conflict and an abortive Ouija effort, both of which are said to feed into an unwelcome presence, and the ensuing events have been frightful enough to make them seek shelter with neighbors. These events, including apparent part-time possession of 11-year-old Janet (Madison Wolfe), are attributed to the hostile spirit of a prior resident (Bob Adrian). The Catholic Church won't authorize an exorcism without compelling evidence. That's where the Warrens come in, coordinating with convinced investigator Maurice Grosse (Simon McBurnie) and doubtful psychologist Anita Gregory (Franka Potente). But Lorraine, with her psychic connections, gets the feeling that this mission will be more dangerous than any they've tackled before....

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

If your first thought was the Billy Idol song, yup, this is where the title came from. It's also thought to have influenced the appearance of Michael Myers in Halloween. But contemporary critics hated it, and one of the few positive reviews nearly got the writer fired (not even in France). That might be why it was marketed deceptively as The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus in the U.S. I was pretty reluctant to watch it myself, not for lack of reputed quality but for disturbing premises. Still, I mustered the courage.

Christiane (Edith Scob) has been facially unpresentable since a car accident. Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur), being her father, a reconstructive surgeon, and the cause of the accident, takes it upon himself to give her skin grafts. Of course, it's hard to find a willing donor for a face transplant, so with the help of assistant Louise (Alida Valli)...well, you can guess. And no, once isn't enough.

Blade (1998)

Before 2000, almost all Marvel Comics movies bombed. I'd heard that this was the one standout, however mixed its reception. At least it garnered a trilogy. I chose to watch for its seasonally appropriate theme and so I'd know Wesley Snipes from something other than the Bad music video, what little I recall of Murder at 1600, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

Modern L.A. is far more populated -- and dominated -- by vampires than you might guess. Nevertheless, Eric "Blade" Brooks (Snipes) is unusual: His mother (Sanaa Lathan) having been bitten moments before she gave birth, he has inherited most of their powers and only one weakness, the need for blood or its chemical equivalent. Under the influence of Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), he has moved away from preying on humans and toward taking down vampires. By the beginning of this story, he is their bogeyman, "the Daywalker." But he doesn't scare vampiric playboy Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), who believes that Blade can unwillingly help him awaken a dark god worshipped in ancient times.

Friday the 13th (1980)

Rarely is there such a discrepancy between a movie's popularity and its enduring influence. This one got middling ratings at best across the board, both when new and at present, yet it spawned a long series with a highly iconic character. I thought I knew enough not to bother watching, but Scream called my attention to my ignorance. I doubt my new knowledge will spell the difference between life and death for anyone, but it couldn't hurt, could it?

Seven counselors (Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Jeanine Taylor, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Robbie Morgan, and early Kevin Bacon) and their director (Peter Brouwer) prepare to reopen Camp Crystal Lake for the summer, disregarding local rumor of a fatal curse on the area based on a series of unsolved murders and suspicious "accidents" starting in the late '50s. I'm relieved to say there are no campers yet when the "curse" strikes again, with the eight getting picked off one by one, primarily at night with an unreliable power source. It's quite late in the movie before anyone who isn't already a victim has any idea that people are dying.

Monster House (2006)

At one time, I was actually a little afraid to watch this PG animation, because I worried about the poor dog from the trailer. Then I looked up a synopsis, confirmed the dog's lack of injury (necessary for the PG rating, it turns out)...and worried that I now knew too much to enjoy watching. Fortunately, I had forgotten most of what I read, or else I'd skimmed more than I realized.

In '80s suburban Wisconsin, 12-year-old outcast D.J. (Mitchel Musso) obsessively spies on the decrepit house across the street, where cranky old recluse Horace Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi), the subject of uxoricide rumors, scares away any kid who drops something on his yard. When Nebbercracker has a heart attack right before Halloween, the house continues to show signs of activity -- and not just the kind you expect with living inhabitants. People and animals who come too close tend to get swallowed up. With no authorities believing in a threat, D.J. teams up with friend "Chowder" (Sam Lerner) and newly acquainted candy salesgirl Jenny (Spencer Locke) to try to end the haunting with their own ingenuity.

Shock Corridor (1963)

I already had this near the top of my queue when someone invited me to a (virtual) Meetup session to discuss it. The disc arrived in the nick of time, so the following review incorporates a few insights from other viewers.

A murder at a mental hospital has gone unsolved for a while, with only uncooperative patients as witnesses. Reporter Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) hopes to get through to one of them and tell the world...by getting himself "involuntarily" committed, the staff having no idea that he faked his way in. Johnny has had a lot of training for this, but he underestimates how hard it will be to hold onto his sanity in those conditions.

The Last House on the Left (1972)

I don't normally watch movies with mediocre ratings across sites, but this one was pretty influential. I gave it priority over the 2009 remake, which some consider better and others worse; I suspect the remake is gorier. If nothing else, this version is only 84 minutes -- short enough that I watched a couple of the documentary shorts on the disc. Which, personally, I liked better than the feature itself. Hey, my main goal was education.

Since a couple scenes were shot in New York City, I take the setting to be mostly rural upstate New York. Slightly rebellious teens Mari (Sandra Peabody) and Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) go looking for some weed at night. They ask the wrong guy, who leads them into a trap. Four young adult captors take them out to the woods for sexual assaults and a bit of other torment, after which, well, they can't very well leave survivors, can they? Since it's late and the crooks are far from their base, they seek shelter in the titular house, which, as luck would have it, is Mari's. Her parents (Eleanor Shaw and Richard Towers) follow the evidence and plot a fittingly brutal reprisal....

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 (2013)

When I moved this up in my queue, it hadn't occurred to me that I would receive it in October, which I normally fill with Halloween-y viewings. On further reflection, I decided to keep it that way. Gotham's pretty gothic in its own right.

In light of many vigilantes less principled than Batman (Peter Weller) springing up, new Commissioner Ellen Yindel (Maria Canals-Barrera) issues a warrant for his arrest, passing word for Superman (Mark Valley) to step in if necessary. Batman might have re-retired at this point if not for the Joker (Michael Emerson) reappearing in public. The Joker may have only one accomplice left, Abner (Townsend Coleman), but Abner's tech skills are all they need to make a big, bloody splash. At the same time, the Cold War is heating up as the U.S. fights the U.S.S.R. for dominion of the fictional island of Corto Maltese. You know it'll spill over to Gotham somehow.

The Cowboys (1972)

I hadn't meant to watch this so soon after my last '70s western. But when I read the Netflix jacket, the timing seemed vaguely appropriate: chasing a controversial western that John Wayne hated with Wayne's most controversial western from late in his career.

The title may sound generic for the genre, but the emphasis is on the last syllable: In the 1870s, when gold fever has taken all the usual local candidates for drovers out of the running, Wil Andersen (Wayne) resorts to recruiting 11 boys no older than 15 to help him drive cattle 400 miles. Yes, their parents approve. The only other adult on the journey is the cook, Jeb Nightlinger (Roscoe Lee Browne). Some other adults do offer their services, but Andersen rejects them for their initial dishonesty regarding their background. Those men, led by one Asa Watts (Bruce Dern in a well-done yet surprisingly reviled role), decide to stalk the party in the hope of rustling.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 (2012)

A friend of mine talked me into watching the animation on HBO Max with him and then writing this review. I believe it's my first review here of an originally direct-to-disc movie, but hey, if I count TV movies, why not? My main cause for hesitation was that it's only half the story, but then I confirmed that Part 2 was released at a later date, so they really should be seen as separate features.

