A Complete Unknown (2024)

Gosh, this is the first time in more than a year that I've gone to a theater with, or even seen a feature-length movie with, any member of my family. Specifically my dad this time. If not for his suggestion, I would likely have overlooked this title.

The story begins in 1961 when "Bobby Dylan" (Timothée Chalamet) visits the Huntington's-stricken Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in the hospital, where he also meets a visiting Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). Dylan is indeed unknown at this point, but as his music gains big-name supporters such as Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook), he becomes rich and famous almost overnight. This does not please him, because his fans and studio execs always want to pigeonhole him when he'd rather keep trying new things.

Sing (2016)

A notice that Netflix would stop streaming this animation at the end of the year inspired me to prioritize it. I'd been uncertain because the ad campaign didn't appeal much to me, but the decent ratings and slightly more popular sequel got me interested.

Slightly corrupt producer Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) is on the verge of losing his live theater after a string of flops. He decides to host a sing-off, but his elderly secretary (director Garth Jennings) accidentally overstates the prize money in the flyers. His only hope is to impress a rich, haughty retired diva (Jennifer Saunders/Jennifer Hudson in youth) with the talents of amateur finalists.

Upgrade (2018)

This has nothing to do with the Blake Crouch novel of the same title. Pity; that could make a great movie. This one is only vaguely similar in premises, but at least it promised to be similarly exciting.

A few decades from now, in an unspecified U.S. city, thugs paralyze mechanic Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) from the neck down and murder his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo). Engineering genius Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson), one of Grey's customers, offers him a computer chip called STEM to let him move the rest of his body, but since STEM isn't government-approved yet, he must keep it secret and pretend to still be quadriplegic. Little does Grey know that STEM has a mind of its own and can speak (with Simon Maiden's voice) such that only he can hear. Indeed, STEM's superior mental acuteness and reflexes help him track down and take on his attackers when the police have had no luck.

Flight of the Navigator (1986)

I'd heard of this title a few times and knew it to have had a moderately warm reception. When I saw it listed on Disney+, I figured it promised to be uplifting (in more ways than one) and appealing to '80s nostalgia. And short, at 90 minutes.

In Fort Lauderdale in 1978, unaccompanied 12-year-old David (Joey Cramer) falls into a ravine. When he wakes up, eight years have passed, yet he doesn't look or sound any older. Furthermore, he subconsciously has a telepathic connection with computers. A NASA official (Howard Hesseman) soon links him to a captured ET spaceship, which must have transported him at ultra-relativistic speed to an uncharted planet, where his brain was augmented. David doesn't like being taken to a national-secret government stronghold for study, so he sneaks out to the craft -- which opens only for him. A robot in control (Paul Reubens), whom David nicknames Max, identifies him as the navigator. Max needs to copy backup records from David's brain in order to go home; in return, Max promises to drop David off where he wants. Of course, NASA wants them both back....

Divines (2016)

I selected this partly for being very different from anything I'd seen lately and partly for having a runtime of less than two hours, which has grown scarce on my Netflix list. The cover image of a girl with a bloodied face did not exactly draw me in, but it did warn me that this wouldn't be much fun.

In a Romani suburb of modern Paris, high school friends Dounia (Oulaya Amamra) and Maimouna (Déborah Lukumuena), unsatisfied with their likely career options, resort to crime. At first they merely shoplift and sell on a black market. Then they persuade irascible drug dealer Rebecca (Jisca Kalvanda) to hire them for various tasks. They enjoy the pay, but it's a dangerous business, and teens aren't known for their cautious decisionmaking....

The Wild Robot (2024)

With no home Net connection last night, I could think of no better way to pass time than by going to a movie theater. And no other showings at that time tempted me. The premises of this one didn't sound particularly creative, but the reception has been magnificent, even if I happened to have the theater to myself.

An accident in transit leaves a commercial robot, ROZZUM Unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong'o), stranded on a forested, seemingly North American island with no human residents. She studies and masters the language of the animals but still gets no takers on her offer of assistance. She prepares to signal her manufacturer, Universal Dynamics, for pickup, but then an orphaned gosling runt (Boone Storme, later Kit Connor) imprints on her, effectively assigning her to raise him until he can migrate. The gosling, eventually called Brightbill, becomes almost as much of a misfit as his widely feared "mom." But as the task requires protocol overrides, "Roz" learns to care about him as much more than an obligation, and Brightbill can't resent her for long.

The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)

I chose this Netflix original almost at random from my list. The description didn't exactly grab me, but it looked rather different from what else I'd seen lately. At worst, it would waste only 97 minutes.

Seattle ex-novelist Ben (Paul Rudd) registers as a caregiver and, despite inexperience, asks to look after Trevor (Craig Roberts), an 18-year-old from England with a single mom, Elsa (Jennifer Ehle), and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. After a period in which Trevor does little more than watch TV, Ben persuades Elsa to let the two men make the big production of driving to several odd sights Trevor has expressed interest in seeing. Along the way, they pick up young adult hitchhiker Dot (Selena Gomez), who finds instant mutual attraction in Trevor; and then "Peaches" (Megan Ferguson), a woman with a dead car who looks ready to give birth any day now.

