Wish Dragon (2021)

While others may or may not watch another animated family feature with "Wish" in the title around now, I opted for something a little more popular if less discussed. Mainly I chose it because it was one of the few movies on my Netflix list that promised to be both cheerful enough for the season and not too insipid. A 98-minute runtime isn't bad either.

In a modern Shanghai slum, Din Song (Jimmy Wong) has been working in food delivery -- at the expense of his education, to the outrage of his mom (Constance Wu) -- in order to afford an appearance upper-class enough to gain entrance to the 19th birthday party of aristocrat Li Na Wang (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), who was his best friend before her father (Will Yun Lee) forced her to move away so he could chase his economic dream. One day, an eccentric customer (Ronny Chieng) pays Din with a jade teapot, which turns out to contain a dragon, Long (John Cho), who's obligated to grant the bearer three wishes. Din has a fair idea of how to spend one wish, but he'll have to watch out for some thugs hired to grab the teapot.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

A preview had intrigued me ahead of this documentary's release, but then I forgot. Seems nobody in my circles was talking about it, despite Peter Jackson directing (not that my circles frequently discuss documentaries). Only when Netflix announced that it would stop streaming did I jump at the chance. A 99-minute runtime for the theatrical cut helped.

There is no main narrator herein. Instead, we get recorded recollections from various British World War I veterans (who, ironically, sound like they did grow old) overlaying video, photos, and editorial cartoons. We don't learn any names before the end credits, so it manages to be generally anonymous yet decidedly personal.

Fallen Leaves (2023)

I had never seen a Finnish flick before. My dad and I decided this was one of the more promising entries in the AFI European Union Film Showcase. A runtime of 81 minutes may have contributed to that assessment.

In Helsinki, Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) both have trouble keeping jobs and making ends meet, Holappa because of his alcoholism, Ansa more from bad employers. After a couple happenstance encounters, they quickly develop an interest in each other. But for reasons that are unclear to me, they don't exchange names, which makes connecting a little difficult when they get even less lucky. Ansa also considers heavy drinking a dealbreaker.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023)

This is typically deemed the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to come out since Spider-Man: No Way Home. So why did I wait this long? Perhaps I wanted a break after recent underwhelming entries. Perhaps I feared that I had to watch Thor: Love and Thunder to understand enough. Thankfully, as I later learned, Thor parted way with the gang early on.

Rocket (Bradley Cooper) has never told the other Guardians about his past, but it catches up with him when the forces of his "creator," Orgocorp, attempt to recapture him for neurological study. The Guardians fend off powerful emissary Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) for the nonce, but Rocket is left comatose and fading. Standard medical procedures won't work, thanks to Orgocorp's nasty bio-programming. The heroes' best bet is to swipe an override sequence right from the heart of Orgocorp. Hey, it matches their skillset.

tick...tick...BOOM! (2021)

This sat on my Netflix list quite a while before I actually looked at the description. The title and poster image didn't grab me, but then I saw that it was a musical directed (not composed) by Lin-Manuel Miranda. And at about two hours, short enough for a comfortable night's viewing.

In 1990, 29-year-old Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) is a bit of a starving artist, waiting at a New York diner but failing to pay his energy bills. He badly wants the sci-fi musical he's writing to be a Broadway hit, but he's stagnating on a key song advised by Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford) in a workshop. As the deadline draws near, Jonathan neglects everything else, including girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) and gay best friend Michael (Robin de Jesús).

Surf's Up (2007)

I wasn't sure I would ever get around to watching this. It was clearly riding the wave of success from March of the Penguins and especially Happy Feet, and the ad I saw didn't suggest much of a plot. But now SU actually has slightly higher IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes ratings than HF. Besides, I wanted something short from my Netflix list, and this runs 85 minutes.

Teen penguin Cody (Shia Laboeuf) has been the only surfer in an otherwise busy, disapproving Antarctic community when he gets the chance to enter Pen-Gu Island's 10th annual contest in memory of his idol. He soon finds himself in a practice face-off with longtime champion Tank (Diedrich Bader), the sports flick's requisite jerk. The resulting wipeout leaves Cody in critical condition, and Lani (Zooey Deschanel), the lifeguard on whom he has an instant crush, desperately takes him to a hideaway in the island's rainforest, where her washed-up, largely apathetic uncle (Jeff Bridges), who goes by "Geek," can look after him. Once Cody's on his feet, he and Geek have a lot to teach each other in the three days before the contest, which includes a region of deadly rocks.

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Here it is, folks: my final DVD from Netflix. I made a point to pick a reputed classic and also to wait until after October, but perhaps I should have waited for late December, because my hunch that the story would take place around Christmas was correct. Perhaps I dimly remembered something similar from She Loves Me, a musical adapted from it. I know it wasn't the case in the modernized remake, You've Got Mail.

In keeping with the source material, Miklós László's play Parfumerie, the setting is Budapest, albeit with mostly American-accented English. Despite long being the best salesman at a gift shop, Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) has begun to lock horns with boss Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan), for reasons not immediately clear. He locks horns considerably more with new hire Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan). But he and a pseudonymous pen pal he discovered through a newspaper ad have become smitten with each other. Less than halfway through the picture, he realizes that Klara is that pen pal. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a comedy if he told her right away....

Cliffhanger (1993)

I'd encountered very mixed reviews about this picture since it came out. I put it on my list but wasn't sure whether I'd go ahead with it, until (1) I wanted something thrilling for Halloween and (2) Netflix was about to stop streaming it.

In the Colorado Rockies, Rangers Gabe (Sylvester Stallone) and Hal (Michael Rooker) answer a distress call. Since an initial snowstorm precludes a helicopter rescue, they climb -- to find guns trained on them. These five "hikers," led by one Eric Qualen (John Lithgow), have actually robbed a plane transporting three suitcases full of money, only to drop the cases and crash. The robbers now demand that the rangers help them recoup the cases, which have trackers. It soon becomes clear that the ingrates plan to kill the rangers afterward. But given who plays Gabe, they underestimate his survival skills and determination not to let them get their way entirely. And as other rangers grow uneasy about the paltry radio reports, Gabe's girlfriend, Jessie (Janine Turner), joins the action.

Batman: The Long Halloween (2021)

This isn't the first time I've watched a two-part Batman animated direct-to-DVD movie for my October set at a friend's suggestion, but it is a more appropriate choice than before. I won't split this into two reviews, partly because I watched both halves back to back and partly because it doesn't feel like two stories stuck together.

In contrast with The Dark Knight Returns, this takes place pretty early in the Caped Crusader's (Jensen Ackles) career: Old-school mafias are still big in Gotham, Barbara Gordon (Amy Landecker) is a little girl, and a moderately sane Harvey Dent (Josh Duhamel) has just become the district attorney. From one Halloween to the next, an anonymous killer code-named "Holiday" picks off people close to Carmine "The Roman" Falcone (Titus Welliver) on major holidays, leaving a seasonal decoration and a handgun with a bottle nipple for a suppressor. (Seems a bad strategy to leave the weapon in plain sight every time, but Batman enemies aren't known for their caution.) As usual, Gotham police protection is inadequate. Any number of people could have a reason to get at a mob boss, so Batman and Commissioner Gordon (Billy Burke) must examine many a suspect.

Us (2019)

Another Monkeypaw Production already. I didn't set out to do this; it was simply the next horror I found on Netflix. And it got a somewhat better reception.

Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o, getting top billing for the first time I've seen) is reluctant to go with husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their children, teen Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and preteen Jason (Evan Alex), on vacation to Santa Cruz, because that's where she developed childhood PTSD from an encounter with an identical girl. Her anxiety increases as she notices coincidences. Gabe doesn't take any of this seriously until around the midpoint, when doubles of the entire family show up -- with murderous intentions.

Wendell & Wild (2022)

In my continuing quest for Halloween-type movies that I haven't seen before and might want to, I accepted Netflix's up-front suggestion, which they had pushed quite a bit last year. It has fared a bit better with critics than with general audiences, but hey, I've seen and reviewed less popular on this blog.

At 13, delinquent Kat (Lyric Ross) gets transferred to a Catholic girls' boarding school in her fading former hometown, Rust Bank. There she discovers a captive demon (Phoebe Lamont) who makes her a "hell maiden" able to summon Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele), two disgraced sons of underworld lord Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames). She wants them to bring back her parents (Gary Gatewood and Gabrielle Dennis), whose deaths she had accidentally caused ages ago. The boys stumble on the revitalizing properties of their dad's hair cream. They also learn that two execs (Maxine Peak and David Harewood) could pay them enough money to start their own afterlife amusement park -- provided they use the cream only on the dead councillors who could sway the vote in favor of turning Rust Bank into a prison complex, a motion otherwise unanimously opposed. Let's just say demons aren't so good with promises. But despite Kat's efforts to avoid friendships lest she jinx more people, she can get a fair amount of support from certain students and faculty to save both the town and herself.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Why have I waited so long between movies when not on vacation? Well, mainly, I've kinda painted myself into a corner by insisting on Halloween-type movies every October. Now that Netflix has ceased disc delivery, I find their streaming horror and pseudo-horror options lacking. Disney+ is no better for that. In desperation, I resorted to a faintly gothic offering.

In medieval Paris, Minister of Justice Claude Frollo (Tony Jay) regularly assumes the worst about the Roma, consistently called by the slur "Gypsies" in this picture. He kills one at the Notre Dame Cathedral, only to find that she was carrying not contraband but a deformed baby. The archdeacon (David Ogden Stiers) tells him to raise the child as penance. Frollo keeps the boy in the cathedral bell tower, dubbing him Quasimodo and self-identifying as his master. After 20 years, Quasimodo (now voiced by Tom Hulce) finally ventures below during the Feast of Fools, when lots of people try to look freaky anyway. There he meets Esmeralda (Demi Moore), a Roma dancer who's not nearly as bad as he was led to believe. Quasimodo isn't the only one to fall for her, but Frollo has a twisted way to show it....

Let the Dance Begin (2023)

This may be the first time in eight years that I attended the Latin American Film Festival at AFI. It took my parents' invitation to get my attention. The plot of this entry sounded more fun than most.

Carlos (Darío Grandinetti) is a famous former tango dancer who went on to coach in Spain. One day, his old friend Pichuquito (Jorge Marrale) reports that Carlos's erstwhile wife and tango partner, Margarita (Mercedes Morán), has committed suicide. Carlos flies to Argentina, goes to the funeral, and then learns that "Marga" faked her death, largely because he wouldn't come otherwise. She confesses to lying about an abortion 40 years ago, and she wants his company in visiting their son for the first time since she gave the baby up for adoption. Carlos makes up an excuse to his current wife, Elvira (Pastora Vega, not that one), for not returning on schedule and joins Marga and "Pichu" (not that one) on a two-day road trip.

As you may have guessed, Carlos is very reluctant. First he furiously denies the possibility of a son. He and Marga had not parted on good terms, so he wouldn't put it past her to seek vengeance. Then he worries about riding in a van about as geriatric as its passengers. Elvira gets suspicious and says that he's much needed back home. And setbacks along the way reinforce his conviction that the drive was a mistake.

Wikipedia lists only eight actors in total; IMDb stops at six. It's not like no one else gets spoken lines. My parents and I wouldn't be surprised if most had no professional acting background and were simply geographically convenient. Several minor characters do appear smiling during the end credits.

At any rate, we don't doubt the professionalism of the leads. They really tie the picture together with their complicated feelings, including between Carlos and Pichu. It soon becomes clear that Marga and Pichu continue to share secrets they haven't told Carlos by the start of the journey, which adds to the tragicomic awkwardness.

The theater audience laughed quite a bit. I found the humor just OK. Maybe it works better for people of relevant heritage, of whom there were many in attendance. As it happens, my parents and I had visited Argentina briefly, but only now did we realize how difficult it is for us to understand Argentinians compared with other Spanish speakers, even with subtitles to hint what words they might have used.

Fortunately, the humor was adequate for alleviating my mood in light of the more serious moments. Things move pretty slowly for 99 minutes, but I hardly noticed; the pace no doubt serves its purpose. And for all the characters' flaws that drive each other nuts, we see why they care. As do we.

For a story of three seniors driving across open country, LtDB is engaging. My family may well have chosen the best option in the festival.

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

The fact that most if not all of the major characters in this picture use the actors' real names led me to assume that it was an indie. IMDb tells me that it was just to avoid confusion for six-year-old lead actress Ana Torrent. But independent or not, this art film doesn't exactly look expensive.

In Spain circa 1940, Ana and her slightly older sister, Isabel (Isabel Tellería), watch a dubbed airing of the 1931 Frankenstein. Ana takes special interest in the scene where the monster befriends a little girl. Meaning to poke fun at her, Isabel says that the monster is a spirit who can be summoned in real life. Ana fully believes it, or at least wants to, and goes looking in a vacant sheepfold. Outside of her imagination, the closest thing she finds to that spirit is an injured fugitive (Juan Margallo).

Blonde Venus (1932)

This makes the fifth collaboration of Marlene Dietrich and director Josef von Sternberg that I've seen. Ordinarily, I wouldn't watch it only a month and a half after the previous, but again, I'm prioritizing oldies in anticipation that they'll soon be hard to find.

When chemist Ned (Herbert Marshall) learns that his best hope to survive his radium poisoning is an expensive, multi-month treatment overseas, his wife Helen (Dietrich) resumes her nightclub singing career to help pay for it, with the titular stage name. Then she finds a more profitable method: dating rich patron Nick (Cary Grant), who advises her to quit the stage so she can properly look after her young son, Johnny (Dickie Moore). They plan to discontinue before Ned comes home, but he does so earlier than expected, discover's Helen's infidelity, and kicks her out. Refusing to surrender custody, she goes on the lam with Johnny, until she realizes how bad it is for all involved.

47 Ronin (2013)

I didn't remember whether this was supposed to be good, but its 118-minute run made it seem a decent choice to keep me occupied while donating platelets. I later learned that it bombed at the box office but still managed to get a Netflix sequel last year. Go figure.

Circa 1700, half-English, half-Japanese Kai (Keanu Reeves) is rumored to have been raised by demons or perhaps be one, which doesn't stop Lord Asano (Min Tanaka) from giving him shelter since boyhood. But one day, power-hungry Lord Kira (Tadanobu, heh, Asano) uses demonic connections of his own to deceive Asano into an act bad enough to demand seppuku. The shogun (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) awards Asano's domain to Kira and orders Asano's daughter Mika (Ko Shibasaki), Kai's love, to marry Kira after a year of mourning. Asano counselor Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada) spends a year in jail, then frees Kai from slavery as a combatant. Regretting his earlier acquiescence to such injustice, Oishi now plans to lead Asano's former samurai to illegal revenge on Kira before the wedding. Since ronin are considered honorless, they become more amenable to accepting help from Kai, who really does know a thing or two about demons....