In what might be the same year as the Frank Miller comic from which it's adapted, 1986, Bruce Wayne (Peter Weller of Robocop fame) is 55 and has hung up the cowl for a decade. Jim Gordon (David Selby), who knows Wayne's secret, is on the verge of joining him in retirement. But it won't be a quiet final month for the police commissioner's career: The so-called Mutant Gang -- who are not of the X-Men superpowered variety, though their leader (Gary Anthony Williams) looks it -- have been on a seemingly pointless murder spree. Furthermore, Harvey Dent (Wade Williams), thought to have regained sanity now that he's no longer literally two-faced, goes back to acting like Two-Face, if sadder. Well, it's not so hard for the ultimate vigilante to come out of retirement....

High Plains Drifter (1973)

Sometimes a movie sounds interesting based on negative reviews -- by virtue of highly contrary criticisms rather than extreme ones per se. In this case, some say it's too derivative, yet John Wayne refused to work with Clint Eastwood afterward because it's too far removed from traditional westerns. I was not aware of these opinions when I chose to watch; I just knew it was popular overall. In retrospect, neither opinion surprises me. It was an era for experimentation, after all.

The new frontier mining town of Lago is worried about what three outlaws who just finished serving time will do when they return. A mysterious sharpshooter (Eastwood) holds promise for dealing with them, but he acts uninterested in sticking around, until the local authorities agree to give him whatever he wants -- and coerce their neighbors to follow suit. His demands, including literally painting the town red, get increasingly outrageous, to the point that some citizens would rather take their chances without him. But even with his guidance, they're all clearly incompetent shots....

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)

This has not received much mention in my social circles, but it gets moderately high ratings. After seeing its icon on Disney Plus enough times, I decided to give it a go. If nothing else, I'd see a dragon animation and a new effort from Big Hero Six director Don Hall.

The setting is an alternate version of Southeast Asia in centuries past, with humans the only real species around. Known civilization consists of five hostile tribes, each named after a dragon body part. They had been in harmony 500 years ago, when dragons provided rain and other great benefits to them, but demons called the Druun turned all the dragons to stone, except one Sisu (Awkwafina), who disappeared after dispelling the Druun. Things get a lot worse when the tribes squabble over Sisu's gem and break it in five, reducing its power to keep the Druun from petrifying more beings. Six years later, Raya (Kelly Marie Tran), 18-year-old daughter of Chief Benja (Daniel Dae Kim) of the Heart tribe, is on a quest to find Sisu and unite her with all the gem shards, if only to unpetrify Benja.

As you may have guessed from the casting of Awkwafina, Sisu is not as majestic as the legends told. She's a bit goofy and happy-go-lucky, albeit not as off-the-wall as Aladdin's Genie or as obnoxious as Maui. I understand that most of her lines were ad-libbed. Nor is she the only comical character on Raya's journey: We also get Ton (Benedict Wong), a savage warrior with a secret soft spot; Boun (Izaac Wang), a preteen chef with a boat-based restaurant; and Nai (Thalia Tran), the most absurdly competent baby this side of The Croods. (The Boss Baby has an adultlike voice and mind, but I'm thinking more of physical capabilities.) Of course, it's not so funny when you consider that these kids had to grow fast to survive when the Druun claimed their families.

I eventually noticed that each ally is from a different tribe, and most got off on the wrong foot with Raya. Enter Princess Namaari (first Jona Xiao, then Gemma Chan) of the Fang tribe, an old frenemy. It's evident that she has some good in her, but it's hard to know which way she'll go at a given moment. Her mother (Sandra Oh), while as eager as anyone else to drive off the Druun, would like to do so in the way that gives the biggest advantage to Fang. Raya and Namaari have the most engaging martial arts scenes.

Yeah, it's pretty action-packed. Just as many moments are likely to evoke Indiana Jones as Ong-Bak. Fortunately for younger viewers, it's a light PG, with no permanent casualties. That may sound like a spoiler, but believe me, you'll see lots of things coming a mile a way anyhow.

It's also remarkably fast-paced, especially in the first half. This is not altogether a good thing. Sure, it keeps the story down to a watchable length and obviates boredom, but I want to know more about this unique world. What were dragons besides Sisu really like? What other fictitious critters are there? How do the tribes differ, and how well do they reflect their names? I think RatLD would have done better as a TV series à la Avatar: The Last Airbender. Maybe there will be one.

Only after watching did it occur to me that Raya will probably be the first addition to the official Disney Princess lineup since Moana. She may not sing, wear skirts, or have a canonical love interest, but she wouldn't be the first to lack any of those traits. She does have a cute animal companion, Tuk Tuk (Disney mainstay Alan Tudyk), who resembles an armadillo that grows from hedgehog size to elephant size in six years. And her athletic skills would make Mulan blush.

One reason I didn't think of Raya that way at the time is that, well, something about the whole movie doesn't feel very Disney-ish. Something about the choppy movements, the occasional vulgar humor, the sloppy setups (heroes could have saved themselves a lot of trouble with basic precautions)...it's kinda DreamWorks. Or maybe Blue Sky. Disney did buy that studio; maybe some of the same people were involved?

The recurring theme is trust. Benja believed that the glory days could be restored by extending hands to the other tribes, and Sisu persists in pushing the same approach, but Raya is slow to accept it, especially after repeated betrayals. In the end, I'm not sure how well the pic sells its moral. I'd rather trust those who earn my trust. Then again, there's also simply trusting people to be true to themselves, not necessarily honest with others. The issue might be too nuanced for a family feature to handle.

RatLD is not a likely classic, but I put it a few notches above Over the Moon. It's a worthy way to increase gender and ethnic representation, even if few cast members are Southeast Asian.

Open Your Eyes (1997)

No, it has nothing to do with the movie of the same title from this year. It does have a remake, but that was Vanilla Sky (2001), reputedly not as good. Both versions include Penelope Cruz in the same role; in OYE (a.k.a. Abre los ojos), she's the only actor whose name meant something to me. At least I'd already had a taste of director Alejandro Amenábar with The Others.

César (Eduardo Noriega) is a Madrid aristocrat and quite the lothario, prone even to swiping dates from his friend (Fele Martínez) -- until the day after his 25th birthday. His most recent ex, Nuria (Najwa Nimri), doesn't want him to move on to the likely next girlfriend, Sofía (Cruz), so she talks him into her car and deliberately crashes. Nuria reportedly dies, and César's face is so injured that even the best surgery money can buy can hardly make him presentable again. Sometimes he takes to wearing a rather realistic yet unmoving mask. He hopes that Sofía will still be receptive to him. And then things start to become hard to explain....

Secrets & Lies (1996)

For a movie so highly rated all around, this was surprisingly elusive. I couldn't find it at the video store back when I lived near one, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't offered via Netflix as soon as I wanted. Late to the DVD party, perhaps?

Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) hates her life as a middle-aged London box factory worker and mother to Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook), whose surliness seems immature for a woman about to turn 21. Cynthia never leaves the flat except to work or shop and rarely hears from her nearby brother, Maurice (Timothy Spall), because of an even more strained relationship between her and his wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan). But this predictably bleak life takes an unforeseen turn when Cynthia gets a call from Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an older daughter she had given up immediately for adoption, whose adoptive parents are now dead and who's curious about her. At first, Cynthia wants no further contact, but then she warms up to the idea of connecting with someone who truly welcomes her -- albeit not letting the rest of her family in on it right away.