Unbroken (2014)

For Veterans Day, I picked the first new-to-me war movie I found on Netflix. I did not know that it was directed by Angelina Jolie and co-written by the Coen Brothers, but those facts would have increased my curiosity.

In 1943, Olympic runner Louie Zamperini (Jack O'Connell) is serving as a U.S. Air Force captain when his plane gives out over the Pacific. For nearly half the movie, he and the other two crash survivors, Phil (Domnhall Gleeson) and Mac (Finn Witrock), are holding out on rafts. Then they get taken as POWs, which is a worse situation in some ways, particularly under the war crime-level command of "the Bird" (Miyavi).

Inside Out 2 (2024)

Why did I wait this long to see a well-received sequel I'd anticipated for nine years? Well, I've gotten squeamish about watching family fare in theaters, where kids might get noisy. Plus, my folks almost never join me at movie theaters anymore and are likely to be tired of Disney from looking after their grandkids. I opted for a Disney+ showing alone.

Shortly after Riley (Kensington Tallman) turns 13, a crew revamps the control center of her mind such that Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale, not Bill Hader), and Disgust (Liza Lapira, not Mindy Kaling) find the panel oversensitive to their touch. More importantly, a host of new emotions shows up: manic Anxiety (Maya Hawke), adorably tiny Envy (Ayo Edebiri), French-accented Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), near-mute galoot Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and elderly Nostalgia (June Squibb). Anxiety has a big plan to change Riley's behavior and sense of self, and when the first five emotions aren't on board, she literally bottles them up and banishes them to the vault of secrets. They spend most of the movie trying to get back before Riley's life is in shambles.

Zombieland (2009)

Squeezing in one last Halloween review for the year! I opted for something under 90 minutes, clearly appropriate in theme but not seriously scary. Seemed like a partial palate cleanser.

We never learn the name of the narrator-protagonist (Jesse Eisenberg), because the few survivors of the zombie apocalypse don't want to feel too emotionally attached to each other. He goes by "Columbus," because he grew up in the Ohio capital. His long-time habits as a timid loner have prepared him for this new world, and he shares many tips with the viewers. While looking for a safe haven, he teams up with "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson), an older badass who loves hurting or killing zombies almost as much as eating the now-scarce Twinkies. Then they meet "Wichita" (Emma Stone) and her kid sister, "Little Rock" (Abigail Breslin). Columbus soon crushes on Wichita, but she's neither trusting nor trustworthy. Perhaps a shared crisis will change that....

The Platform (2019)

Of the scary Netflix movies recommended to me that I hadn't seen, this was one of the most highly rated. I opted not to save it for the end of the month because it's not a horror in the usual sense. It presents a nightmarish scenario, yes, but the protagonist is rarely in imminent mortal peril.

The Vertical Self-Management Center, also known as the Pit (a closer translation of the native Spanish title, El Hoyo), consists of stacked cells for two prisoners each, with a big hole in the floors/ceilings for a floating platform. Those on Floor 1 (the top) are treated to a sumptuous feast, Floor 2 gets their leftovers, and so on down the line. Once a month, everyone is gassed unconscious and wakes up on another floor (the number shown on the wall), seemingly chosen at random, albeit with the same cellmate -- if they both survive.

World War Z (2013)

I chose this partly for being relatively popular and partly because Netflix will drop it at the end of the month. Aside from that, all I knew going in was what the Z stood for. The first question in my mind was how the story would differ from that of the quintessential Dawn of the Dead.

Well, for starters, there is an unambiguous protagonist, Gerry (Brad Pitt), whose background as a UN investigator makes him especially important to combatting the viral zombie outbreak. Only about half an hour in, he gets his wife (Mireille Enos) and daughters (Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove) from overrun Philly to a reasonably safe outpost. But even favor from the UN deputy secretary-general (Fana Mokoena) won't let them all live there indefinitely; Gerry has to pull his weight by going back into danger for clues on how to vaccinate against zombification. And yes, the characters do say "zombie" eventually.

American Psycho (2000)

Of all the horrors on Netflix I hadn't seen, this was the one I'd heard about the most. Partly, I suppose, because it's relatively old. My visiting friend hadn't seen it either, so we chose our viewing quickly.

In 1987, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale, five years before he dropped the E from "Bateman") is a Wall Street investment banker with a luxurious lifestyle, often going to upscale restaurants with co-workers. That doesn't mean he enjoys it; as his first-person narration indicates, he can feel only greed and disgust, even toward ostensible fiancée Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon). At first, the only clear sign of something wrong with him is that he needs little provocation to make gory threats. Then his bloodlust grows beyond his full control, no longer reserved for envied colleagues and homeless people. How long can he hope to get away with murder?

The Wailing (2016)

I don't remember learning about this South Korean TV movie before. Most likely, it was on an online list of great horrors. In any case, it was the only horror I found left on my Netflix list.