One, Two, Three (1961)

It took me a while to understand the reason for this movie's title. The story is based pretty loosely on a Ferenc Molnár play by the same title in Hungarian. Both use the counting briefly in dialog to indicate a hurry, which befits a His Girl Friday-like pace. In light of that, I would have omitted the commas and possibly added a comedic exclamation point, but too late now.

In West Berlin shortly before the wall construction, "Mac" McNamara (James Cagney) leads business operations and hopes to get promoted further, which would explain why he agrees to host Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin), freewheeling 17-year-old daughter of his boss (Howard St. John), at his home for two weeks. Most of the plot takes place two months later, when Scarlett is still there -- and has just eloped with avid communist Otto (Horst Buchholz). Fearing a blacklisting when her father finds out in the near future, Mac tries to get Otto put away for the long haul. Then he learns that Scarlett is pregnant, so it would be better to give Otto a Pygmalion treatment in a matter of hours....

The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

I had seen several movies written by David Mamet but none directed by him. This one was probably recommended to me because more than one reviewer found it Hitchcockian. I welcome an intelligent thriller.

Joe Ross (Campbell Scott) has devised a new and potentially super-profitable corporate strategy, a MacGuffin cryptically known only as "the Process." To celebrate, his boss (Ben Gazzara) invites him to a Caribbean retreat, where he meets affectionate new secretary Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon) and apparently rich and friendly tourist Jimmy (Steve Martin in a rare non-comedic role). Upon hearing of the Process, Jimmy advises Joe to contact a non-company lawyer so the executives don't stiff him on dividends. But Joe has no idea what lengths some people will go to for theft. Pretty soon, he starts to look and sound like a lying thief....

48 Hrs. (1982)

I picked this not so much for promising entertainment as for a lesson in influence. People credit it with launching the buddy cop subgenre, despite only one member of the duo being a cop. It inspired one of the leads in Miami Vice and left its direct fingerprints on Last Action Hero and even Zootopia.

Officer Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) of San Francisco is determined to catch prison-breaking Albert Ganz (James Remar) and accomplice Billy Bear (Sonny Landham), especially after they make off with Jack's pistol. Not knowing where to look for them, Jack requests the guidance of convict Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy in his big-screen debut), who used to work with the others but now has a bone to pick with them. Reggie agrees only on the condition that he can come along. Jack gets him a pass for the titular duration, hoping Reggie doesn't get away for good but mostly hoping the others don't.

To be clear, Albert and Billy are murderers and hostage takers, but Reggie appears to have done nothing worse than armed robbery. The crimes he attempts during his, shall we say, working vacation are nothing so bold. We could almost root for him to escape.

For most of the movie, Jack and Reggie have rather acidic interactions. Jack in particular doesn't shy away from openly racist remarks. Others deliver slurs against Billy's Indian heritage. If this kind of talk offends you greatly, you may have a tough time enjoying the picture.

Even in the end, it would be a stretch to call Jack and Reggie friends. It's more that they've learned to put up with and are willing to do favors for one another. This enabled a sequel, but I wouldn't call it heartwarming.

Frankly, if not for the casting of Murphy, I wouldn't think to label this movie a comedy. All those foul-mouthed, sardonic lines rarely came close to tickling me, and the filmmakers rightly worried that the violence would counteract the humor. Jack's pretty unprofessional and finds many co-workers worse still, but they're not played for laughs. Even Reggie's cop impersonation in a hick bar, which makes for an exaggerated scene, could easily be dismissed as just a little lighter than a typical action flick moment.

And how is it for action? Pretty packed for the time, but low on innovation. The moments of resolution are predictable to the point of dullness. I noticed that quite a few of the people involved, including writer-director Walter Hill, had previously made The Warriors, which, for all its fun, is similarly anticlimactic.

I'm afraid 48H is neither the next TW nor the first Beverly Hills Cop. Everyone here had done and/or would go on to do better. At least I achieved my goal of information.

The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)

I don't remember hearing about this story before, but I can guess why I added it to my queue. Family-friendly Irish fantasies have a good track record with me. Anyway, it was rather different from my most recent viewings, despite being set in the aftermath of World War II.

In '46, possibly nine-year-old Fiona has lost her mother, and her father's in a poor state to take care of her, so she moves to her grandparents' seaside village. She comes to learn of nearby Roan Inish, which means "Island of Seals," but rumor has it they're really selkies. In fact, she's said to have descended from one, tho evidence lies only in the occasional dark-haired family member with a strong marine inclination. Fiona learns that she had one such baby brother, who disappeared with his cradle at sea. Intrigued, she starts repeatedly visiting Roan Inish with slightly older cousin Eamon -- and makes a discovery that few even among the locals would believe....

Oppenheimer (2023)

I knew my dad and I would have to see this while it was still in theaters. Not only is it popular, but it loses something on a smaller screen. Not that nuclear explosions, "real" or imagined, make up much of the three hours.

The story covers the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) from his doctoral student days in 1926 to his receipt of the Enrico Fermi Award in '63. His key work on the Manhattan Project and reactions to its aftermath tend to dominate the focus, but there's more to it than that. He hangs out with communists too much for the comfort of authorities, and two party members, eventual wife Kitty Puening (Emily Blunt) and codependent Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), become his love interests.

Blood Simple (1984)

I had seen a dozen Coen brothers movies. My overall impression was that they are very skilled at the craft, whether going goofy or gritty, but always include something strange and unsatisfying, seemingly to annoy viewers on purpose. I got curious about their first feature-length effort, an indie, which was the only entry on AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills I hadn't seen yet.

Texan bar owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) hires PI Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to see whether Marty's wife, Abby (Frances McDormand in her screen debut), is cheating on him. She is -- with one of his employees, Ray (John Getz). When his own confrontations prove fruitless, Marty asks Visser to kill Abby and Ray. He learns the hard way not to try to make a hit man out of someone who wasn't in that line of work to begin with. But that's just Act 1. Characters get confused from there, and as their panic mounts, so do the dangerous mistakes....

Remember the Night (1940)

I may not see any more movies directed by Preston Sturges, but writing is another matter. I had seen this title many times, perhaps especially in connection with some of its actors, so it seemed time to look further. Yes, I usually save holiday pictures for when they're timely, but Netflix disc service won't last that long.

Shortly before Christmas, an inveterate New York City thief who goes by Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck), among other names, gets caught. Her preacher-like attorney (Francis X. O'Leary) posits a form of temporary insanity, but prosecutor Jack Sargent (Fred MacMurray) demands the testimony of an expert psychologist who won't be available until January 3, so the court will adjourn until then. Out of pity, he bails her out. The depraved bondsman (Tom Kennedy) misreads his intentions and sends her to Jack's apartment. Jack tells Lee to leave, but upon learning she's homeless, he takes her on his vacation to Indiana.

Rio Grande (1950)

It is by sheer accident that I have watched all of John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy in chronological order, the first two entries being Fort Apache (which I didn't review for some reason) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (which I remember better than I predicted). I also didn't intend to watch two Victor McLaglen movies in a row, but oh well.

In 1879, Lt Col. Kirby Yorke (John Wayne), owing largely to military obligations, has not seen his wife, Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara), or their son, Jeff (Claude Jarman, Jr.), since the Valley campaigns of 1864. Then they both show up at his Texas fort at once -- Jeff to serve as a trooper and Kathleen to try to get him out of it. This is not an ideal environment for a reunion, especially when the regiment has to defend settlers from a string of Apache raids.