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

It had been nearly three months since my last 2020 Academy Award nominee viewing, so I moved another up in the queue. Why this one? I think the title got me curious. It certainly wasn't director Shaka King, whose few other works I'd never heard of, but Ryan Coogler as a producer lent some promise.

In '68 Chicago, Bill O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) has been impersonating an FBI agent in order to steal what he claims was reported stolen. When he gets in trouble with the real FBI, Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) gives him an alternative to the usual consequences: infiltrating the local Black Panthers (not the other kind associated with Coogler) and spying on popular Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). O'Neal also makes occasional unsuccessful attempts to incite crimes among the Panthers, unless he's merely playing up his own extremism to avoid suspicion.

Design for Living (1933)

This disc came with Peter Ibbetson, which I skipped because I hadn't allotted enough time, it isn't the more popular of the two, and chasing a comedy immediately with a drama didn't feel right. Having a "double feature" on one DVD seems unpromising for the quality of both movies, but DfL is pretty highly rated and has several famous names attached, including director-producer Ernst Lubitsch.

George (Gary Cooper) and Tom (Fredric March) are friends and struggling artists -- a painter and playwright, respectively -- who nevertheless take a trip to Paris, where they happen to make the acquaintance of fellow American Gilda (Miriam Hopkins), an advertising artist with ideas to improve both men's works. Before long from the perspective of a 91-minute runtime, each man finds out that the other has been seeing Gilda on the sly. Neither wants to let her go, and she doesn't want to let either go, so the trio makes a "gentleman's agreement" to be a circle of platonic friends. This agreement becomes harder to keep when Tom finds enough success to take him out of the city....

Okja (2017)

This pre-Parasite Bong Joon Ho hit had been sitting on my list for some time. Every once in a while, someone would either praise it or, less often, diss it. Neither the title nor the poster appealed to me, but eventually, I decided to know for sure how to feel about it.

The fictitious Mirando Corporation, under new CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton), has been breeding "super pigs" larger in adulthood than hippos and with exceptionally efficient metabolism. The plan, of course, is to combat human hunger. A rural South Korean farmer (Byun Hee-bong) has raised reputedly the most magnificent super pig, Okja. But But Mija (Seo-hyun Ahn), his early teen granddaughter, has grown too attached and doesn't want her taken to Mirando HQ in New York City. Being more headstrong than smart, Mija sets out for the Mirando station in Seoul without a plan....

Road to Perdition (2002)

This is one of those rare times that I allow myself to review a re-viewing because I'd mostly forgotten the first viewing. I have a friend (also a bit relevantly forgetful) to thank for convincing me to give it another go, as well as for helping me understand and appreciate what was happening.

In peak Al Capone-era Chicago, 12-year-old Michael Sullivan, Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) knows that his father, Mike (Tom Hanks), has a dangerous job but gets curious about the unstated details, so he stows away in the car one night. Mike turns out to be a debt collector for the Irish Mob under John Rooney (Paul Newman), and Michael sees John's hotheaded son Connor (Daniel Craig, attempting a U.S. accent again) commit a murder even John wouldn't approve. Fearing that Michael won't keep his promise not to talk and resentful of Mike winning John's favor, Connor attempts to kill, directly or indirectly, the entire local Sullivan family, ironically missing only the two most important targets. Mike plans to take Michael to a relative in the fictitious town of Perdition, Michigan (modeled after Hell, Michigan?), but first he wants to neutralize the Rooneys' pursuing threat, possibly with Capone's aid via the one other real gangster mentioned, Frank Nitti (Stanley Tucci).

Revanche (2008)

Despite the title, I don't recall hearing a word of French in the whole 122 minutes. It's set in Austria, so most of the dialogue is in German. Be warned: The first several lines do not get subtitles. I suspect they're in Ukrainian, given the recent immigration of one character.

Brothel bouncer Alex (Johannes Krisch) is so taken with prostitute Tamara (Irina Potapenko) that he robs a bank to pay off her debts. He's pretty cautious as solo robbers go, but his illegal parking draws the attention of policeman Robert (Andreas Lust). In the ensuing chaos, Alex escapes, but Robert accidentally kills Tamara (at least he doesn't try to hide his culpability), causing Alex's interest in revanche.

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

No, this has nothing to do with the Shel Silverstein poem collection of the same name. Nor does the end of the sidewalk actually come into play plotwise. Somebody just tacked the title on to convey the genre of film noir.

NYPD Det. Mark Dixon (Dana Andrews) has a record of excessive roughness against suspects, but he brushes off warnings from Lt. Thomas (Karl Malden) -- until he accidentally kills a cantankerous hood, Ken Paine (Craig Stevens). Dixon tries to make it look like Paine fled town. When the body is discovered, he tries to frame master criminal Tommy Scalise (Gary Merrill), who had likely framed Paine in the first place and whom Dixon has long wanted to put away. But Thomas instead follows the trail to Paine's hostile father-in-law, Jiggs Taylor (Tom Tully). Not only would Dixon hate to have an innocent man take the fall, but he's growing fond of Taylor's daughter, Martha (Ruth Donnelly).

The Green Knight (2021)

I enjoyed reading about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in college, tho I've been a mite fuzzy on events in the middle. With the general praise for this adaptation, I went to a theater on a whim. Had I known that A24 was involved, I would have been more apprehensive.

An Ent-like horseman (Ralph Ineson) rides up to the Round Table with a challenge: Whoever strikes him gets to keep his nifty axe but has to show up at his Green Chapel a year later for recompense. Gawain (Dev Patel), nephew of King Arthur (Sean Harris), wants to make a name for himself at last, so he decapitates the Green Knight, only to find that such a mystical figure doesn't die that easily. As the rather literal deadline approaches, Gawain heads out for no other reason than a thirst for honor....

The Player (1992)

The main thing I knew going in was that lots of familiar names were attached to it. But only a handful of famous people in the "all-star cast" get important roles; most have walk-ons as themselves, and I'm afraid many of those have not had enduring star power. Regardless, it's also highly rated across sites and boasts a few awards and nominations, so I had better reasons to check it out.

Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a Hollywood producer as sleazy as any. One of the writers he brushed off starts sending anonymous, increasingly threatening postcards. He tracks down a likely candidate, David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio), and offers to make it up to him, but Kahane rudely declines, having read that Mill is losing pull, if not his job, to an up-and-comer (Peter Gallagher). With that nerve struck, Mill accidentally kills Kahane. He obscures the evidence, but it doesn't take long for the police to suspect him. And then the postcards continue....

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

All I really knew about this before -- perhaps all anyone today is expected to know about it -- is that it includes a dance sequence involving Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse of Tom and Jerry fame. That told me it was going to be whimsical, even by old musical standards. If nothing else, that scene promised to be cute.