Officer Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won), a police officer for the village of Gokseong, comes to recognize a pattern: Locals covered in boils are growing violently insane before dying. A theory tying the symptoms to drugs is not entertained for long, and for some reason, nobody even mentions the possibility of a natural disease. Reportedly, the first case emerged shortly after the arrival of an unnamed, reclusive Japanese man (Jun Kunimura), the subject of many rumors, including that he is a ghost. Jong-goo pays him a visit with a translating deacon (Kim Do-yoon) and finds a ghastly shrine but nothing to justify an arrest. When Jong-goo's preteen or early teen daughter (Kim Hwan-hee) shows early signs of the condition, his wife (Jang So-yeon) calls on a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) for an exorcism. A strange woman in white (Chun Woo-hee) often appears with warnings, but Jong-goo doesn't know much about her or whether to trust her.

Werewolf by Night (2022)

I had not heard of this Disney+ special or even the Marvel antihero of the same name until I perused the Halloween section of Disney+. Among the movies I hadn't seen, this was the only title to grab me. I realize its status as a movie is a stretch at a mere 55 minutes, but it felt long enough to me.

The Bloodstone is a gem that weakens and angers monsters but strengthens monster hunters. Now that longtime wielder Ulysses Bloodstone has died (so much for the Wikipedia claim that he's immortal), widow Verussa (Harriet Sansom Harris) hosts a contest to see who will own it next. Five accomplished hunters plus Elsa (Laura Donnelly), not the Arendelle queen but Ulysses' daughter by another woman, are assigned to kill a Lovecraftian creature trapped in a labyrinth. Elsa cares only about an inheritance from a father with whom she did not see eye to eye. One of the hunters, Jack (Gael García Bernal), secretly wants to free the monster, for reasons of kinship. Yep, it doesn't take long to guess he's the title character, and no, nobody calls him "Wolfman Jack."

It Follows (2014)

This was the first Halloweeny title I found on my Netflix list. It also happened to be leaving Netflix today. Sorry if you wanted to see it there but read this too late.

College undergrad Jay (Maika Monroe) has casual sex with "Hugh" (Jake Weary), only to learn that he's not whom he claimed to be and has dishonorable intentions toward her. He forcefully conveys that he has been stalked by a killer monster invisible to everyone it hasn't targeted yet, and the only way he knows to get it off his trail, at least temporarily, is to have sex so it goes after the partner instead. He does want her to survive too, if only because the monster will turn its attention back to him otherwise. Most of the movie consists of Jay escaping the monster, often with help from her true friends, who vary in how much they believe her. And yes, she keeps the pass-it-on option in mind.

A Star Is Born (2018)

I had watched the first two movies by this title and skipped the third, so this was one of my last priorities among Best Picture nominees for the year. At my harshest, I declared that a re-re-remake shouldn't even exist. But the United menu was running low on promising options I hadn't seen.

Ally (Lady Gaga) is an up-and-coming singer and songwriter. Her career gets a boost from established country rock star Jack Maine (Bradley Cooper). The two eventually marry, but it's a rocky marriage as Jack's success flounders amid alcoholism and he grows jealous of his own wife. Other notable actors include Sam Elliott as Jack's brother and manager, Dave Chapelle as Jack's friend, and Andrew Dice Clay as Ally's father.

Robot Dreams (2023)

This was probably the least noted Best Animated Feature nominee of the year, at least for the U.S. Going in, I knew little more than the what the poster presented. It hardly mattered, because I've never really hated an animated feature.

In a parallel world of anthropomorphic animals, a New York dog named Dog Varon (after the graphic novel writer, Sara Varon) buys a companion robot, who seems masculine but is never assigned a name to our knowledge. Despite some obstacles, they have a lot of fun together -- until the robot rusts to immobility at the beach. Dog can't move his friend with raw strength, and by the time he gets tools handy, the beach is closed for the next three seasons. Planning to try again later, Dog makes other efforts to combat loneliness, while the robot literally dreams of different futures for them both.

Barbie (2023)

I was reluctant to try something so polarizing. If nothing else, I figured that seeing the largest amount of pink outside of a nudist community would sicken me. But on a tiny airplane-back screen, that's not so risky.

Here we see Barbieland, home to live humanoids who mostly go by "Barbie" and "Ken," who come into existence as Mattel makes their corresponding doll models, and who change based on how the dolls are played with. The focal characters are Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling), whom I'll call SB and BK for simplicity. SB starts to develop realistic flaws nearly unheard of in Barbieland, so she travels to real-world L.A., where Mattel is headquartered, in search of a solution. BK tags along and discovers that Barbieland could become a lot more fun for the men -- at the cost of the women. He returns before SB does....

The Zone of Interest (2023)

To avoid my prior mistake, I watched this at the start of my flight home, when my attention wouldn't be flagging yet. I also had a strong feeling that I would need a palate cleanser afterward.

We might call this a slice of life, but that kind of implies an ordinary setting. The focus is on the large family of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), commandant at Auschwitz, living very close to it. The most notable plot developments concern changes in his job, whether he likes them or not. His five kids seem not to know or care what he's up to.

Past Lives (2023)

I recalled almost nothing about this title except that it was nominated for Best Picture. It turns out to have had only one other Oscar nod, for Best Original Screenplay, so no one seriously expected it to win. I would have given priority to Poor Things, but that wasn't an option from United.