Dishonored (1931)

This movie has a lot of the same people involved as the next year's Shanghai Express. Maybe that's why it was recommended to me. At any rate, I moved it up in my queue because it probably won't be streaming anywhere soon.

In 1915 Vienna, Marie (Marlene Dietrich) has turned to prostitution to make ends meet after her husband died in the war. When the Austrian Secret Service chief (Gustav von Seyffertitz) overhears her declare that she fears neither life nor death, he tests her patriotism and then invites her to become a spy a la Mata Hari. In particular, she is to seduce suspected Russian mole Col. von Hindau (Warner Oland) until she can intercept his intel. His correspondent, Col. Kranau (Victor McLaglen), is a tougher nut to crack....

Jesus Revolution (2023)

Even at my most devout, I didn't watch a whole lot of Christianity-themed movies, and those I did were mostly about famous historic figures. This one looked like it could well be run-of-the-mill sappy, preachy fare about coming to Jesus. But it did extraordinarily well at the box office, so I got curious. Was it especially good, or were many Christians just desperate for a new flick with their values? If nothing else, it promised a true story I didn't already know.

The film begins in California in 1968, dividing its focus among high schooler Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), nondenominational pastor Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), and homeless evangelist Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie). Chuck initially has a low opinion of hippies, but Lonnie, introduced by Chuck's daughter (Ally Ioannides), assures him they've been doing the wrong things for the right reason: looking for answers. Chuck invites Lonnie to preach at his church, drawing a large young congregation. Greg, meanwhile, has followed his crush, Cathe (Anna Grace Barlow), to go from a "square" to an unsatisfied stoner, until Cathe discovers Lonnie, and Greg eventually follows once more. That's not the end of all their struggles, of course....

Pork Chop Hill (1959)

I've hardly seen any depictions of the Korean War outside of M*A*S*H, which involves little to no onscreen battle. For more of that, I figured on Lewis Milestone to do a good job. And it's based on a soldier's account, so I stood to learn true history.

In 1953, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army seizes the American outpost on the titular hill. Lt. Joseph G. Clemons (Gregory Peck) leads K Company in an effort to recapture it, starting before dawn. But higher-ups have not prepared them well. For example, one border is much better defended than was said, keeping L Company too busy to meet up as soon as expected. It soon becomes apparent that heavy losses will follow.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

I previously mentioned my friend's interest in this movie. He had seen the first maybe half of it before. Now he would know that it wasn't all predictable from there.

In an 1877 Wyoming blizzard, former Union soldier Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) hitches a ride on the stagecoach of fellow bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and John's captive, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), toward the nearest town to collect rewards. Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), who claims to be the town's imminent sheriff, joins later. They and their driver, O.B. Jackson (James Parks), seek shelter at a haberdashery already occupied by Señor Bob (Demián Bichir), Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), and former Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern). Marquis smells something fishy, and John is sure that at least one man there plans to either help Daisy escape or claim the bounty himself.

Ride the Pink Horse (1947)

For a moment, I expected a quirky western. As it is, I barely understand where the title came from. A character does ride an allegedly pink carousel horse (we can't tell in black and white), but that's not important to the plot, and any symbolism in it is lost on me. Maybe the filmmakers just wanted something that didn't sound like a cookie-cutter noir.

Ex-soldier "Lucky" Gagin (Robert Montgomery, also directing) comes to the New Mexican border town of San Pablo to confront Frank Hugo (Fred Clark), a mob boss who ordered the killing of Gagin's friend "Shorty" over a blackmailing. Gagin's lucky charm is his pistol, but he wants to try his own hand at blackmail rather than vengeful murder. FBI Agent Retz (Art Smith), who's kept tabs on both Gagin and Hugo, advises against this, but given Hugo's historical pull with the government, Gagin doesn't readily trust Retz. Hugo's moll, Marjorie (Andrea King), asks Gagin to raise the ransom and cut her in, but he's not sure what to make of her either.

Police Story (1985)

Had I realized I was about to see another action flick, I would not have put this next on my queue. Still, it's not all that similar. No sci-fi here, just the slightly off physics of Jackie Chan.

Hong Kong policeman Chan Ka-Kui (Chan) gets some positive attention for arresting crime lord Chu Tao (Chor Yuen), but convicting him will be tough. Ka-Kui is assigned to guard a reluctant witness, Chu's secretary (Brigitte Lin), who manages to slip away, disbelieving his claims of danger. A subplot involves his girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) getting the wrong idea about the two of them. Not content to beat the charges, Chu arranges to frame Ka-Kui for murder. Chief Inspector Raymond Li (Lam Kwok-Hung) trusts Ka-Kui but is too by-the-book to forgo an arrest, so Ka-Kui runs off to deal with matters irregularly.

Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023)

What a trickily punctuated title. Someone must regret that the original had a colon. Anyway, since the past three sequels had been going strong and Christopher McQuarrie was still directing, I figured it was a worthy way to fill an evening. Kinda surprised there weren't more people in my theater on its U.S. debut.

What can possibly challenge Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) anymore, when even age doesn't seem to slow him down? An online AI gone self-aware and rogue, now known only as "the Entity," has been infiltrating all kinds of sensitive information systems. Ethan's mission is to collect the two halves of a key that promises access to the Entity somewhere, but once he understands that the government wants to control rather than destroy the Entity, he himself goes rogue. Not only does he once again have Impossible Missions Force support only from Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), with the rest of the IMF after them, but they can't rely much on their state-of-the-art equipment with the Entity compromising things. To make matters worse, sadistic terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales), a personal foe from before Ethan joined the IMF, is serving the Entity's interest.

Pitfall (1962)

This has nothing to do with the 1948 U.S. film noir, let alone the Activision video game series. It's another Hiroshi Teshigahara adaptation of a Kōbō Abe novel. Had I realized as much, I would have put this viewing off longer. Still, this feels pretty different from what I saw last month.

The Netflix description is misleading again. Yes, a stranger in white (Kunie Tanaka) pursues a hapless miner (Hisashi Igawa) in the area of a ghost town near an exhausted mine, but it's not just to "imprison" him there: He murders the miner in the first act, after which the miner is a ghost of the type who can't be sensed by the living or move anything. Despite a warning from a fellow ghost (Ton Shimada), the protagonist wants to find out what the murder was about. The answer is quickly plain enough to me: The miner just happened to look exactly like a union leader (also Igawa), and the killer bribes a witness (Sumie Sasaki) to blame a rival union's leader (Sen Yano). Let's just say there'll be more than two ghosts by the end.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

My friend and I were planning to see The Flash together, until he read some less savory reviews of it. I might still check it out, but for now, we chose this instead. Incidentally, the only other movie we attended at this theater together was Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Now that the other spider-themed heroes he knows have returned to their proper alternate worlds, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is lonely, especially missing Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld). He doesn't dare tell his mom (Luna Lauren Velez) or dad (Brian Tyree Henry) that he's Spider-Man, but they know he keeps secrets and never shows up on time, so they lock horns with him over it. Then Gwen proves she can pay a visit after all, thanks to the technology of an interdimensional society of hundreds of arachnoid heroes led by Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac). But she's not here just for pleasure. The network's primary objective is to send "anomalies" back where they came from or, if dangerous enough, keep them captive at a base. Presently, the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a criminal covered in portable space-time holes, has discovered how to hop dimensions.