On shore leave in Hollywood, Clarence (Frank Sinatra) looks to Joe (Kelly) for guidance on courtship. Lessons are interrupted when a cop irregularly strong-arms them into persuading single-digit boy Donald (Dean Stockwell), who wants to join the Navy right away, to return home that night. They accompany him and meet his Aunt Susie (Kathryn Grayson), an aspiring singer who immediately appeals to Clarence but not Joe, who'd rather pursue the local woman he's already dated. Through a series of events that's tricky to summarize, Joe winds up claiming that Clarence can get her an audition with concert pianist José Iturbi (as himself), figuring it's Clarence's best shot. As the two men try to make that claim a reality, their feelings shift....

Black Widow (2021)

While my mom enjoyed Wonder Woman and Black Panther, she was only half-interested in this woman-led superhero feature. If Dad and I had decided to go to the theater instead of using Disney+, she wouldn't have watched. Hey, it has only a marginally better reception than Captain Marvel at present. But I still didn't feel like waiting any longer to see it.

I knew this was a prequel, but I didn't realize that most of the plot took place in the wake of Captain America: Civil War, when Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding from the U.S. government for being among the rebel Avengers. She's not actually the only "Black Widow," just the most public; there's quite an army of thusly dubbed hitwomen trained from childhood under General Dreykov (Ray Winstone). Yelena (Florence Pugh), a Widow who had basically been Natasha's foster sister for a few years, finally makes contact again out of desperation: Dreykov has been controlling the Widows' actions via a chemical compound, but a special gas in a small supply of vials can counteract the effect instantly, completely, and indefinitely. To distribute the gas as needed, Natasha and Yelena will need to learn the location of the base of operations, known as the Red Room, with help from their past ersatz parents, Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour). Of course, they'll be up against a lot of similarly skilled women, including an intimidatingly armored elite whom Wikipedia identifies as Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

Viridiana (1961)

I had not had great experiences with writer-director Luis Buñuel. I found The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie a confusing mess and The Exterminating Angel too absurd to take seriously. Had I recalled his role in writing part of Johnny Got His Gun, I might have refused to watch anything else of his. But sometimes the fact that a picture was once banned makes it tempting, even to those who respect the church that decried it. Besides, I was curious to see how Buñuel would do with something neither in the realm of fantasy nor full of dreams.

The title character (Silvia Pinal) is preparing to become a nun in Spain. She reluctantly accepts an invitation to visit her estranged wealthy uncle, Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), who may not have much longer to live. Viridiana looks so much like her departed aunt that he hatches a terrible plot to have his way with her. That's as far as the Netflix summary goes, but it doesn't do justice to the second half; if you don't mind possible spoilers, read on.

Luca (2021)

Some folks got the impression that this was a remake of The Little Mermaid. It is a Disney cartoon movie about an adolescent human-fish combo from off a European coast who takes great interest in the surface realm, especially human culture, despite parental insistence that humans are too deadly (and doesn't know what to do with a fork). But that's about where the similarity ends.

The title character (Jacob Tremblay) is not a merperson in the usual sense. He looks more like a cute distant cousin to the Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water, except that any part of him that gets dry (which happens ridiculously fast) looks perfectly human. We don't know a term for his species besides "sea monsters," and since they tend to call humans "land monsters," I'd expect them to use another term for themselves.

Anyway, Luca stops merely daydreaming about the surface after he meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), a slightly older sea monster who encourages a more adventurous lifestyle. When Luca's parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) plan to send him to live with his deep-sea uncle (Sacha Baron Cohen), he and Alberto decide to hide in the fictitious Italian coastal town of Portorosso, where it appears to be the late '50s. They'd love to get their hands on a Vespa motorscooter, and a possible way soon presents itself: win a local junior triathlon. Of course, the swimming segment won't be so easy when there's a longstanding tradition of spearing sea monsters on sight....

Yi Yi (2000)

This title translates literally to "One One," which could imply "One by One" or "One After Another." In English, it has sometimes been marketed as A One and a Two. The only interpretation that makes any sense in context to me is "One After Another," and that's still not very specific. In any case, its consistently high ratings caught my attention.

The story is difficult to summarize, because the Jian family in Taipei has a lot of different things going on. Probably the most central arc involves married NJ meeting married ex-girlfriend Sherry for the first time in ages; she's still sore about his sudden disappearance from her life and wants some form of closure. He also struggles with an ailing company, which assigns him to kiss up to potential client Mr. Ota. NJ's mother-in-law goes into a coma, and the family is advised to talk to her in the hopes of guiding her out, but they tend to feel a lot of stress when they do, not least NJ's wife, Min-Min. NJ's teen daughter, Ting-Ting, feels especially guilty because of the circumstances that may have led to the coma; she copes by making a new friend, Lili, but this also draws her into a messy relationship web. NJ's brother-in-law, A-Di, is newly married and expecting but turns to his ex-girlfriend for support when his financial missteps create a marital rift. Finally, NJ's prepubescent son, Yang-Yang (they sure like repetition), gets picked on by bigger girls, and his unorthodox ways get him on his teacher's bad side.

Summer of Soul (2021)

Another unplanned first for this blog: two documentaries in a row. Of course, this one's entirely different. It's also the first Questlove-directed "jawn," because he's too Philadelphian to use "joint" like Spike Lee.

The Harlem Cultural Festival sure got overshadowed, not least because it conflicted in part with both Woodstock and the Apollo 11 mission. (Marketers called it "Black Woodstock" despite it beginning more than a month sooner.) But that's no reason the footage had to sit in storage for half a century before coming to light. It was still a significant event with a bunch of famous figures, including one band that also performed at Woodstock: Sly and the Family Stone.

Bears (2014)

My gosh. I never reviewed a nature documentary on this blog before. The only one I recall watching after 2007 was obscure and in Spanish, so I opted out of writing about it. Yet I usually enjoy the subgenre when I give it a chance. Maybe I should stock up.

Speaking of stocking up, that's largely the focus herein. A brown bear, whom the makers dub Sky, takes her two new cubs on a long trek across Alaskan wilderness to find enough food to get them all through hibernation. Obstacles include an avalanche, a flood, a tenaciously prowling wolf, and even adult male brown bears who don't have a code against cannibalism. Can the whole family beat 50% odds?

In the Heights (2021)

That's right: For the first time in 16 months, I went to a movie theater. My parents went with me, making a point to pick the local theater most in need of support. They had already seen the play; I haven't.

The title refers to Washington Heights, a Manhattan neighborhood that's home to many from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and especially the Dominican Republic. The narrating protagonist is Usnavi de la Vega (Anthony Ramos), a struggling late-20s shopkeeper who, despite encouragement from teen cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV) and friend Benny (Corey Hawkins), can hardly work up the nerve to ask out frequent customer Vanessa (Melissa Barrera). Others have their own considerable troubles: Benny's employer, Kevin (Jimmy Smits), will do anything to pay Stanford tuition for his daughter Nina (Leslie Grace), but Nina would rather drop out; and Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) has to move her salon for lower rent. Indeed, a recurring theme is that the block's culture is fading away as businesses close and people move out. And we viewers get plenty of advance warning of a multiday Heights-wide power outage, which sure won't alleviate anyone's stress during a heat wave.

Ministry of Fear (1944)

Woohoo, Fritz Lang and Graham Greene, together at last! Alas, neither one was happy with the output, which they could blame largely on writer-producer Seton I. Miller exercising too much creative control in his deviation from the novel. But the movie's still pretty esteemed, so I had to check it out.