Thanks to two time jumps, there is a clear three-act structure. First Na Young (then played by Seung Ah Moon) and Hae Sung (then played by Seung Min Yim) are preteen classmates and fierce academic rivals. Just as they start to grow fond of each other, Na moves to Toronto for a more promising future and changes her name to Nora Moon. They rediscover each other on Facebook 12 years later (now played by Greta Lee and Teo Yoo), having many video calls until Nora takes an indefinite hiatus to focus on work. Another 12 years later, in what I take to be 2023, they finally meet in RL again, specifically in New York City, where Nora lives with husband Arthur (John Magaro). This marriage is stable, but Nora and Hae can't help thinking about what could have been -- and, from a Buddhist perspective, what may have been in previous incarnations.

The Fall Guy (2024)

I had never heard of the '80s TV series of the same title. Fortunately, this is only a loose adaptation, so it doesn't presuppose much knowledge. The only detail I know would have meant more to me with familiarity was a pair of cameos.

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is a beleaguered stuntman, most notably standing in for obnoxious actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). A particularly bad injury dissuades him from further stunts, until producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) asks him to work on the directorial debut of his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Gail later confides that the invitation isn't really about the job: She wants him to track down the suspiciously absent Tom before the production fails. Colt always knew that Tom was troubled, but he doesn't anticipate what follows. Hint: The title has a double meaning.

Bad Boys (1995)

As I perused my alphabetized menu on a flight, this was the first title to jump out at me among those I hadn't seen. I'd had no strong desire to see it, but the fact that it spawned a series, including an entry this year despite Will Smith's decline in marketability, made me think I ought to learn more about it.

Undercover narcs Mike Lowrey (Smith, late in the Fresh Prince era) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are assigned to look into the theft of all the heroin seized by Miami PD. Kingpin Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo) adds bloodshed in an effort to cover his tracks, but witness Julie (Téa Leoni) slips away. Thanks to a departed mutual acquaintance, she trusts Mike and nobody else in the department. He's absent when she calls, so supervisor Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) insists that Marcus stand in for Mike. For appearance's sake, the two longtime partners end up swapping residences....

Am I Racist? (2024)

I have not seen Matt Walsh's first documentary, What Is a Woman?, partly because it requires a Daily Wire subscription and partly because I feel like I know enough from ads. Possibly everyone's opinion of it depends entirely on whether they already agreed with him on the issue. Meanwhile, his second doc, AIR?, is doing quite well at the box office for a non-Hollywood effort and has high marks on both IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, tho pro critics were slow to begin reviewing it. Since at least one theater stopped running it due to backlash, I decided not to wait long.

This time, Walsh acts like a cross between Michael Moore and Sacha Baron Cohen, only conservative. He goes on an "antiracist journey" that includes reading bestselling books on the subject, getting an online DEI certificate, meeting with self-styled experts as well as regular folk off the street, and eventually giving his own course that purports to make white people less racist -- until he "realizes" that such efforts appear to help nothing but the teachers' finances.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

I was a casual fan of the 1988 original, having regularly viewed the tamer TV adaptation before that. When I felt like going to a theater again, this sequel was the only feature to grab me. Ordinarily, I'd save its genre for next month, but that slipped my mind.

The decades have not been very kind to Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder). Her husband (Santiago Cabrera) died in an unlikely accident, and despite her success as a televised ghost whisperer, she hasn't been able to contact him. Disbelieving teen daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega, fresh off Wednesday) wants as little to do with her as possible. She still freaks out every time she sees someone wearing black and white horizontal stripes, rightly suspecting that the titular source of her PTSD (Michael Keaton) hasn't given up on coercing her hand in marriage so he can return full-time to the land of the living. In some ways, she has it together even less than her eccentric artist stepmother (Catherine O'Hara), who now reports that Lydia's father also died in an unlikely accident. At his wake, her unorthodox producer (Justin Theroux) aggressively talks her into an imminent Halloween wedding. And when Astrid gets involved with a local boy (Arthur Conti) who's not as harmless as he acts, Lydia fears that her worst nightmare has become her best hope.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

A preview for the threequel in this series has generated some talk in my circles, which encouraged me to check out the first entry. Sure, the second is a mixed bag and has the same IMDb rating, but my reaction to Paddington 2 didn't stop me from going back to its predecessor.

In early childhood, the fast blue alien biped (then voiced by Benjamin L. Valic, later by Ben Schwartz) is forced to use go through a portal to Earth to escape enemies. Taking the final advice of his guardian (Donna J. Fulks), he lies low in the woods of the fictitious Montana town of Green Hills for a decade, until he accidentally causes enough trouble to garner the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense. Commander Walters (Tom Butler) authorizes the unpopular but resourceful Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to apprehend the perceived threat. I'm not sure what Walters has in mind, but Robotnik plans to take Sonic apart to see how he works.

Molly's Game (2017)

For me, stories that focus on poker are, well, gambles. I liked the 2006 Casino Royale overall, but I thought scenes at the namesake were the weak points. Maverick couldn't get me excited about the climax. Rounders dizzied me a little. Maybe that's why I put off seeing this recommendation. Nevertheless, it was one of the most familiar titles left on my Netflix list, and I was in the mood for a change of pace.