Weathering with You (2020)

Another surrealistic Japanese film already, but that's about where the similarity ends. I was not at all surprised that many of the same people, including director Makoto Shinkai, worked on Your Name. Taki even gets a cameo.

Sixteen-year-old Hodaka runs away to Tokyo, which is experiencing record rainfall. The irresponsible Mr. Suga eventually hires him to write articles on the occult. In the course of this work, Hodaka learns of "sunshine girls" who can change the weather via Shinto prayer, albeit over a pretty small area for a short time -- and then meets one such girl, Hina, about his age. Since she's desperate for a job herself, he helps her start a freelance sunshine service. Hodaka develops a strong crush on Hina, but two factors threaten to pull them apart: Rapidly increasing business from a 100% success rate draws the attention of authorities who don't approve of minors living alone, and lore has it that sunshine girls who exercise their powers enough are destined to fly off into the sky before their time.

The Face of Another (1966)

Hiroshi Teshigahara directed this in the wake of Woman in the Dunes, also based on a Kōbō Abe novel, so it's considered something of a companion piece. It did not fare nearly as well at the international box office, probably because the modern urban setting felt a lot less exotic than the desert. Also, by that time, people were getting tired of artsy projects like Last Year in Marienbad. Still, I got curious.

Following an accident, Mr. Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai) keeps his head wrapped in bandages not for healing but to spare even his wife (Machiko Kyō) the sight of his burned face. Despite her and others trying to support him emotionally, he remains terribly bitter -- until his psychiatrist (Mikijirō Hira) gives him an excellently lifelike experimental mask. It looks nothing like his original face; they use a mould from a hired stranger (Hisashi Igawa), albeit with results that look rather different from him too. Okuyama takes a while to get used to the mask and tires of the doctor keeping tabs on him and expressing concern that the mask could influence his personality. Indeed, he deliberately hides his identity from everyone else as best he can. Whatever he was like before, he seems increasingly corrupt.

Battling Butler (1926)

I hadn't seen Buster Keaton in more than five years. BB was actually his personal favorite and his second biggest box office hit, greatly eclipsing the same year's The General when they were new. (Perhaps people weren't ready for a Civil War comedy.) So why had I learned next to nothing about BB before?

The protagonist is not a butler, but he may well have one: Alfred Butler is a spoiled aristocrat, albeit sometimes ordered around by his father, who sends him to the wilderness to man up. There he meets someone identified only as "the mountain girl," who finds him annoying at first, but they quickly fall for each other. Alas, her father and brother won't approve a marriage to an apparent wimp, so Alfred's valet (yes, there with him) claims that Alfred is lightweight champion "Battling Butler," who happens to look similar in addition to having the same first and last names. The ruse works, but Alfred must actually travel to the training camp and then the arena, all the while trying to persuade his bride not to watch because she wouldn't like that side of him. To make matters worse, the real Battling Butler is none too fond of this imposter, especially after a mix-up of their similar-looking ladies....

Angel Face (1952)

So far, my Otto Preminger viewings have been about half great and half mixed in my opinion. This one had the added appeal of Robert Mitchum to draw me in. He's not even the creepiest character this time.

Beverly Hills ambulance driver Frank (Mitchum) comes to a mansion where one Catherine (Barbara O'Neil) has had a close call with a gas leak. Circumstances suggest an attempt at either suicide or, as she claims, homicide, tho she names no culprit. Frank is smitten with the beauty of her stepdaughter, Diane (Jean Simmons), despite already having a girlfriend (Mona Freeman). Diane goes out of her way to make him her favorite, even persuading her father (Herbert Marshall) and Catherine to hire him as their chauffeur. Frank doesn't fully trust Diane after her insincere manipulations and contempt for Catherine, but he might just be game for whatever she schemes next....

Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

This is pretty rare: a movie that was highly esteemed when new, both at home and overseas, but did so poorly at the box office that the production company folded. I don't recall how it got my attention, but it did receive a Best Actress Oscar nod, losing to Mary Poppins. Well, at least Julie Andrews didn't have to fake a British accent.

In London, alleged medium Myra Savage (Kim Stanley) badly wants money, which doesn't come easily when husband Billy (Richard Attenborough) is too asthmatic to hold a job. She persuades Billy to kidnap Amanda Clayton (Judith Donner), preteen daughter of aristocrats. Instead of the typical scheme of simply pocketing ransom money, Myra plans to fake a séance to determine where to find Amanda, hoping to gain renown and thus so much business that she can pay back the "borrowed" ransom. Charles Clayton (Mark Eden) doesn't believe in her powers, but his wife (Nanette Newman) does, and Charles has to admit that no other method is making headway.

The Harder They Fall (2021)

I would not have thought to see this if my friend hadn't asked to while visiting. I'm not sure I'd even heard about it before, despite a few familiar names involved (he knew the cast better). Some rating sites score it highly; others deem it fair to middling. At worst, we could enjoy snarking together, but we both hoped it wouldn't come to that primarily.

On-screen text warns up front that the story is fictitious, but the main characters -- seven of them, at least -- are not. The lead is Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), a late-19th-century outlaw who makes a point to target fellow outlaws, as by robbing robbers. Marshal Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo) ostensibly arrests him but means to enlist his help against a mutual foe: Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), who had killed Nat's parents in front of preteen Nat and carved a cross on his forehead. Buck has just been released, and while his intentions for the town of Redwood might be honorable, he will stop at nothing to acquire the money to fix it up, even at the citizens' expense.

Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

OK, so I got a head start on my war movie viewing for Memorial Day. This one may have caught my attention because of John Wayne getting an Oscar nod for it when he thought his She Wore a Yellow Ribbon performance worthier. As it is, some viewers think SoIJ is great, and some think Wayne is the only great thing about it. I'm sure four years after World War II wasn't great timing for public interest either.

The story begins with some U.S. Marines arriving in New Zealand in 1943. Sgt. John Stryker (Wayne) strikes me as a typical harsh sarge, but his men deem him unusually so. Most personally hostile to him are PFC Pete Conway (John Agar), son of a colonel whom Stryker liked but who wasn't a kind father, so Conway tars Stryker by association; and PFC Al Thomas (Forrest Tucker), on whom Stryker had snitched in the past. As a former sergeant major with a drinking problem, Stryker doesn't have the cleanest record himself. Nevertheless, his overall approach gradually wins the men's admiration, starting with the Battle of Tarawa. And you can guess the climactic setting.

Christ in Concrete/Give Us This Day/Salt to the Devil (1949)

Yes, it's all one picture. The first title, used by Netflix, is from the adapted novel, but that wasn't allowed in UK theaters. The second appears on screen in the edition I watched, but with the blacklisting of director Edward Dmytryk, it was interpreted as anti-Christian, hence the third stab, which didn't really help. Perhaps it's just as well not to use the original title, because from what I read, the film ends about where the book begins.

In the 1920s, Geremio (Sam Wanamaker) lies about owning a home in order to persuade Annunziata (Lea Padovani) to move from Italy to Brooklyn and marry him. They still hope to scrimp and save for one, thanks to a generous realtor (Karel Stepanek), even as their apartment-dwelling family gets bigger. They almost make it before Black Friday. After that, Geremio and his buddies in the bricklaying business get desperate enough to take on a low-safety demolition project....

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

This is one of those movies I watched for education more than entertainment. It still gets cited now and then, particularly for a handful of quotable lines, but I was warned that it could really use a best-of cut. If it weren't streaming, I probably wouldn't have bothered checking it out.