At a British village fair, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) accidentally says a code phrase and comes into possession of a cake containing a MacGuffin. Someone tries to make off with it by violent force, but the chaos of war ensures that nobody has it anymore. Suspecting the alleged charity that gave him the cake, Neale hires a PI (Erskine Sanford) to help investigate. Organizer Willi Hilfe (Carl Esmond) and his sister Carla (Marjorie Reynolds) appear surprised at the possibility of a spy ring in their ranks and offer their own cooperation. Of course, this wouldn't be the first Lang picture or the first Greene picture to feature major secret Nazi infiltration, so our heroes may have bitten off more than they can chew. It doesn't help that Neale wants to avoid contact with the police, because he was only recently released from an asylum....

The Small Back Room (1949)

This British production was released in the U.S. as Hour of Glory. I can see why the title changed: "Back room" had a slang meaning that didn't carry across the pond, denoting wartime scientific researchers. Not that directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger regularly did a good job with titles (e.g., The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp omits his death), but this time, they were adapting from a same-title novel.

In 1943, bomb disposal expert Sammy Rice (David Farrar), between pain from a prosthetic foot and apparent mismanagement in his line of work, is usually in a mood bad enough to strain his romance with Susan (Kathleen Byron). When pills don't dull the pain, he hits the bottle hard. But his career isn't over; they still count heavily on him when the going gets tough, especially when they're down a man from the latest failure.

Killer of Sheep (1977)

I've learned to approach low-budget indies with trepidation. No matter how popular they are, they hang by a thread, most likely appreciated for just one or two reasons; if those reasons aren't enough for you, your viewing may well feel like a loss. This indie was actually an M.F.A. thesis project, costing $10,000 (about $44,400 in today's economy) and not seeing a remotely wide release until 2007, partly because of soundtrack rights issues. Given its bleakness, the filmmakers might have chosen not to use color even if they could afford it.

The title character is L.A. slaughterhouse employee Stan (Henry G. Sanders). He does not consider himself poor, knowing people who have it worse, but others expect him to either do something for more income -- be it legit work or crime -- or live an even more austere life, as by not investing in a car. I'm not sure he makes the best choice; his current situation negatively influences his relationship with his wife (Kaycee Moore) and kids.

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)

I realize it hadn't been long since the last movie I saw to include heavy focus on a British royal -- indeed, Queen Elizabeth I in particular. But this one is 32 years older, so I figured it would feel rather different.

Robert Deveraux, 2nd Earl of Essex (Errol Flynn), has had a victory in the Anglo-Spanish War, but not enough to satisfy Her Majesty (Bette Davis). Insulted and sensing support only from Sir Francis Bacon (Donald Crisp), he leaves the court and doesn't return until ordered back for more military expertise in the Nine Years' War. In truth, that's largely an excuse for Elizabeth to be close to the man she craves. But Sir Robert Cecil (Henry Daniell), Sir Walter Raleigh (Vincent Price), and Lord Burghley (Henry Stephenson) see an opportunity to get him out of the way of her favor once again.

Mank (2020)

I was wrong: This 2020 Academy Best Picture nominee took even longer to come to fruition. Too bad the writer, Jack Fincher, father of director David, didn't live to see it. Anyway, once again, I gave it priority among the nominees only because of its availability.

We tend to think of Citizen Kane as exclusively an Orson Welles (Tom Burke) work, but Herman J. "Mank" Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) gets credit as a co-writer. Exactly how much credit he deserves is disputed, but in this telling, he writes the entire first draft. This is not easy for him to do in a timely fashion, because he has a drinking problem, a broken leg from a car crash, a half-estranged wife (Tuppence Middleton), the hostility of William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) over this imminent unflattering depiction, and general unpopularity for not opposing the California gubernatorial run of Upton Sinclair (Bill Nye).

Maria Full of Grace (2004)

Once in a while, I tell Netflix I'm not interested in a suggestion but later rent it anyway. In this case, I must have been turned off by the serious subject matter and then mustered the courage, partly because it got an Academy nomination for Best Actress (pretty rare for foreign-language fare) and an AFI Movie of the Year award. And I've enjoyed an unusually large number from 2004.

In a Colombian town, pregnant 17-year-old Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) quits her job at a florist sweatshop. Since there's not much else she can do for her family's much-needed funds, she agrees to traffic heroin to the outskirts of New York City, telling her family it's Bogotá office work. She is not pleased to learn that her friend Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega) is coming for the same reason, along with two other "mules," but she'll have much bigger reasons not to be pleased before this is over.

Soul (2020)

Finally, I can say once again that I've seen all the Academy Best Animated Features! Back when it was advertised, this flick didn't tempt me as much as Onward, but I learned long ago that ads are a poor gauge for Pixar quality.

When New York middle school band teacher Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) has a fatal yet family-friendly accident, he's not ready to see what lies in store for him in "the Great Beyond." After all, his life just got a whole lot more promising when jazz sax diva Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett) invited him to accompany her on piano. His only hope for getting his blobby blue soul back to his still operable body involves serving as a mentor to a not-yet-born soul in "the Great Before." The soul assigned to him (Tina Fey) is designated "22," and her low number hints at how long she's been failing to find the motivation to get born. Joe does find a workaround of sorts, but things go sideways: 22 inhabits his body, and his soul...well, you've likely seen the cat in posters....

Red-Headed Woman (1932)

I hadn't selected this on its own merits; it was simply on the same disc as Waterloo Bridge for being both from the same year and similarly risque. I considered skipping it altogether, but I could afford to kill another 79 minutes that night, and its ratings didn't look too bad. Besides, it featured a bigger name in the lead role.

If the title makes you think of negative stereotypes, that's probably the idea. Lil (Jean Harlow) is a social climber, but she climbs in a horizontal position, if you get my drift. I suppose it's more accurate to say "financial" rather than "social," because the aristocrats who know her game want nothing to do with her. She seduces quite a few men in the course of the story; the one with the most screentime is Bill (Chester Morris), a wealthy heir who wants to call it off before his wife (Leila Hyams) calls something else off, but Lil is too tenacious for his willpower.

Waterloo Bridge (1931)

This does not come up in searches as readily as its 1940 remake, which enjoys slightly higher ratings on average. Either I selected it by mistake, or I was more curious about the older version for being scandalous enough to call for a tamer telling under the Hays Code. That and I'd never seen a non-horror directed by James Whale.

While this is a war film in part, the titular bridge in London is not being guarded or taken by a focal platoon as I had assumed. Instead, it's where Roy (Douglass Montgomery), a young American soldier oddly in the Canadian Army, meets out-of-work chorus girl Myra (Mae Clarke) as they both help a stubborn old lady (Rita Carlyle) get to safety during a WWI air raid. The two spend time at Myra's run-down apartment until the all-clear signal. Roy falls in love with Myra and, concerned about his military assignment, proposes before long. She's rather fond of him, too, but tries to dissuade him from pursuing her because of her, well, more reliable source of income that she'd rather not divulge....

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

It is somewhat fitting that this should be the first of the year's Academy Best Picture nominees that I see, because it was almost certainly the longest in development: Aaron Sorkin wrote it in 2007. We can only imagine how it would have differed if the original plan for Steven Spielberg to direct had panned out. I did detect a bit of Spielberg flavor before I knew that, but no, it's Sorkin's second turn as a screen director.

