The Substance (2024)

When I looked over the DVD section of my library, it occurred to me that I would soon begin my Halloween-y viewings. This appears to be the most esteemed horror of the past few years, even nominated for Academy Best Picture, so I went right for it. Not that the DVD offers much over streaming; the only extra is a one-minute "featurette" in which director Coralie Fargeat summarizes her feminist aims.

Oscar-winning former actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) has moved on to hosting an aerobics program, until producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) dismisses her for turning 50. Then she gets stealthy word of an unnamed, clearly FDA-unapproved product that can make a more youthful clone of her. She goes for it, and her younger self (Margaret Qualley) gets the same job under the alias "Sue." She enjoys major success but has to keep switching her consciousness between bodies weekly, keeping the catatonic body on an IV. When she ignores the supplier's warnings, things go sideways on both sides....

The Professionals (1966)

Nothing to do with the British TV series by the same title, nor does it relate to Léon: The Professional. It's a western with a whole posse at the center, something I hadn't seen in a while. If my mood didn't convince me to watch, the fact that it stops streaming on Netflix next week would.

In the late 1910s, a bit later than usual for the genre, wealthy rancher Joe Grant (Ralph Bellamy) hires four talented if unruly individuals -- explosives expert Rico Fardan (Burt Lancaster), general weapons expert Bill Dolworth (Lee Marvin), horse wrangler Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan), and scout Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) -- to head into Mexico and retrieve his wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), from Jesús Raza (Jack Palance), a former soldier and continuous rebel in the Mexican Revolution. The movie is less than half over when the pros reach Maria, but the plot thickens when they realize that despite Joe's claim, Raza didn't abduct her. She loves him, and her marriage was forced by purchase. Each searcher must decide whether he wants the reward money enough to take her back against her will.

Nightcrawler (2014)

If this were about the beloved X-Man, I would have seen it in a theater. If it were about an earthworm, I might still have seen it earlier. But for all its popularity, I must not have liked what I'd gleaned about it, or I would have put it on my Netflix list. Instead, it was the first halfway-promising result I hadn't watched when I browsed on another account.

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) has been a sometimes violent sneak thief, but he wants a more legitimate job. At the scene of a car crash, he decides to make videos of newsworthy nighttime incidents and sell them to a struggling L.A. news station. He gets too close for the comfort of emergency personnel, but morning news director Nina Romina (Rene Russo) craves such sensational footage. Lou enlists desperate intern Rick (Riz Ahmed) to help navigate to addresses mentioned on scanned police radio signals. In his business ambitions, Lou has so little regard for laws and ethics that he might have done less damage as a thief.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

I watched the 1999 remake during its theater run and had mixed feelings about it. When I saw that the original had the same IMDb rating (unlike for Ocean's Eleven), I got curious. My interest increased upon learning that a re-remake will come out next year.

There's no museum art theft this time, just a typical bank robbery in Boston. Investigator Vicki Anderson (Faye Dunaway) correctly intuits that aristocrat Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen), tho absent from the bank at the time, organized and funded the heist. In her search for compelling evidence that would hold up in court, she gets into an intimate relationship with him, however awkward in light of their mutually recognized rivalry.

Hamnet (2025)

Of the year's Academy Best Picture nominees I hadn't seen, this was the one I most wanted to see. I hadn't heard that Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes were among the producers, nor that it got more Oscar nods than anything else directed by a woman. I just like Hamlet and take interest in anything related to it.

The story begins shortly before William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), then a teacher of Latin in Stratford-upon-Avon, meets Agnes/Anne Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) while she tames a hawk in the woods. Despite disapproval from both their families, they go on to get married and have three kids. William spends little time around them, because he works far away. He'll regret not being there when his only son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), is in critical condition....

Steel Magnolias (1989)

I'd seen a fair number of movies with comedic elements lately, but it was time for an indisputable comedy-drama. It was also time for something that easily passed the Bechdel test, with six women getting top billing and the entire poster. OK, mainly I decided to watch what would soon stop streaming on Netflix.

Although partly based in truth, the story takes place entirely in a fictional small town in Louisiana. It begins on the wedding day of Shelby Eatenton (Julia Roberts) and Jackson Latcherie (Dylan McDermott), who narrowly avoid several fiascos, including cold feet. Alas, the event showcases Shelby's worsening health from diabetes. Her mother, Mary Lynn or "M'Lynn" (Sally Field), would rather she not endanger herself further by having a baby. When the focus is not on the Eatentons or the Latcheries, it's usually on Annelle Dupuy (Daryl Hannah), sometimes made out to be the main character. She's a struggling newcomer who gets hired at the beauty shop of gossipy Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton), falls for one Sammy DeSoto (Kevin J. O'Connor), and then finds religion more than Sammy likes.

Poor Things (2023)

I've wanted to see this since I caught a few clips at the Academy Awards. My desire decreased when I learned that Yorgos Lanthimos directed. Nonetheless, almost as soon as it came to Netflix, I obliged.

