Society of the Snow (2023)

This is the sort of movie I don't watch on truly cold days. I had some reservations about watching more Spanish-language fare already, but there weren't many longer movies (144 minutes) left on my dwindling Netflix list to fill a slow evening. FWIW, dubbing matched the lips so poorly that I switched to subtitles.

In October 1972, a plane from Montevideo fails to cross a treacherous sky over the Andes. By morning, 16 of the 45 people aboard die from injury or freezing. The rest are inclined to stay in or near the wreckage until a rescue party arrives, but combing the area takes so long that a radio reports that the searchers presume them all dead and will wait for clearer weather. After two months, the most able-bodied survivors decide to hike back to civilization.

The Invisible Man (2020)

Another Universal Monsters quasi-remake. It's so far removed from the H.G. Wells story that I decline to add "book" to the tags. The trailer, tho including part of a deleted scene, aptly conveyed its creepiness, giving me mixed feelings on whether to watch. Nonetheless, the library carried no more promising candidate for my seasonal purpose.

In the San Francisco area, Cecilia "Cee" Kass (Elisabeth Moss) narrowly escapes the estate of Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a rich CEO and brilliant engineer but far too possessive a boyfriend. After two PTSD-ridden weeks hiding out at the house of Officer James Lanier (Aldis Hodge) and his teen daughter Sydney (Storm Reid), she learns from Adrian's attorney brother Tom (Michael Dorman) that Adrian killed himself and willed a fortune to her. Just as things start looking up for her, she gets the impression of Adrian's unseen, mostly silent presence. Friends and family think she's going from paranoid to violently insane, but, well, see the title.

Mirage (2018)

No, not a remake of the 1965 noir. I hadn't heard of this Spanish movie, whose native title is Durante la tormenta ("During the storm"), until I browsed Netflix for something chilling. OK, most sources don't count this as horror, and some don't even call it a thriller, but it certainly involves paranormal phenomena and high-running emotions.

In 2014, in her new house, thirty-something Vera watches a videotape made by a prior resident, preteen Nico, shortly before his accidental death in 1989. An extraordinary thunderstorm at both times allows them to see and hear each other. Vera warns Nico not to make a fatal mistake. Then she discovers a bunch of local changes, most distressingly that she never got together with her would-be husband, David. Nobody else remembers the other timeline, but she hopes to find out what became of Nico and somehow restore what she lost, before the three-day storm ends.

Heretic (2024)

I hadn't heard of this title when I found it in the library, but a summary mentioning Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the same directors as A Quiet Place (not Part II), convinced me to give it a try. Given the religious focus, I opted out of inviting a friend, in case we strongly disagreed on it.

On a rainy day in Boulder, two young adult Mormon missionaries, Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and more experienced Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher), visit the home of one Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who previously expressed interest in discussion of their faith. They gradually realize that despite his amiable demeanor, he'd rather proselytize to them, albeit remaining cagey about "the one true religion." More importantly, he's dishonest and manipulative. Then they discover that the old-fashioned house is designed not to be exited easily or allow phone signals. Reed claims they're free to go; they just have to make careful choices first....

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....

Point Break (1991)

Summer's over, but I felt like holding onto it vicariously with one of the few surf-focused features I could name. I hadn't heard of this one when it was new (the year I saw my first R movie), but between a 2015 remake and occasional references, I figured it was worth checking out. Besides, 122 minutes was a convenient amount of time for me to kill.

Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) has just joined the FBI when he hears about a gang of four who deftly rob L.A. banks while wearing masks of former U.S. presidents. Senior Agent Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey) theorizes from various hints that "the Ex-Presidents" are surfer dudes. Since Angelo's too old for it, Johnny takes up surfing in his off-duty hours, hoping to find the robbers in their insular community. He persuades expert Tyler Ann Endicott (Lori Petty) to teach him, and she introduces him to a group led by "Bodhi" (then top-billed Patrick Swayze). I think you already know where this is going.

I Swear (2025)

I became aware of this only in connection with a public catastrophe. I assumed a documentary, but it's a biopic. When it came to Netflix, I leapt at it for education's sake.