In an unspecified land and century evocative of early medieval Europe, young Conan (then Jorge Sanz) sees the army of Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) slaughter all the adults in his village and sell the children into slavery. Between manual labor, pit matches, and oriental training, Conan becomes quite the brawny fighter (now Arnold Schwarzenegger in his star-making role) before his voluntary release. He allies himself with two thieves, archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez) and fellow swordmaster Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), in his quest for vengeance. But Doom is worse than a mere warlord; he leads a snake-themed cult whose adherents readily kill themselves at his bidding, even tho he himself is reportedly more than a millennium old.

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

On a whim, I decided to watch something playing at the AFI Silver Theater today. This French oldie was playing at a convenient time for me. That's right: 5 p.m. Since it showed only once today, I can only assume someone chose the slot on purpose.

Cléo (Corinne Marchand) is a fairly successful singer, albeit not widely recognized on the street. Expecting to take an exam for a potential cancer diagnosis soon, she visits a tarot reader (Loye Payen), whose verdict is unpromising. Convinced of her own doom, Cléo spends most of the film trying to come to grips with it or take her mind off it while doing various things with other people in the city before seeing the doctor (Robert Postec).

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)

Since Netflix announced that DVD service will discontinue in September, I've decided to prioritize what's unlikely to stream. In this case, it also turned out to remind me what I won't miss about DVDs: Sometimes they freeze and skip. Thankfully, I didn't miss anything important.

In 1880s New York City, preadolescent Cedric (Mary Pickford!) has no idea who his dead father was until he becomes next in line for an earldom. He's not happy to have to leave his friends or his dream of becoming president, and he's been led to believe that British nobles are rotten. His grandfather (Claude Gillingwater) isn't happy either, because he hates Americans too much to greet Cedric's mother (also Mary Pickford!), who must live in a separate building he owns. Nevertheless, Cedric charms the old curmudgeon and his servants, enabling much-needed generosity to the poor in his domain. But there arises a question of whether someone else actually ranks ahead of Cedric and, if so, where he should live....

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019)

I think the only other film I've seen set even partly in Bhutan is Little Buddha. By contrast, this one was shot entirely there, under rigorous conditions, by a Bhutanese production company. That alone would give me a reason to check it out, in addition to the Best Foreign Film nomination and the intriguing added subtitle.

In Thimphu, Ugyen (Sherab Dorji) is a terribly unmotivated teacher who would rather pursue a singing career in Australia, but his teaching contract demands one more year. He is reassigned to the sole elementary school in Lunana, a mountain village so remote it requires days of hiking to reach. Almost as soon as he arrives, he sees how underresourced it is and wants to go back, but he'll have to wait a week while his guides and their mules rest up. In the meantime, he might as well teach. Thankfully, he has enough discipline not to leave before the conclusion of a lesson....

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

So this is how I break my Oscar nominee streak: with something the Academy would probably never honor. It is extraordinarily popular for a video game adaptation, even among adults in my circles, but professional critics aren't as thrilled. I went in with cautious optimism.

Brooklynite fraternal twins Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) have a failing plumbing business when they happen upon a long-hidden pipe that sucks them into another world, albeit in separate directions. In the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario meets friendly fungal fellow Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), who surmises from his details that Luigi wound up in the clutches of King Bowser (Jack Black), a sort of turtle-dragon hybrid bent on world conquest. Their best bet for saving Luigi is to team up with another displaced human, Princess Peach Toadstool (Anya Taylor-Joy), who's already planning to stop Bowser via an alliance with gorilla king Cranky Kong (Fred Armisen) and his son Donkey (Seth Rogen). Mario may be short, but he is dedicated, and his past unlucky antics have honed his athletic skills even before he's introduced to power-up items.

Sound of Metal (2019)

When the 93rd Academy Awards came and went, I thought I'd never see all its Best Picture nominees -- hadn't wanted to see any of them -- yet here I am. I guess all those not-so-depressing others encouraged me. In case you're wondering about the date, SoM was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival more than a year before its wide release.

Ruben (Riz Ahmed) plays drums in a fairly popular heavy metal band. Almost overnight, he loses too much of his hearing to make sense of most speech. He ignores a doctor's advice to lay off loudness for a while, so it gets worse. Concerned at his stress and poor coping, girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) strong-arms him into rooming at a rural shelter supporting deaf people, especially those with a history of drug addiction like Ruben. Leader Joe (Paul Raci) insists on rather ascetic practices in order to cut off old avenues and develop new habits. It takes a while to feel anything like home to Ruben.

West Side Story (2021)

You can guess why I was in no hurry to see this. I had rewatched the original movie only a few years ago, plus a stage production a few years before that. And although All Quiet on the Western Front taught me that even a remake of a fine Best Picture can be worthwhile, musicals don't seem to lend themselves to quite as much flexibility. Still, my parents were intrigued, and a majority of critics and viewers dug it. As long as I was on a recent Oscar nod kick, why not?

In the off chance you don't know the story, it's Romeo and Juliet set in 1950s New York. The Romeo is Tony (Ansel Elgort), semi-reformed co-founder of a non-Hispanic White gang called the Jets, who would have nothing more to do with them if not for the urging of old pal and current Jet leader Riff (Mike Faist). The Juliet is Maria (Rachel Zegler), younger sister of Bernardo (David Alvarez), the latter leading a Puerto Rican gang called the Sharks. Officer Krupke (Brian d'Arcy James) has been doing his best to temper the turf war, but the Jets and Sharks are already on the verge of a scheduled rumble when a mixer brings Tony and Maria together, and their fiery love enhances the fiery hate in others....

Women Talking (2022)

I almost skipped this Best Picture nominee because of the rape theme. Then it won Best Adapted Screenplay. Besides, I had mostly liked Promising Young Woman, so maybe this would be similarly watchable. Now I might as well tell you up front: While there's no on-screen depiction or even audio of the crimes, it's not for the faint of heart.

Netflix's DVD jacket doesn't even adequately describe the first minute; the one-sentence summary on the Netflix webpage is better for that. The setting is in 2010, but you could be forgiven for initially thinking it's much earlier because of the low-color Mennonite community, called only "the colony." In its isolation, it has become worse than the Republic of Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale in some ways: All post-infancy girls and women have been repeatedly gas-sedated and awakened with telltale signs of rape. Men tell them it's the work of ghosts or demons, lies, or imagination run wild (even when pregnancy results?), until one man gets caught breaking in and then spills on several others, who all get arrested. Alas, most other men in the colony leave town to contribute to the bail, tho that mercifully keeps them away for a couple days. Most of the movie takes place in that interim as women consider three options: stay and try to forgive everyone, fight a revolution, or run off to start their own colony.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Never has a title done more to both intrigue and repel me...at once. I feared that the movie would be either overdone or oversold. Maybe some of each. But it's popular enough that I predicted its Best Picture win, so I opted to see it in a theater.

