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....