After a rather brisk intro, most of the film runs from the start of the trial to the end. For those like me who've been a little hazy, the Chicago 7 are Vietnam War protesters charged with deliberately inciting a riot at the '68 Democratic National Convention. In truth, eight men are on trial most of the time, but Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) doesn't belong there and eventually gets a mistrial declared. The others are Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins), and John Froines (Daniel Flaherty). Defense counsel William Kunstler (Mark Rylance -- have a few Brits as Americans) sees an uphill battle as unrelated Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) is plainly unfair and probably senile. Several of the defendants figure it's political theater and would rather make their message heard than try to get acquitted.

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

It looks like my queue is currently short on war movies, especially ones depicting American soldiers. Had I realized in time, I might have pushed this World War II drama, the third in a trilogy by director Andrzej Wajda, back to Memorial Day weekend. Or if I did have an appropriate viewing lined up for then, I'd have pushed this several weeks out for the sake of spacing. Oh well.

In 1945, Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski), Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski), and Drewnowski (Bogumił Kobiela) have served in the recently disbanded Home Army of Poland and are now anti-communist agents. Their first attempt on the life of Polish Workers Party secretary Konrad Szczuka (Wacław Zastrzeżyński) results in the death of two misidentified men. For most of the rest of the film, they seem to be dragging their heels about a second attempt. They hardly believe in their cause anymore, and Maciek at least may have something more to live for after meeting barmaid Krystyna (Ewa Krzyżewska).

Gone Girl (2014)

Previously, I indicated a reluctance to see this movie, primarily because I tend to have trouble liking David Fincher thrillers. But placement on IMDb's top 250 and a Best Actress Oscar nod are nothing I'd sneeze at. This being 149 minutes, I split it across two nights.

Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) is semi-famous for the same reason as Christopher Robin Milne: She inspired a classic children's lit character by the same name. For this reason, many people take notice when she becomes a missing person. We viewers can assume up front that her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), had no part in her disappearance, judging from his surprise at the overturned furniture when he comes home, but others have no such assurance. A lot of circumstantial evidence points to him, and his known behavior isn't utterly winning. The lead detective (Kim Dickens) is pretty lenient toward him, but he and his nearby-living twin, Margo (Carrie Coon, actually nine years Affleck's junior), feel a need to do something before the police decide they have enough cause for a murder charge. And their state of residence, Missouri, practices the death penalty.

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

As intriguing as the title sounded to me, this is actually a reduction from the John Klempner story A Letter to Five Wives. I don't blame director Joseph L. Mankiewicz for trimming the number; 103 minutes was long enough. It certainly didn't hurt the prestige, netting Academy Awards for both Best Director and Best Screenplay, tho All the King's Men won Best Picture that year. (I might have nominated it for Best Sound, based on a brief Auto-Tune-like effect I didn't think they could make at the time.)

Deborah (Jeanne Crain), Rita (Ann Sothern), and Lora Mae (Linda Darnell) are heading off on a cruise when they receive the titular letter from their shared "friend," Addie (voiced by Celeste Holm but never clearly shown), boasting that she has run off with one of their husbands without saying who. They want to believe it's a sick joke, but each woman reflects on how easily it could her own. Most of the runtime consists of flashbacks to trouble brewing in their relationships, with Addie in the periphery like an ominous apparition. Only after the cruise can they hope to learn the truth.

Okko's Inn (2018)

With disc deliveries slowed again, I opted to stream a movie, and not wishing to spend a long time on selection, I went straight for the first anime on my list. Hey, it had been more than seven months. All I really knew going in was what the one-sentence Netflix summary said, plus the inviting art style.

Elementary schooler Okko (Seiran Kobayashi) is curiously uninjured from a car crash that kills her parents. She moves into the small-town inn run by her grandmother, Mineko (Yôko Asegami), where she soon discovers a rare effect of a near-death experience: She can see and hear spirits. The first one she meets is the ghost of a young boy, Uri-bô (Satsumi Matsuda), who hangs around the inn because he was Mineko's close friend in life. At Uri-bô's urging, Okko offers to become the assistant innkeeper, set to allow Mineko to retire eventually.

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Once again, I chose a comedy that didn't look like my type. I had enjoyed another National Lampoon hit, Animal House, but I'm not 18 anymore, and Chevy Chase hasn't struck me as on par with John Belushi. Still, the name of Chase's character, Clark Griswold, pops up now and then, and it wouldn't do for me merely to assume a generic bumbling dad in a hackneyed farce.

The vacation in question is to Roy Walley World, a knockoff of Disneyland, despite the kids, Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) and Audrey (Dana Barron), being too old to feel very excited about it. Clark insists on a drive all the way from Chicago, partly to see sights along the way and partly to avoid the isolation that commonly occurs on flights. They also visit relatives on the side of his wife, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo), tho that isn't in Clark's plus column. The journey takes up most of the runtime, and as you can imagine, it's one mishap after another.

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)

This was an Academy Best Picture nominee starring Gary Cooper, but neither of those details drew me in as much as the peculiar title. What makes it more peculiar is that the film focuses almost equally on three Bengal lancers. It turns out that the title was lifted from a book with a different plot and characters, much like Blade Runner was.

Cooper plays Lieutenant McGregor, a Canadian serving in the British Army in colonial India. He becomes well acquainted with two lieutenants new to his unit: Forsythe (Franchot Tone) and Stone (Richard Cromwell), the latter being the estranged son of their colonel (Guy Standing) and newly commissioned. Alas, Stone has yet to cultivate sufficiently responsible behavior and ends up a hostage for incipient rebel leader Mohammed Khan (Douglas Dumbrille), who overestimates the colonel's sentimentality. Fortunately, McGregor is only so ruly himself and can persuade Forsythe....

Amour (2012)

I've heard that the latest crop of Academy Best Picture contenders is especially depressing. With that in mind, perhaps I should have given lower priority to this older nominee, which looked too dismal for my dad. Nevertheless, I rather wanted to complete another year's worth, and this was the only one from 2012 I hadn't seen yet.

In modern Paris, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are an elderly couple. Their life seems pleasant enough, until Anne has a stroke that leaves her unresponsive for several minutes. She gets surgery to unblock her carotid artery, but it's a rare failure case, so she needs a wheelchair thereafter. She makes Georges promise never to send her back to the hospital or on to a nursing home. Alas, it's hard to find good help elsewhere, so he struggles to support her on his own. Each one, at times, expresses a sentiment that they'd both be better off with her finishing dying.

The Prisoner (1955)

This has nothing to do with the hit '67 TV series of the same title. That said, it is another British program in which nobody has a given name and the setting is ambiguous. All we know for sure is that the nation used to be under Nazi rule and is now under communist rule.

A cardinal (Alec Guinness) gets arrested on the dubious charge of treason against the regime, which, of course, will put him on trial only when he's almost certain to confess. He is not subjected to physical torture, whether because his captors want to be more civil than that, couldn't hope to break someone the Nazis couldn't that way, or really don't want to risk martyring him in the public eye. Instead, his interrogator (Jack Hawkins) takes a faux-friendly approach, made all the more possible by their past acquaintance. It takes longer than the superiors like, but the interrogator is determined to find a chink in the emotional armor.

Ferdinand (2017)

Blue Sky Studios, once said to be #3 among CG movie studios, shut down for good today. I was not aware of this scheduled event or the company's 2019 purchase by Disney when I chose to watch its penultimate production yesterday. I just thought it was one of the more promising Academy nominees for Best Animated Feature that I hadn't seen yet. Its basis in a classic children's book I hadn't read tempted me too.