In a Scottish town in 1983, preteen John Davidson (Scott Ellis Watson) develops frequent shouts and spasms, some of which qualify as assaults. Everyone else assumes he's just being a jerk, but he insists it's involuntary. Sure enough, he goes on to be diagnosed with acute Tourette syndrome. In young adulthood (now played by Robert Aramayo), he decides to leave the home of his mother, Heather (Shirley Henderson), and live with Dottie (Maxine Peake), the ailing mother of his old school friend, Murray (Francesco Piacentini-Smith). Heather objects, but John notes that Dottie is both more tolerant and more experienced with mental patients. In middle age, he becomes the face of Tourette's awareness.

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 Invite (2026)

I was hoping to see Young Washington this evening, but it's already gone from the nearest theaters. Among the available showings I hadn't seen, TI looked most popular. Maybe just as well, for promising something extra different from my expensive, humorless previous viewing. Not that I could tell much from one- or two-sentence summaries; it sounded vaguely like it could be Bad Shabbos minus Judaism.

Angela (Olivia Wilde, who also directs) invites upstairs couple Hawk (Edward Norton) and Piña (Penélope Cruz) to visit her San Francisco apartment, without the timely awareness or approval of her husband, Joe (Seth Rogen). She wants to make up for them having to tolerate renovation noises by showing them the results, and maybe she and Joe will finally have friends again. Joe would rather give them a piece of his mind about their noises, from sex at ungodly hours. It turns out that Hawk and Piña host orgies and would be interested in Angela and Joe joining....

The Odyssey (2026)

Around the same time that I read Homer's epic, I saw the 1997 miniseries thereof, which didn't blow me away but helped cement a few memories. Not enough that some parts didn't feel new again, as I would discover. If nothing else, I could count on director Christopher Nolan to make it his own, even without Cillian Murphy or a male character mourning a dead wife or girlfriend.

Royalty has a somewhat different meaning in ancient Greece, where King Odysseus of Ithaca (Matt Damon) sees no choice but to fight in the Trojan War himself, shortly after the birth of his son, Telemachus. His side wins, but the return journey is fraught with episodes of supernatural peril, keeping him and his troops away much longer than other veterans. Queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) holds out hope despite a widespread assumption of Odysseus's death, which leads to dozens of suitors taking up residence at the palace. She can't dismiss them without breaking the oft-cited Zeus's Law (i.e., show hospitality in case a guest is a disguised god). By young adulthood, Telemachus (Tom Holland) is thinking of ascending the throne, but the suitors, unofficially led by Antinous (Robert Pattinson), conspire to kill him first.

Beasts of No Nation (2015)

For all its plaudits, this bombed at the box office. Some theaters declined to play it because it also went straight to Netflix streaming. Plus, I suspect that many prospective viewers were reluctant to watch such a dark story in an immersive environment with no pause option. Well, there's no better time for me to check out something bleak than right after a fun flick.

The film was shot in Ghana, with some lines in Krio and Twi, but honors its title by not specifying where in West Africa it's set. The decade is hard to guess too. Amid a civil war, prepubescent boy Agu (Abraham Attah) gets separated from some of his relatives and witnesses the killing of the rest. He runs into a rebel battalion, whose unnamed Commandant (Idris Elba) recruits him with an almost fatherly approach. That's not much if any better than wandering the wilderness alone....

Locke (2013)

I don't recall adding this to my Netflix queue or even learning about it before. Google classifies it as "Thriller/Crime," but it's neither. I chose it last night partly for looking different from other recent viewings and partly for its 84-minute runtime.

Birmingham foreman Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) has had an affair with colleague Bethan Maguire (Olivia Colman). She got pregnant and decided not to abort. On the night before Ivan's supposed to supervise an epic construction project, Bethan goes into labor. Since she has no family or friends available, Ivan agrees to drive a couple hours to the London hospital, making car phone calls to trainee Donal (Andrew Scott), boss Gareth (Ben Daniels), and wife Katrina (Ruth Wilson). Nobody is happy with his decision except Bethan, and she's stressed enough that he's not already there.