In 19th-century London, heavily pregnant Victoria Blessington (Emma Stone) commits suicide. Victor Frankenstein-like Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) could simply revive her, but seeing little sense in bringing back a suicidal mind, he transplants her baby's brain into her head first. When he asks med student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) to help document the behavior of this "Bella Baxter," she can barely talk or balance, but she's learning fast. Eventually, Godwin talks Max into proposing to Bella. She accepts, but since Godwin would still require her to stay on his property all the time, she first runs off on an adventure with Europe-traveling lothario Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). Neither she nor Duncan knows what they're getting into.

My Man Godfrey (1936)

A rare re-view review from me! I absolutely loved this when I saw it with my family, but after maybe 20 years, not much had stayed with me. Now I would see how funny I found it without company -- and mildly colorized. (I'm adding the black and white tag just in case you see the other version.)

Aristocrat Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) goes to a New York City dump to find a "forgotten man" for a scavenger hunt. Godfrey (William Powell) accepts her invitation but doesn't enjoy the ritzy crowd. To make it up to him, Irene capriciously hires him as the family butler. He cleans up nicely and tries to do a good job, but it soon becomes clear why the Bullocks had an opening.

The Sunshine Boys (1975)

Both IMDb and Wikipedia calls this a straight-up comedy. I call it a comedy-drama, because it works better that way. While more plainly joking than The King of Comedy, it feels pretty dour much of the time, as I suspected from the title.

Aged vaudevillian Willy Clark (Walter Matthau) wants to remain in show business despite having become nearly impossible to direct. His nephew, Ben (Richard Benjamin), also serves as his thankless agent. Ben finally gets him a role on a retrospective TV special, but Willy is extremely reluctant to reunite with estranged partner Al Lewis (George Burns) for even one reprisal of their classic "doctor sketch."

Bugonia (2025)

Nobody on screen says the title. It's a Greek type of ritual sacrifice once thought to produce bees, which appear sometimes herein for an analogy. That's about the only reason I felt the need to look at the movie's Wikipedia page, because the plot's easy to remember.

Cousins Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidan Delbis) kidnap pharma CEO Michelle (Emma Stone) and hold her in Teddy's house. Teddy is fully convinced that she is a high-ranking alien from the Andromeda Galaxy responsible for the slow ruination of many things for humanity. He demands that Michelle arrange a meeting between him and the Andromedan emperor on the lunar eclipse, which comes four days after the kidnapping. The longer Michelle doesn't do as Teddy bids, the less inclined he is to choose civility over rage. Slightly complicating matters are periodic check-ins by deputy Casey (Stavros Halkias), Teddy's former abusive sitter.

Topper (1937)

Until it came up on YouTube, the only time I'd heard of this movie was when the American Film Institute's list of 100 funniest U.S. movies included it at #60. That was not one of the more respected AFI lists, since humor is highly subjective, so I took the placement with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, I was in the mood for an oldie.

Bank stockholder George Kerby (Cary Grant) and his wife, Marion (Constance Bennett), lead fun-loving, irresponsible lives that end abruptly in a car crash -- sort of. They persist as ghosts, evidently a fate for the morally neutral. When bank manager Cosmo Topper (Roland Young), an acquainted fellow aristocrat, stumbles on the scene of the crash, the Kerbys think of a posthumous good deed that might get them into heaven: guiding Cosmo to more joy than his strict wife, Clara (Billie Burke), has allowed him. They make their presence known to him and both engage in and encourage the same kind of behavior as before, with predictable risks.

How the West Was Won (1962)

I'd seen this title many times over the years, thanks primarily to its all-star cast. For a profitable epic, it's had a pretty middling reception on rating sites, but it did net some Academy Awards. I chose to watch it not long after my last John Wayne western because I knew no better way to kill 164 minutes last night.

No other western I know takes place over such a long period. It's divided into five chapters, spanning from 1839 to 1889. The focus is on the westward-moving Prescott family, including but not limited to patriarch Zebulon (Karl Malden), matriarch Rebecca (Agnes Moorehead), and daughters Eve (Carroll Baker) and Lilith (Debbie Reynolds). Eve takes a shine to wandering fur trader Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), while Lilith falls for gambler Cleve van Valen (Gregory Peck). Their lives are partly affected by the California Gold Rush, the War Between the States, and other armed conflicts.

20th Century Women (2016)

I felt I'd seen enough comedies or semi-comedies in a row. This movie looked suitably serious, not least with A24 distribution. Turns out it's a dramedy. Oh well, I hardly noticed.

Apart from brief flashbacks and flash-forwards, the setting is 1979 Santa Barbara. Dorothea (Annette Bening), 55, feels inadequate as the single mom of Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), 15, and doesn't count on middle-aged tenant and potential boyfriend William (Billy Crudup) to supplement her efforts. She asks her other unrelated tenant, 24-year-old Abbie (Greta Gerwig), and Jamie's closest female friend, 17-year-old Julie (Elle Fanning), to help him grow up healthily. But Jamie's not keen on this arrangement, and the ladies have conflicting ideas of how to go about it.