As a calf, Ferdinand lives on a Spanish ranch that raises bulls specifically for the lethal kind of bullfight. Not only does he not like the prospect of getting stabbed to death; he doesn't like fighting at all. He escapes to a farm, where a loving girl and her father take such good care of him that he grows especially big in adulthood (and is then voiced by John Cena). Alas, he's not smart enough to keep out of town, where his oafishness is widely mistaken for berserkness, so he gets taken back to his old haunts, now with a good chance of being picked to face El Primero (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), a matador who's no Manolo.

Finding Forrester (2000)

I had known director Gus Van Sant only for Good Will Hunting, Milk, and a segment of Paris, je t'aime. When I learned that FF resembles GWH in that its protagonist is a young man who tends to hide his brilliance so as not to stand out from his lower-class buddies, I got interested. One key difference intrigued me further: It's about writing.

Between basketball skills and test scores, sixteen-year-old Jamal Wallace (breakout Rob Brown, who had expected to be an extra!) gets a scholarship to attend a ritzy private school, which he accepts with some uncertainty, since it's a very different culture from his usual environs. Around the same time, on a dare, he attempts to burglarize the apartment of a locally feared, mysterious recluse (Sean Connery) but panics and leaves behind a backpack full of his secret writings. The recluse, one William Forrester, returns them with a load of constructive criticism, which inspires Jamal to come back for more. It takes Jamal a while to figure out that William is a literary one-hit wonder who's pretty much disappeared for half a century (based loosely on J.D. Salinger). Naturally, each one can learn from the other, with William gradually opening up to Jamal and then people in general.

Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)

As I've said, movies about real-life British royalty have a good track record with me. This one is by the same director (Charles Jarrott) as Anne of the Thousand Days, so it was apt to feel even more like a sequel thereto than The Private Life of Henry VIII.

The tale begins in 1560, when teenage Mary (34-year-old Vanessa Redgrave) is about to lose her first husband, King Francis of France (Richard Denning). Having no claim to his throne, she decides to return to Scotland, but Queen Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson) will not grant her safe passage through England to get there. Even when Mary arrives home by ship, she finds her reception rather lacking, thanks to the rise of Protestantism and attendant hostility to Catholics such as herself. Indeed, her next 27 years will be riddled with people seeking to undermine her, whether by making her a figurehead in practice, persuading her to renounce all authority, imprisoning her, or assassinating her.

Spies (1928)

This was it: the last 1920s movie on my Netflix queue or list and thus probably the last silent. If it would become my last silent viewing ever, I was wise to choose one from a proven director, Fritz Lang.

Bank director Haghi (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) also leads a vast spy ring that meddles in international government affairs, seemingly just for the sake of wielding power. Knowing that one Agent 326 (Willy Fritsch, whose character name is never revealed) seeks to bring him down, he sends an agent of his own, Sonja (Gerda Maurus), to seduce and betray 326. The plan backfires when she falls for him for real. Of course, catching a mastermind still isn't easy....

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

Another family feature already, because I hadn't arranged my queue with care in that regard. Anyway, I chose this more for title recognition than any other reason, knowing only that it was a live-action Disney movie tied to a book in the Robinson Crusoe subgenre. Subsequent research told me that it takes even more license than usual for Disney, including dropping "The" from the title for some reason. Oh well. It may not help kids cheat on an English test, but at least it's pretty popular in its own right.

During the Napoleonic Wars, between the threat of pirates and a raging storm, a crew abandons a ship bound for colonial New Guinea without warning its five passengers below deck, who find out only when they become castaways. Mercifully, the nearest island, while uncharted, is quite lush, and the wrecked ship still has plenty of useful elements. Over the course of maybe months, the family contends with the forces of nature and, ultimately, the same pirates. They also face some internal conflicts, such as one on the Lord of the Flies-type question of how much effort to put into signaling for a rescue.

Paddington 2 (2018)

Until a few months ago, I had never read a Paddington Bear book in my life, so I brought no nostalgia to this viewing. Ordinarily, I'm leery of live-action adaptations of kiddie books with CG animal stars (Christopher Robin being an exception because Disney already had practice with the franchise), but this one didn't get a Stuart Little 2 reception. Indeed, it was astoundingly successful. Would I be about the only reviewer not to love it?

The possibly adolescent cub (Ben Whishaw) has been living with his adoptive human family, the Browns (Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, and Julie Walters as the housekeeper), in London for some time now, but he hasn't forgotten his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) back in Peru. He hopes to earn enough for a unique antique book for her birthday present. Alas, he spills its whereabouts to neighbor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), who secretly knows its value as a treasure map and has the skills to steal it and get away via disguise and stage magic. What's worse, Paddington, in his attempt to stop the unidentified thief, ends up taking the fall and going to prison. The Browns do what they can to find the real thief, while Paddington makes do with a different sector of humanity for company.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

I didn't expect to get much out of this. You may have noticed that there are only so many comedies I really like, and SatB has mixed reviews. But it was quite a hit back in the day, and I continue to see allusions to it now and then, so I figured I owed myself the education.

Bo "Bandit" Darville (Burt Reynolds) does not appear to have any legitimate employment, just a daredevil reputation. "Big" Enos Burdette (Pat McCormick), an aristocrat with a hankering for gambling, promises him $80,000 if he can be the first to drive from Atlanta to Texarkana and return with 400 cases of Coors in just 28 hours. In this version of reality, not only does that require a high average pace, but it runs the risk of a bootlegging charge. The Netflix jacket fails to mention that Bandit doesn't drive the rig himself; he aims to distract the fuzz in a Burdette-funded new Trans Am for his buddy Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Jerry Reed, who also wrote the movie's signature songs).

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

Oh boy, direction by Robert Bresson again. This time I felt an obligation to watch because it's his most popular work. In fact, it was the highest among the British Film Institute's faves that I hadn't already seen. But that's not very promising to me. Well, at worst, it would be only 95 minutes I wasn't getting back.

Three child siblings adopt a donkey and name him Balthazar. When their family runs into trouble years later, they have to sell him. He has several owners after that, none of them kind. Meanwhile, one of the kids he knew, Marie (played in young adulthood by Anne Wiazemsky), against the advice of others, enters an abusive relationship with delinquent Gérard (François Lafarge), one of his owners. The film focuses about half the time on Balthazar and half on Marie, tho they do share a number of scenes.

My Name Is Khan (2010)

If this title sounds bland to you, know that the surname (pronounced with a spirant like "chutzpah," as repeatedly stressed in the movie) is associated with Islam, at least in India. The phrase forms part of the main character's catchphrase, along with "and I am not a terrorist." That should tell you something about the heavy-handed focus, but it didn't drive me away; as the TV Tropes Wiki puts it, some anvils need to be dropped.

Rizvan Khan (played primarily by, heh, Shah Rukh Khan) moves from Mumbai to San Francisco and marries a Hindu single mom, Mandira (Kajol Mukherjee), against the wishes of his brother, Zakir (Jimmy Sheirgill). This works out until after 9/11, when the Khans face so much bigoted oppression that Mandira wishes she'd never taken the name. Rizvan aims to make it up to her by saying his catchphrase to the president of the United States in person. Alas, Rizvan is somewhat further along the autistic spectrum than I am, so he doesn't have a great sense of how not to alarm people....

