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.

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.

Project Hail Mary (2026)

This has been seeing a lot of discussion in my circles, including a slight spoiler I tried to ignore. I decided not to wait for the next spoiler to see the flick in a theater. Besides, at 156 minutes, it promised a good way to fill my evening.

In the near future, scientists discover star-eating microbes that could decimate Earth's population in a few decades. These "astrophages" travel to Venus to reproduce, so it's possible to collect some for study. Only one vaguely close star, Tau Ceti, has not been dimming. The titular project sends three astronauts on a long, mostly comatose one-way trip to find and transmit answers that might save their sun. For unexplained reasons, only Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) lives to wake up. Fortunately, he meets a sapient alien he dubs Rocky, on a mission to deal with the same threat to another star. Their combined smarts might be just what they need.

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.

The Bad Guys 2 (2025)

Huh, once again, I watch an entry in the series when it's newly streaming on Netflix. The two are almost tied in general reception, with possibly a slight advantage to the sequel. And I was in the mood for a cartoon.

Even if you didn't watch the first movie, you shouldn't have trouble catching up to speed or be surprised that the titular five friends -- Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Miss Tarantula (Awkwafina), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos) -- are trying to be good, but their criminal history hurts their job searches. Things get worse when someone frames them for a set of high-profile thefts. The so-called "Phantom Bandit" turns out to be three Bad Girls, who want the quintet's help to steal a rocket. Their leverage: a video that reveals the dark past of Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz). The Bad Guys reluctantly agree to "one last heist," but will they be tempted back to a life of crime?

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....

TTT: Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimaiyil (2026)

From the initialism, I expected a spiritual successor to RRR. Nope, different feel, different studio, different language, probably none of the same people working on it. The Tamil title translates roughly to "Under the Leader and Younger Brother."

Somewhere in modern India, during a pre-wedding party, an elderly alleged prophet dies of natural causes. His son insists on holding an elaborate funeral at the same time the wedding is scheduled to begin. Village council president Jeeva has his work cut out for him in keeping the peace between hostile, sometimes criminal neighbors, especially after the bride is mistakenly believed to have run off with another man.

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....