This is based on a true story, but only the protagonist is identified by her real name. In the 2000s, Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) becomes a secretary for "Dean" (Jeremy Strong), a real estate developer who also runs high-stakes underground poker games, where she collects huge tips. Since Dean is almost impossible to work with, Molly starts her own classy casino in a hotel room. She tries to keep everything strictly legal at first, but one desperate slip is enough to get unwelcome attention. Oddly enough, her worst legal trouble comes years after she discontinues her practice, when the FBI wants to strong-arm her into telling on criminal customers. Despite her lack of accessible funds, she persuades expensive attorney "Charlie" (Idris Elba) to defend her.

Drishyam (2015)

Can this really have been the first Indian production I've seen in two years? Guess I'd finished most of the promising ones I knew of. Anyway, I had a lot of time to kill, so I chose the longest feature on my Netflix list, at 163 minutes. It's a Hindi remake of a 2013 Malayalam pic by the same title, so be careful if you go looking for it. Then again, the two have nearly equal IMDb ratings.

Vijay (Ajay Devgn) runs a cable installation service in Goa. He tends to stay late at the office watching movies rather than spending time with wife Nandini (Shriya Saran), teen daughter Anju (Ishita Dutta), and single-digit daughter Anu (Mrunal Jadhav). But when Anju accidentally kills Sam (Rishab Chadha), a peer trying to blackmail her or Nanditi into sex, Vijay gets off his duff to obscure all evidence. Alas, Sam's mother, Meera (Tabu), is a hardened inspector general who will stop at nothing to find her son, and Vijay has been antagonizing the rather corrupt Sub-Inspector Gaitonde (Kamlesh Sawant) lately....

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Boy, six years already? Well, as Deadpool himself points out, delays can happen when IP changes hands. A friend and I had tentatively planned to see this together when we heard the news, but he saw it ahead of me; now I got the initiative to catch up.

Wade "Deadpool" Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), divorced and unable to join an esteemed team of heroes, retires from merc work. He actually seems to be in a tolerable situation, until the secret yet powerful bureaucracy/cult called the Time Variance Authority captures him -- not for his past forbidden uses of time travel, oddly enough. TVA Agent Paradox (Matthew Macfayden) offers him an important role in "the Sacred Timeline," which sounds good to DP until he understands that he'd have to leave all his friends behind in a timeline doomed by the loss of its "anchor being," Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Indeed, Paradox, without his superiors' knowledge or consent, plans to euthanize that timeline with a special bomb instead of letting it dwindle for millennia. DP would rather save it. He travels to multiple timelines before he finds a version of Wolverine he can strong-arm into coming with him. Paradox deems him the worst of all Wolverines, a drunk who failed everyone he cared about, and says that even a good replacement wouldn't suffice. But DP's not giving up, even when the TVA sends both antiheroes to the Void, a Mad Max-type realm of rejects from various timelines.

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (2022)

I chose this from my Netflix list largely for its relatively short 98 minutes. As for why I had it on my list in the first place, well, for all my appreciation of animation, I'd never seen anything fully rotoscoped before. Director-writer-producer Richard Linklater's big on that, I understand.

Stan narrates in adulthood (Jack Black) about his childhood (Milo Coy), specifically as an 11-year-old in a Houston suburb in 1969. His father (Bill Wise) works for NASA in a dull but pretty important capacity. Perhaps that's part of why NASA reps invite Stan to go to the moon a few days ahead of Apollo 11, because they've accidentally built a capsule too small for most adults. The mission is so secret that they fake photos to convince his big family he's going to a typical camp.

Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

This is one of the most polarizing movies I've ever reviewed, and not just because it's about a guy who's currently running for VP (and turned 40 today, FWIW). The fact that Glenn Close was nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie for the same role tells me it was controversial on arrival. It's also significantly more popular with general audiences than with critics. So I decided to give myself an informed opinion.

The story alternates focus between Kentuckian-descended JD Vance in his Ohio teen years (Owen Asztalos) and in his late 20s (Gabriel Basso). In both eras, he has to contend with his troubled mother, Bev (Amy Adams). In adolescence, he sometimes relies on his fairly harsh but well-intentioned grandmother, Bonnie (Close). Since they can barely make ends meet, he'll have to grow up fast. In JD's adulthood, Bev's problems threaten to make him too late for a highly anticipated job interview, with his sister (Haley Bennett) able to provide only so much support. He's reluctant to let his girlfriend, Usha (Freida Pinto), know what kind of family she might be getting involved with.

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)

A friend was hoping to watch Justice League Dark (2017) with me, but it wasn't on Max. He assured me that this sequel does not rely on viewers to know its predecessor. Indeed, Wikipedia's synopsis suggests only a tangential plot connection. Of course, familiarity with a lot of DC Comics characters helps.