Loving (2016)

I'm disappointed in Netflix. on February 14, I expected a whole list of suggested romances to stream. The closest I found was the stand-alone highlight, apparently more for Black History Month than for Valentine's Day. Anyway, it was already on my personal list, and I figured it had the best chance of an ending that's happy or at least victorious for the central couple.

After all, the title refers not just to the plain English word but to the first party in Loving v. Virginia. It begins with Mildred Jeter (Oscar nominee Ruth Negga) telling boyfriend Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) that she's expecting. They soon have an official wedding in the District of Columbia, but living like an interracial married couple in Caroline County in 1958 gets them arrested. The only way to stay out of jail is to not be in the state at the same time. They move to D.C., but Mildred for one hates living there. She writes to Bobby Kennedy, who gets ACLU attorney Bernard S. Cohen (Nick Kroll) to represent them at no charge. Bernie hopes to take the matter all the way to the Supreme Court, but Richard is not nearly as comfortable as Mildred with the attention they're gaining.

My Favorite Year (1982)

From the title, I assumed that the story would take place over the course of a year. Instead, it's only a few weeks, tops. All we really get from the title is a setting in the past and an occasion that is, like most comedies, happy in the end.

In 1954 New York, junior sketch comedy writer Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) is excited to have Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole), an Errol Flynn knockoff, guest-star on his show. Alas, the now burnt-out Swann is prone to stinking drunkenness, philandering, and tardiness if not absenteeism. Stone pleads with Sid Caesar-like show star Stan Kaiser (Joseph Bologna) to give Swann a chance all the same. Kaiser agrees on the condition that Stone watch Swann like a hawk. No problem, right?

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

I'd read the gist of the 1988 Alan Moore graphic novel by this title long ago: The Joker attempts to drive Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon mad with grief in just one day, hoping to demonstrate how easily a decent man can become like the Joker. More recently, I saw a clip from near the end of this adaptation. It looked so promising that I paid no mind to the viewers' mixed reactions before I decided to watch the whole thing.

The primary reason for those mixed reactions is that while the majority of the 77 minutes is highly faithful, the first third has no basis in that comic or, to my knowledge, any other. In it, the focal character and part-time narrator is Jim's daughter, Barbara, a.k.a. Batgirl (Tara Strong), who gains the quasi-affectionate attention of nonthematic mobster Paris Franz (Maury Sterling). She's in no danger of falling for his charisma, but Batman (Kevin Conroy) doesn't trust her judgment on how to deal with a twistedly playful opponent, since she hasn't dealt with the likes of the Joker (Mark Hamill). In truth, she's more interested in exploring her feelings toward Batman.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Hmm, only three months since my last western and five since my last serious one. But this is a bit rarer: a serious western from the late '70s. Well, Clint Eastwood never was one for comedy.

After Union guerrillas under Captain Terrill (Bill McKinney) murder the wife and son of Missouri civilian Josey (Eastwood), he joins a Confederate bushwhacker gang. They become among the last postwar holdouts, until most of them pursue a promise of amnesty that turns out to be a lethal trap, care of Terrill. Josey, of course, is too badass to go down that easy, so a massive manhunt ensues.

No Way Out (1987)

It's no coincidence that I gave priority this month to a political thriller set largely at a federal government building, namely the Pentagon. You may question my taste in doing so, but I assure you it bears vanishingly little resemblance to recent events.

Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner), a lieutenant commander in the Navy, falls for Susan Atwell (Sean Young) at an inaugural ball and starts an intimate relationship, unaware that she's also sleeping with another new acquaintance of his, Secretary of Defense David Brice (Gene Hackman). Seeing Tom leave her home, albeit without enough light to recognize him, Brice infers Susan's infidelity and beats her -- accidentally to death. He decides to pin it on "Yuri," a rumored double agent from the KGB, because that would let national security handle the case instead of the police. Tom gets a pretty big role in the subsequent hunt for Yuri. All too aware that he's most likely to take the fall after the evidence comes in, he does what he can to delay that until he has enough of a case against Brice.

The Two of Us (1967)

I finally got another disc delivery for the first time since last year. It's rather hard to coordinate the timing with streaming, so this meant yet another foreign-language flick about a Jewish guy. Oh well, still not all that similar.

In occupied Paris, the Langmann family is laying low, tho not quite to an Anne Frank extent. Eight-year-old Claude (Alain Cohen) keeps calling unwelcome attention to himself, so his parents send him to live in the countryside with the parents of a friend of theirs, who will gladly take care of a pseudo-grandchild for however many months. (The French title translates to "The Old Man and the Boy.) That arrangement is safer overall, but Claude has to maintain a charade of being Catholic like them. They -- perhaps especially the outspoken old man (Michel Simon), who asks Claude to call him Pépé -- believe the propaganda about Jews.

Menashe (2017)

I can safely say that this is the first movie I've ever seen where the main language is Yiddish, possibly with a little English mixed in, unless there are more clear cognates than I thought. It's also rare for having English subtitles nearly all the time but being made and set in the U.S., so I wouldn't feel right adding a "foreign" tag.

The title character (real name Menashe Lustig) is an underachieving middle-aged kosher grocery clerk in Brooklyn. His wife died a year ago, and his Hasidic rabbi (Meyer Schwartz) has ruled that preteen son Rieven (Rubin Niborski) must live with Menashe's brother Eizik (Yoel Weisshaus) until Menashe remarries. Menashe likes hanging with Rieven as much as possible but drags his heels about exploring the possibility of remarriage, not because it feels too soon but because his arranged first marriage went poorly.

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Don't read too much into the year of release: Most of the work -- the recording, at least -- was done in the '70s, which is part of why I chose it out of my recent-skewing Netflix list. You might call it Orson Welles' most troubled movie of all, and that's saying something.

The title is also of a fictitious unfinished art film within the film. Its director, Jake Hannaford (John Huston), is "celebrating" his 70th birthday by showing snippets of footage to potential funders; answering obnoxious reporter questions or, more often, having protégé Brooks Otterlake (Peter Bogdanovich) answer for him; philandering; passing out party gifts; and expressing contempt for the leading man (aptly named Bob Random), who walked away before they could finish. Little does anyone know, as the up-front narration indicates, that Hannaford will die that night.

Over the Moon (2020)

This Netflix feature hasn't received great reviews, but the aesthetic in the stills drew me in. Besides, while I expect the next Academy Awards ceremony to be a nothingburger, I wanted to know what might be competition for Onward in the animation category, and A Whisker Away didn't seem mainstream enough. (Update: I was right on all counts.)

In modern China, preteen or possibly early teen Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) is an A student, which leads many to wonder why she still believes a tale of Chang'e, the woman who became the moon goddess. Her reason is personal: She learned it from her late mother (Ruthie Ann Miles). When her more science-minded father (John Cho) starts getting serious with widow Mrs. Zhong (Sandra Oh), Fei Fei feels that he must have lost faith in Mom. Mrs. Zhong's hyperactive eight-year-old son, Chin (Robert G. Chiu), doesn't make the prospect of remarriage any more palatable to Fei Fei. She gets the idea that Dad will call it off if she can just prove Mom right...by building a rocket to the moon and bringing back a photo of Chang'e.