True Romance (1993)

I rather liked this movie in young adulthood but totally forgot what happens in it, besides a happy ending. Since Quentin Tarantino wrote it, you know it's not just a romantic comedy/drama; it's an R-rated crime flick with antiheroes. At least having Tony Scott direct instead means there's no fixation on a woman's bare feet.

Detroit comic store clerk Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) hits it off with Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) before knowing she's a call girl hired by his employer as a birthday present. Nonetheless, she does fall for him, and they elope. Hearing how rotten her pimp Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman) is, Clarence confronts him, ends up killing him, and orders another call girl to pack Alabama's things. Only after Clarence takes the suitcase home does he see that it's full of stolen cocaine bags. He hopes to sell it fast in L.A., but he'll have to worry about getting tracked down by previous owners as well as police.

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.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

I had enjoyed First Blood but understood that it bore little resemblance to the rest of the Rambo series. Green Beret John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) doesn't kill any humans in it, for one thing. When I found the immediate sequel on Pluto TV, I decided to get an informed opinion of how accurate the many parodies were. Hey, it wouldn't be the first mediocre Stallone vehicle I found interesting.

After a few years of a labor sentence, Rambo learns from his former commander, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), of a chance at a pardon. His accepted mission from Major Marshall Roger Murdock (Charles Napier) is to sneak into a Vietnamese camp suspected of still containing American POWs and take only pictures. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a story if he followed instructions precisely. Once he sees an opportunity to free a tortured prisoner (Andy Wood), it won't be long before the projectiles fly.

Walking Tall (1973)

I didn't recall hearing about this cult movie when YouTube suggested it, but it got two sequels, a TV series, a TV remake, and a big-screen remake trilogy starring Dwayne Johnson. It also takes inspiration from real events, tho they've since been disputed enough that I won't add my "true story" tag. Indeed, last year, investigators accused the long-deceased protagonist of uxoricide. That would not affect my feelings about the film version.

In 1964, ex-wrestler Buford Pusser (Joe Don Baker) moves back from Chicago to Adamsville, Tennessee, with his wife (Elizabeth Hartman) and kids (Leif Garrett and Dawn Lyn Nervik), planning to work as a logger for his dad (Noah Beery Jr.). His mom (Lurene Tuttle) cryptically warns him to ignore changes in town, but that's not easy when an old buddy (Ed Call) invites him to a casino. He catches the staff cheating, and they beat him within an inch of his life and steal his car. Then he discovers that the sheriff he used to look up to (Gene Evans) is worse than useless and the local judge (Douglas Fowley), while apparently staying within the bounds of the law, is not much better. So much for Buford's promise not to fight anymore....

The Disciple (2020)

I don't think I've ever seen another movie in which the main language is Marathi. Nor am I aware of another Indian movie executive-produced by Alfonso Cuarón. Neither of those facts are why I checked this out; I just wanted a drama, and this one is short by Indian standards, at 127 minutes.

The story follows Sharad Nerulkar from young adulthood (with a childhood flashback or two) to...well, I'm not sure; the mustache might make him look older than he's supposed to be. The important thing, he goes from an amateur classical vocalist to enough of a pro to get many YouTube reactions in English. Nonetheless, he remains plagued by doubts, or perhaps certainty that he'll never equal his celebrated elderly tutor, Guruji. Maybe not even his strict father.

Desperado (1995)

I watched most of El Mariachi in junior high Spanish class and the rest in young adulthood. It didn't particularly grab me, but it worked pretty well on $7,000. When Netflix suggested the immediate sequel, I got curious how different it would be with a budget 100 times higher.

EM had ended with the unnamed title character (subsequently played by Antonio Banderas) killing drug lord Moco (Peter Marquardt), who had killed the guitarist's love interest and shot him in the left hand. Alas, his thirst for vengeance has not been quenched; he now seeks Moco's boss, Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida). El Mariachi's buddy Buscemi (yup, Steve Buscemi) discovers compelling evidence of which small town holds Bucho's base of operations. It doesn't take long for a trail of destruction to put Bucho on high alert. Meanwhile, El Mariachi must have a type, because he falls for yet another drug lord affiliate, bookstore owner Carolina (Salma Hayek, paired with Banderas for the first time), who tends his wounds.

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.

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.)