Superman (Jerry O'Connell) leads Earth-affiliated heroes against Apokolips, home planet of Darkseid (Tony Todd), possibly the biggest threat in the DC Universe. They face an army infused with Superman's DNA and lose tremendously. Most of the movie takes place two years later, when a handful of still viable heroes, including a poisoned Superman, reluctant sorcerer John Constantine (Matt Ryan), troubled half-demon Raven (Taissa Farmiga), and a bitter Robin (Stuart Allen), band together to stop Darkseid from mining Earth's core to a deadly degree.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021)

It appears that most of the features left on my Netflix list are upwards of two hours long. That's one reason I chose this, at 101 minutes. Another is that it's set in cold areas, in contrast to the present weather where I live. Finally, it seemed the closest thing to another Free Solo.

Nirmal Purja, who's also an executive producer, is a high-altitude mountaineer (HAM?). In April 2019, he launches Project Possible, which entails scaling all 14 Asian peaks that exceed 8,000 meters above sea level -- by winter, dramatically breaking several records along the way. At one point, he and his team have to rally to persuade the federal government of China to let them proceed, but that may be the least of their troubles.

The Imaginary (2023)

While IF has gotten more attention if only via star power, I took more immediate interest in another animation about "imaginary" yet actually existent companions. This is only the third Studio Ponoc feature ever and the second I've seen, once again based on a book.

The protagonist is Rudger (Louie Rudge-Buchanan), the made-up friend of maybe seven-year-old Amanda (Evie Kiszel). He takes the form of a same-age boy, and they have vivid adventures together while half-acknowledging the unreality of it all. Nonetheless, they develop interpersonal conflicts, especially as Amanda starts to feel isolated in sticking with someone even her mother (Hayley Atwell) doesn't believe in. When a car accident puts Amanda in a coma, Rudger fears he'll vanish by being forgotten. Fortunately, a talking cat (Kal Penn) leads him to a thriving secret community of abandoned imaginary friends, feeding off the imagination found in a common library. But unlike the rest, Rudger isn't ready to leave his real friend forever if he can help it, even knowing of an extra danger waiting for him: Mr. Bunting (Jeremy Swift), a real man who senses and consumes the imaginary in order to stay preternaturally youthful.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The only Godzilla movie I'd seen before was the 1954 original, which my dad and I found surprisingly serious. Most of the rest sounded schlocky, and Pacific Rim confirmed that I had little interest in kaiju. But GMO (heh, appropriate initials) got such a warm reception that I had planned to see it in a theater, only to discover that I'd waited too long. Once I saw that it was on Netflix, I pounced.

The story is really about Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a World War II pilot who first cheats his way out of a kamikaze mission and then is too scared to shoot the titular mutant dinosaur during an island rampage. He goes home to face poverty in a bombed Tokyo neighborhood where neighbors tend to blame his cowardice, tho one Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) and an orphan in her care, Akiko (Sae Nagatani), shack up with him to improve their chances. He gets a job sweeping for naval mines -- and then sees that Godzilla has gotten even larger in the wake of Bikini Atoll experiments. As further devastation ensues, Shikishima and his compatriots (among them Hidetaka Yoshioka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Yuki Yamada, and Munetaka Aoki) can see that the world's governments aren't helping, so they take it upon themselves to try to kill the beast.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

I liked the Coen Brothers' remake of True Grit, tho I later learned to prefer the original. This other western has sat on my list for a while; I hesitated because it's only moderately popular and these guys are a gamble to me. Kind of an ugly title, too. But the continuing use of the "First time?" meme increased my curiosity.

Buster (Tim Blake Nelson) actually doesn't appear for long, because this is an anthology of six stories, each with completely different characters and actors (among them Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, James Franco, Stephen Root, Clancy Brown, Tyne Daly, and Brendan Gleeson). Two of them are based on literary short stories. The others seem to pay more homage to movies. Apart from the Old West setting, the main unifying theme is death.

Jim Henson: Idea Man (2024)

I was just short of eight years old when Jim Henson died. To me, the Muppets have never been the same since. I already knew a fair bit about him before this documentary arrived, but after seeing enough hype, I decided it would make a nice palate cleanser.

The 108 minutes consist largely of relatives and co-workers talking about the life of Henson, peppered with brief clips of his works. Like Won't You Be My Neighbor?, it has a few supplementary simple animations. Unlike WYBMN?, it holds pretty strongly to chronological order. There's little focus on Henson's later efforts such as Fraggle Rock.

Kill Bill: Vols. 1 (2003) & 2 (2004)

Sometimes I bewilder myself. I have now watched every feature film directed in full by Quentin Tarantino, despite not expecting to like them overall. These two are popular -- the first is still in IMDb's top 250 -- but what I knew of them gave me reasons to deprioritize. Perhaps a warning that they would stop streaming on Netflix this month increased my interest, along with a realization that people still talk about them from time to time. I split the four-hour collective runtime over two days. I wasn't sure I'd go on to the second volume, but the first ends very unsatisfying by design.

Beatrix (Uma Thurman) is a globe-trotting hitwoman until a pregnancy inspires her to turn over a new leaf. She tries to marry under an alias, but jealous ex-boss Bill (David Carradine) has everyone at the wedding rehearsal shot. Only Beatrix survives, waking from a four-year coma and swearing to kill all five of her former co-workers (among them Vivica Fox, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, and Daryl Hannah) for their part in the massacre, along with anyone else who gets in the way.