Somewhere in the modern U.S., Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is already overwhelmed at the start of the picture. She's planning a big Chinese New Year party; the family laundromat business is struggling; a droll IRS auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis) is giving them an ultimatum; husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) can't get her attention long enough to serve divorce papers; her elderly father (James Hong), who doesn't speak English, is a handful; and she doesn't want to break it to him that her young adult daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), is dating a White woman (Tallie Medel). But in private, Waymond suddenly shifts to a different personality, as signaled by removing his glasses, and tells her she'll have to shelve all these concerns. This personality eventually reveals that he is an alternate Waymond from "the Alphaverse," where people have developed technology to "verse-jump," taking over their alternate universe counterparts' bodies temporarily without said counterparts' knowledge or consent. They can also borrow counterparts' memories in order to use their skills in another universe. The problem is that an alternate Joy, by verse-jumping pretty much to the point of experiencing the title, has become nihilistic and powerful enough to threaten every universe. (No wonder she changed her name.) Based on comparison with other Evelyn Wangs, Alpha-Waymond believes that this ironically underachieving Evelyn is the best hope for stopping her.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

I had already heard of a 1947 film noir of the same title. This Guillermo del Toro project isn't a remake so much as a second adaptation of the novel. Alas, the original is more highly rated across sites yet much harder to find. Anyway, this is the only version that was nominated for Best Picture.

In 1939, shortly after covering up a murder, Stan (Bradley Cooper) finds work that will have no one inquiring into his background: a traveling carnival's barker. There he learns how to fake being a psychic, and he and stunt-performing girlfriend Molly (Rooney Mara) eventually leave for a classier venue. He then takes an unfaithful interest in a distinguished audience member, psychologist Lilith (Cate Blanchett), and asks her for confidential information that can help him fool a rich, widowed, somewhat unhinged ex-client of hers, Ezra (Richard Jenkins). Stan does not care about Molly's discomfort with his endeavors, nor does he heed the warning of his mentors (Toni Collette and David Strathairn) that moving from mind reading to seances is dangerous -- or Lilith's warning that Ezra is.

Belfast (2021)

No, I really didn't have St. Patrick's Day in mind when I put this right after The Banshees of Inisherin in my queue. I just happened to choose them from among recent Academy Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen yet.

In 1969, nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) has been mostly enjoying his life. He does pretty well in school and has a mutual crush on a classmate. Alas, The Troubles are beginning. His Protestant family has mostly Catholic neighbors who don't give them trouble, but Buddy, his older brother (Lewis McAskie), and their pa (Jamie Dornan) are all under pressure, especially from one thug (Colin Morgan), to join the worsening Protestant riots lest they be targeted with the Catholics. Buddy's ma (Caitríona Balfe) and pa alternately entertain the idea of moving out of Northern Ireland for safety, but Buddy would hate to leave his friends and ailing grandparents (Oscar nominees Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds).

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

I had liked the 2011 Puss in Boots better than anything else associated with Shrek, so I was a little disappointed at its reception. The Netflix series, which has the same IMDb rating at the moment, didn't sustain my interest for long. When TLW came later than any other DreamWorks sequel, I had to wonder why it was so much more popular. So I finally got the gumption to go to a theater again.

When the Zorro-like feline bandit (Antonio Banderas) loses his eighth life, he finally starts to fear death -- which, indeed, approaches him in the form of a red-eyed, sickle-wielding wolf (Wagner Moura). He decides to live like a normal cat for a crazy cat lady (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), until Goldilocks (Florence Pugh) and the Three Bears (Ray Winstone, Olivia Colman, and Samson Kayo) come hoping to enlist his help in swiping a magic map to the legendary Wishing Star in the dreaded Dark Forest. Rather than join them, he sets out to claim the one wish for himself so he can gain extra lives. But the Bear crime family aren't his only rivals. Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek Pinault) returns, still sore at him for jilting her. And then there's insatiably greedy magnate Big Jack Horner (John Mulaney), who has no special abilities of his own but has hired a Baker's Dozen of minions he regards as expendable and purchased an impressive array of fairy tale accessories.

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

I might as well tell you up front how to pronounce the last word of the title: "in-uh-SHARE-in." I won't provide similar guidance for the character names, because you're not likely to say them until after you've watched.

On a tiny ficitious isle in 1923, Pádraic (Colin Farrell) suddenly finds that his drinking buddy Colm (Brendan Gleeson) wants nothing more to do with him. Colm eventually explains that he'd rather pursue a legacy as a composer for the fiddle than listen to Pádraic's unenriching blabber. Pádraic won't give up on him that easily, thinking he's just going through a depressive phase. Colm threatens self-mutilation if Pádraic won't stop talking to him. Things get uglier from there.

King Richard (2021)

Yep, the movie that enabled the slap heard 'round the world. Now I would see whether Will Smith even deserved his Oscar in the first place. OK, that didn't cross my mind when I selected the film; I remembered only that it was one of the more esteemed Academy Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen yet.

In the early '90s, Compton father Richard Williams (Smith) starts looking for a renowned tennis coach for preteen-to-teen daughters Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton) despite lack of funds. He finally persuades Paul Cohen (Tony Goldwyn) and later Rick Macci (Jon Bernthal) to take on Venus, while Serena has to settle for practice with mother Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis). You probably already know that both go on to huge success. But as the title implies, Richard is awfully domineering, which gets him locking horns with just about everyone.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

The 1930 adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque novel was my favorite Academy Best Picture of the decade. How could a remake live up to it? Well, for one thing, the visual quality hasn't aged well. Also, its "Germans" make no attempt not to sound like Americans, whereas this version was German-made.

In 1917, four teenage friends, the most focal being Paul (Felix Kammerer), are moved to join the German army. They soon find themselves in a northern French trench with the more seasoned "Kat" (Albrecht Schuch), who helps steal food for them. About a year passes in total. As for the rest, all I really need to tell you is that the source material is antiwar....

The Sea Beast (2022)

This is not one of the more esteemed or discussed Best Animated Feature nominees for the year. I gave it priority over the other two I hadn't seen only because it's streaming on Netflix. I figured if nothing else, it's a DreamWorks-esque story of sympathy for a giant mythical animal.

In an alternate version of the 17th century, sailors from what I assume to be the British Empire have made a name for themselves as sea monster hunters. The crew of Captain Crow (Jared Harris), in fact, has been idolized in books within their time. Nevertheless, their royal sponsors (Jim Carter and Doon Mackichan) plan to sunset their ship, the Inevitable, in favor of a new one under an admiral (Dan Stevens), unless they kill the notorious Red Bluster before he does. Antics in their next attempt lead to adventurous orphaned preteen stowaway Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator) and Crow's next choice for captain, Jacob (Karl Urban), getting lost at sea with the intended target, whom Maisie calls "Red" and identifies as female. Maisie reevaluates what she thought she knew about sea beasts; Jacob is more gradual about it. Crow, meanwhile, had sworn vengeance on Red long before this bet, so he'll go to lengths even his loyal first mate (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) deems dishonorable.

Drive My Car (2021)

This Japanese film does not include the Beatles song, which really wouldn't fit the dramatic tenor. Instead, it's based on a Haruki Murakami short story by the same title. How a 40-pager plus bits of two others in the collection made the basis for a 179-minute feature is beyond me, but the latter was too esteemed for me to pass up.

In the late 2010s, middle-aged Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) doesn't want to act on stage ever again due to emotional issues regarding his late wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima). Nevertheless, his past as the star of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya gets him tapped to direct another production thereof. One condition of the arrangement is that he not drive himself, given his glaucoma. He reluctantly accepts young woman Misaki Watari (Tōko Miura) as his chauffeur and lets her hear him go over lines in his car with a recording of Oto. Young actor Kōji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada) is surprised when Yūsuke casts him as Vanya. Imagine his surprise if he'd known that Yūsuke caught him committing adultery with Oto.

Elvis (2022)

Making a bio about anyone this prominent is practically asking for trouble. It might tell us nothing new or fudge well-known facts. Considering Baz Luhrman's penchant for anachronisms, I fully expected the latter. Still, he must have done something right -- if only not getting in the way too much -- for his flick to garner eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.