Ladyhawke (1985)

Sources told me that this was a cult classic. I fully expected an '80s sword-and-sorcery flick to be cheesy, but when YouTube suggested it, I figured it would at least be different from my other recent viewings.

Medieval peasant and habitual petty thief Phillipe "The Mouse" Gaston (young Matthew Broderick, mischievous as usual) escapes from an Italian dungeon but needs help evading guards ordered by the bishop of Aquila (John Wood) to kill him. Enter Etienne of Navarre (Rutger Hauer), former captain of said guards, who seeks to kill the bishop over a past treachery. Etienne is accompanied by a faithful red-tailed hawk, but by night, Phillipe sees neither of them, only the friendly Isabeau of Anjou (young Michelle Pfeiffer) and a black wolf who attacks only their enemies....

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

I saved this for one of my last viewings of Best Picture nominees from 2022 because, well, just look at the title. Only recently did I learn that it's partly comic. Netflix will stop streaming it soon, and I had 147 minutes to kill, so I obliged.

Few films have such an explicit three-act structure. First we get a few scenes involving models Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), who are dating but prone to argumentation over financial matters. Part 2, on a luxury yacht in an unspecified waterway, splits the focus among many customers and staffers. Carl and Yaya get a little more central again when they are among eight castaways on an island, shaking up the social order. (The title is what someone in the modeling industry calls an area of the face, but it works on multiple levels.)

Sinners (2025)

I don't recall ever going to a theater two nights in a row before. But I was getting tired of knowing so few Best Picture nominees ahead of the Academy Awards. This one makes four for me, and it has the best shot among them at winning.

Sammie (Miles Caton), against the wishes of his preacher dad (Saul William), decides to use his blues singing and guitar skills at a new rural juke joint run by his older twin cousins, "Smoke" and "Stack" (both Michael B. Jordan), who are thuggish yet charismatic to anyone they don't rob or attack. This being 1932 Mississippi, it's only a matter of time until the Black-centric establishment gets unwelcome attention. Well, the Ku Klux Klan shows up in force only near the end, but an even worse menace plagues opening night....

The Secret Agent (2025)

No, nothing to do with the Joseph Conrad novel by the same title, just similarly big on corruption and tragedy. It wasn't high among my priorities for watching before the Academy Awards, but it was the only Best Picture nominee showing at a convenient time and place last night.

Most of the scenes take place on or near Carnaval 1977 in the vicinity of Recife, Brazil. Yup, it's under that government. Armando, once a researcher, has adopted the alias of Marcelo because of his dissidence, and his allies help him get clerical work in an ID office. He tries to live as normally as possible, reconnecting with his young son, who has been living with the parents of Armando's dead wife. He also reluctantly accepts protection from a corrupt civil police chief, for what that's worth when a personal enemy hires a hit man.

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Wow, it's been that long already? ...Since the depicted incident, I mean. I don't recall the screen adaptation from an article being advertised when new, which may explain the poor box office performance despite rave reviews and award wins and nods. Regardless, I got curious to learn more.

In 2010, technician Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg) says goodbye to wife Felicia (Kate Hudson) and starts work on the titular oil rig off the Louisiana coast. He and manager Jimmy Harrell (Kurt Russell) soon discover lots of problems, such as a nonfunctional phone system, and persuade the visiting stingy BP managers, Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) and Robert Kaluza (Brad Leland), to approve more testing. The real trouble begins with a cement bond failure....

The Children's Hour (1961)

This adaptation of a Lillian Hellman play got mixed reviews and did not cover expenses at the box office, but when YouTube suggested it to me, I noticed the high ratings on modern boards. Besides, I was in the mood for an Audrey Hepburn piece, and this one sounded quite different from the same year's Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Karen (Hepburn) and Martha (Shirley MacLaine) run a girls' boarding school. For the first half hour, their struggles include some unruly students; Martha's annoyance at her conceited Aunt Lily (Miriam Hopkins) on staff; Karen dragging her heels about marrying the school's go-to physician, Joe (James Garner); and Martha worrying what will happen to the school when they do marry. But all those troubles get overshadowed when every student suddenly gets pulled out of the school. What rumor could be so ugly that the headmistresses take forever just to hear an explanation?

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025)

No, nothing to do with the 2001 Amélie. I hadn't heard of this hand-drawn adaptation from a book until its nomination for Best Animated Feature. For once, I went to a theater at a time I'd normally be having lunch, figuring I wouldn't be too hungry after 78 minutes.

In 1969, Amélie is born the third child to Belgian parents staying in Japan. For her first two years, she is outwardly unresponsive. Then she spends six months raging at her limitations, until her grandmother and a new nanny, Nishio, daughter of landlady Kashima, show her understanding and teach her to enjoy life. Alas, Grandma isn't long for this world, and Kashima's wartime grudge against Belgium leads her to discourage Nishio from spending much time around Amélie. What's more, Dad's job means they may have to move back to Belgium any week, despite Amélie self-identifying as Japanese. (I won't list voice actors, because none of the names for English or French mean anything to me.)