The Holdovers (2023)

Had I remembered that this was set around Christmas, I would have waited until late July if not December. As it was, I knew only that it was an Academy Best Picture-nominated comedy drama featuring Paul Giamatti. And that it was available on Prime.

Paul Hunham (Giamatti, naturally) is the Scroogiest teacher at a prestigious New England boarding school in 1970. Since he's unpopular and was going to spend winter break at the school anyway, he is assigned to supervise five boys who can't go home for one reason or another. Unlike the headmaster (Andrew Garman), he believes that the students need extra discipline at this time. Four of them get parental permission to go on a ski trip instead, leaving the neglected, rebellious, yet rather scholastically adept Angus (Dominic Sessa) alone with Hunham, cook Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), and occasionally custodian Danny (Naheem Garcia).

Suzume (2022)

Ah, my first anime in about five months. Apart from that, all I knew going in was that it involved a young adult duo, a magic door, and an ominous-looking feline. That much looked promising to me.

The title character (Nichole Sakura), an orphaned modern high school girl, meets college man Souta (Josh Keaton), who asks where to find nearby ruins. Intrigued by his strange quest and handsome looks, she heads there after him and learns the hard way that he's dealing with dangerous supernatural forces. Specifically, he wants to ensure that an earth-shaking giant "worm" invisible to most people stays locked in the land of the dead, called "the Ever-After" in translation. Alas, Suzume unwittingly moves a "keystone," a statuette that turns into flesh-and-blood talking kitten Daijin (Lena Josephine Marano) and abandons its post, increasing the likelihood of doom on Japan. Souta tries to work alone but grudgingly admits that he'll need Suzume's help to lock secret doors in abandoned areas across Japan until the imprisonment is stabler. Suzume's guardian, Aunt Tamaki (Jennifer Sun Bell), becomes increasingly worried about the girl ditching school and running off with a strange boy. Souta's fair-weather friend Serizawa (Joe Zieja), unaware of his duty, wants to find him too.

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

I hadn't heard of this feature until it got prominently advertised recently on Netflix. It turns out to have been a sleeper hit. Not sure what to expect, I picked it mainly so I wouldn't spend long deciding.

In the present South, young adult Zak (Zack Gottsagen) has been restricted to an assisted living facility, because he has Down syndrome and his family lost patience caring for him. After several attempts, he escapes, hoping to make his way to a faux-wrestling school run by "the Salt Water Redneck" (Thomas Haden Church) as advertised on old videotapes, despite having no money. While Zak hides in a motorboat, Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), a crabber who has committed enough offenses to make serious enemies of his rivals (John Hawkes and Yelawolf), takes the boat for a getaway before noticing Zak. Since the school is en route to Tyler's destination, he grudgingly allows Zak to travel with him. As you probably guessed, the grudge passes.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

After a drama whose visuals failed to grab me, I felt like seeing a fanciful animation. Alas, it's getting hard to think of promising ones I haven't seen yet. As usual for late-'90s or early-'00s Disney, this one underperformed a bit upon release but still gets mentioned positively in my circles now and then. Would I join the cult fandom?

In 1914, adorkable archaeologist Milo (Michael J. Fox) is disrespected even in scholarly circles for obsessing over the possibility of finding the legendary ruins of Atlantis. He finally gets a break when a rich man (John Mahoney) who knew Milo's grandfather finances an expedition, with Milo serving primarily to read instructions in an ancient language. To the entire party's surprise, Atlantis is still populated, and Milo grows pretty close to their princess, Kida (Cree Summer). But most of the explorers are in it just for wealth, and the less scrupulous among them, especially Commander Rourke (James Garner), are willing to steal the very crystal that allows Atlanteans to live in their air pocket space: the Heart of Atlantis.

Phantom Thread (2017)

The main reason I kept putting off this Academy Best Picture nominee is director Paul Thomas Anderson. I hadn't enjoyed There Will Be Blood and didn't know any of his other works until Licorice Pizza. But after seeing it on my Netflix list enough times, I decided to get it over with.

In 1954, an elite London dress designer with the unlikely first name of Reynolds (Daniel Day-Lewis) talks waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps) into modeling for him. For the first time in his life, he develops feelings for a woman, and they are largely mutual. But his overbearing insistence on routine and lack of distraction from work makes him hard to live with, and Alma cooks up a nasty way to turn the tables on him....

Charlie Bartlett (2007)

This relatively inexpensive flick still suffered a net loss at the box office, and both critics and general audiences had mixed opinions of it. Why did I check it out? Because someone left the DVD lying around. I can be easy to influence that way.

Spoiled rich Charlie (Anton Yelchin) has been expelled many times, most recently for selling fake IDs. His mom (Hope Davis) finally enrolls him in a public high school, where he stands out as the only student to dress formally. He gets the idea to fake out his many psychiatrists, acquire prescription drugs, and sell them to classmates in apparent need, in addition to offering his own advice. He becomes quite popular and even makes a business partner out of the guy who first physically bullies him (Tyler Hilton). But Principal Gardner (Robert Downey, Jr.) is leery of such a shady character, especially one who starts dating his daughter (Kat Dennings).