If there's one way this stands out from most musician biopics, it's the first-person narration by the musician's manager, honorary Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). He discovers Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) when the latter has become a local sensation, young enough to require contract signatures from his parents (Helen Thomson and Richard Roxburgh). The partnership spells a lot of fame and income, but the two lock horns a lot. Tom seems to mean well when he demands that Elvis dial back the popular yet controversial elements, not so much when he won't let Elvis tour overseas because Tom immigrated illegally and has to make up gambling debts with Vegas performances.

Promising Young Woman (2020)

You can understand why I might not give this higher priority among the 2020 Best Picture nominees: A woman's life-changing trauma kicks off the story. Netflix is cagey about it, but as I suspected, the trauma is rape. Mercifully for us, we get no visuals of the event, which happens several years before the opening.

In modern Ohio, Cassie (Carrie Mulligan) has dropped out of med school after in-crowder Al (Chris Lowell) raped her then-drunk friend Nina in front of party guests and still didn't face any consequences from the law or the school. Nina has since died, possibly of suicide. Cassie's way of honoring Nina's memory is to play drunk at bars to lure men into taking advantage of her and then shock them with sudden sober behavior. By chance, she reconnects with classmate Ryan (Bo Burnham), who says that Al is engaged. Cassie begins a more targeted campaign of vengeance, but she needs time to decide how to feel about awkwardly seductive Ryan.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

The writers of this Marvel Cinematic Universe entry had their work cut out for them with the passing of Chadwick Boseman. I'm not surprised that the general reception has been middling. Still, I've enjoyed superhero flicks with lower ratings, and this one has and is in the running for a lot of awards. I decided to stream it in between my viewings of pictures that don't promise much fun.

A year after her son dies of an unspecified illness, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett, up for an Oscar) has not kept his promise of sharing Wakanda's seemingly unmatched tech with the rest of the world, because national governments aren't exactly proving themselves trustworthy. Brilliant MIT undergrad Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) develops a vibranium detector, and U.S. operatives use it to find some in the sea -- only to get massacred by aquatic mutants from an even more secretive and xenophobic kingdom, Talokan. The Talokan king, familiarly known as Namor (Tenoch Huerta), demands that Wakanda capture Riri for him or face his wrath. Not keen on his idea of justice, Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) and General Okoye (Danai Gurira) set out to protect Riri. It becomes clear that Namor plans war against surface dwellers around the world but perceives enough commonality to offer an alliance with Wakanda. Shuri strongly disagrees with his campaign, but she has her own anger issues to work through soon enough.

The Father (2020)

Continuing to catch up on recent Oscar nominees. If Nomadland had been as I feared, I'd make a point not to watch this one next, because it promised to be a bit drearier than most of the competition, in a year with only dramas up for Best Picture.

In what might be the present era, elderly Brit Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) feels sure he can take care of himself. He doesn't welcome any assistants hired by his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman). At his most hostile and paranoid, he accuses them of theft and her of looking for an excuse to move him into a nursing home so she can claim his property. I'm a little surprised he doesn't accuse Anne of gaslighting, because he becomes increasingly confused about the apartment, whom to expect there, and what people have and have not told him. Anne also grows in stress, almost to the point of insanity, and her husband (Rufus Sewell) is less patient still.

Nomadland (2020)

Before the next Academy Awards, I thought I'd catch up on previous winners and nominees. I had been putting this Best Picture off because some people made it sound depressing. Then I remembered that the same was true of No Country for Old Men, which I turned out to like just fine. Besides, after Johnny Got His Gun, how painful could it be for me to watch?

In 2011, the closing of a factory spells the emptying of its tiny Nevada town. Sixty-something widow Fern (Frances McDormand) stays as long as she can but then decides to live out of a van, seeing the countryside and taking odd jobs. She meets many other nomads in a mutually supportive community, including Dave (David Strathairn), who clearly has a crush on her, but commitment to anything other than preserving her husband's memory is far from her mind.

Pocketful of Miracles (1961)

This film is probably best known as Frank Capra's last, not for reasons of health so much as interpersonal frustration on set and dissatisfaction with the end product. It also might mark the first use on screen of the criminal slang term "godfather."

In the early '30s, mobster Dave the Dude (Glenn Ford) practically has the run of New York City, and he credits his success to the lucky apples he buys regularly from an old peddler, "Apple" Annie (Bette Davis). Annie learns that her daughter, Louise (Ann-Margret in her Golden Globe-winning screen debut), who hasn't seen her since infancy but has corresponded with her regularly by mail, is about to visit, because Louise is engaged to the son (Peter Mann) of a Spanish count (Arthur O'Connell). This causes Annie a lot of stress, because she's been lying about her financial situation and even her name all along. Dave thinks it's not his problem, until his on-and-off fiancée, Queenie (Hope Lange), points out what it could mean for his luck. Since Dave has a big deal with Public Enemy #1 (Sheldon Leonard) in the making, he will reluctantly pour his ill-gotten resources into passing Annie off as an aristocrat for the duration of the visit.

Dodge City (1939)

The year after The Adventures of Robin Hood, Warner Bros. wanted another Technicolor picture directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. But to call it a companion piece or a spiritual successor would be a stretch. Flynn, at least, had never done a western before, nor had he practiced much with an accent appropriate for one. Nevertheless, the formula intrigued me.

Wade Hatton (Flynn), a cowhand and comrade of Col. Grenville M. Dodge (Henry O'Neill), visits the young namesake town for the first time in years, partly to escort westward settlers, including Abbie Irving (de Havilland). Little did he know that the gang of Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot) effectively runs the place. It takes a few tragic violent crimes to convince Wade to put on a sheriff badge and deputize his buddies, Rusty (Alan Hale) and Tex (Guinn "Big Boy Williams"), aware that things didn't work out for the last few guys who tried it. (Ann Sheridan gets third billing, but her character does little more than sing and dance on a stage.)

Marshland (2014)

The original Spanish title literally translates to "The Minimal Island." Either way, the point is to call attention to a remote setting, possibly with a symbolic status in light of the bleakness.

Specifically, it's set in or near Spain's Guadalquivir Marshes, reputedly akin to the U.S. Deep South, in 1980. Two promiscuous teen sisters who wanted to move away are soon found murdered in one marsh, having been treated worse than the girls in The Last House on the Left, albeit thankfully not on screen. The two Madrid-based detectives assigned to the case, Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) and Pedro (Raúl Arévalo), have not worked together before and espouse rather different worldviews, but they're both determined to catch the killer(s) before another girl meets a similar fate.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Here it is, folks: the first movie I've seen set during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically May 2020. That said, we don't see people wearing masks or keeping apart for long, thanks to an oral spray that supposedly protects everyone from infection. Either they put too much confidence in a dubious treatment, or it's a sci-fi premise. It wouldn't be the only one herein, despite the previous Knives Out not having any.

Eccentric industrialist Miles Bron (Edward Norton) invites five pretty close acquaintances, along with a couple plus-ones, to a weekend on his private island, home to a mansion aptly called the Glass Onion, to solve the mystery of his "murder." PI Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), the only returning character, also gets an invitation, tho Bron didn't intend it. Almost equally out of place is Andi Brand (Janelle Monáe), Bron's former business partner, who's bitterly disenchanted with him and all his suck-ups in attendance. Blanc notes that every guest besides himself has a motive to make the pretend murder a reality. Well, someone dies before long....