Uncut Gems (2019)

I previously expressed a minor interest in this picture, but I kept putting it off because it looked dark. I'd also learned that it had the fourth most instances of the F-word, right behind The Wolf of Wall Street, which is no plus in my book. Still, its popularity cannot be denied, and when I saw that it would stop streaming on Netflix May 8 (sorry if you're reading too late for easy access), I tarried no longer.

In 2012, New York jeweler Howard (Adam Sandler) imports a large black opal from Ethiopia. He hopes to auction it off and pay his multiple debts to impatient lenders, not least Arno (Eric Bogosian), his soon-to-be-ex-brother-in-law. But superstitious NBA star Kevin Garnett (himself) borrows it for luck, and getting it back in time for the auction isn't easy....

First Man (2018)

I finally decided to give Damien Chazelle another shot. Perhaps the lack of jazz would help my appreciation. And the fact that he only directed and produced rather than wrote this time. Of course, even if he were the writer, he could do only so much to a famous true story.

The pic follows Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) from a 1961 spaceplane flight to shortly after returning from the moon. (I didn't know about the quarantine then; contagious lunar pathogens would be the least of my worries.) Quite a few obstacles occur in between: Cosmonauts have been winning every match in the Space Race, some tests end in disaster, and public opposition to this use of tax dollars is increasing. On a more personal level, Neil mourns a daughter recently lost to cancer but refuses to take time off, and his wife (Claire Foy), while supportive of his career, frets that she'll be the next astronaut widow.

Lucy (2014)

So much for my prediction that I wouldn't watch another action crime flick right away. A friend suggested we see this together. Since it runs only 89 minutes, I figured at least it wouldn't be a great loss.

Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), a college student in Taiwan, puts a little too much trust in a guy she's been seeing for a week (Pilou Asbæk). He pressures her to make a mysterious delivery where he's no longer welcome. This gets her the unwelcome attention of ruthless drug lord Jang (Choi Min-sik), who has her knocked out and surgically implanted with a pouch of a fictitious new synthetic drug to smuggle. When the pouch leaks, she acquires superpowers, escapes, and seeks to collect the drug from other known mules. Not all the effects are good, so she'll have to act fast before her body gives out.

Bullet Train (2022)

Despite its fair popularity, I wasn't particularly eager to see this. Perhaps a brief clip intrigued me; more likely, I added it to my Netflix list largely for variety. In any event, I felt like watching an action flick last night, and this was the first to come up.

Most of the 126 minutes do indeed take place on a bullet train in Japan. Focus is divided among various career criminals, generally called by their code names. If there's a main one, it's Ladybug (Brad Pitt), an operative who wants to take a more peaceable course, not least because he's had a streak of questionable luck. His remote mission control contact, Maria Beetle (Sandra Bullock), tells him to swipe a briefcase full of cash -- which assassin duo Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) have been assigned to get to their ruthless boss, the White Death (Michael Shannon), in addition to delivering his wayward son (Logan Lerman). Meanwhile, gangster Yuichi (Andrew Koji) has boarded to kill the Prince (Joey King, heh) for hospitalizing his young son, but the tricky Prince plans to coerce him to kill the White Death -- using the same darn briefcase. And they're not the only ones who show up.

The Mule (2018)

This doesn't seem to have been talked about much since it was brand new. If any aspect stands out, it's the fact that Clint Eastwood has made only one feature since, and that one bombed, whereas TM was reported halfway decent. I chose to watch it largely because it looked different from a bunch of my most recent viewings.

Earl (Eastwood), despite an illustrious ongoing career in horticulture, is hurting for money. At the advice of a "friend of a friend," he gets a shady job transporting bags he's advised not to open. I'm not sure how soon he realizes that his employer is a drug cartel, but he gets surprised at just how much they're entrusting to him. Elderly Anglos with no record even of parking violations make unlikely suspects, so he becomes an MVP, with a lot more comfort than certain other mules. But not everyone in the business is willing to accommodate an employee who doesn't follow strict rules, and one sass to the wrong guy could put him in a trunk. Meanwhile, two DEA agents (Bradley Cooper and Michael Peña) are closing in with help from a reluctant informant (Eugene Cordero), albeit too gradually for the patience of their supervisor (Laurence Fishburne).

Nyad (2023)

I knew almost nothing going in, except that Netflix recommended it when I asked for a yet-unavailable Oscar nominee. It has a higher IMDb rating than several other suggestions, tho 7.1 is still pretty low as these things go.

Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) gained fame in the '70s for setting distance swim records. Most of the movie is set in the 2010s, when she's in her early 60s. To fight boredom, she starts swimming again. In fact, she plans to do what she failed to do at 28 and what no one else has done: swim from Cuba to Key West. Few people have any confidence that she can, but her determination wins support, however shaky, from close friend Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster) and navigator John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans). Indeed, Diana gets a boat with dozens of people to sail alongside her for food, drink, medicine, defense against sharks, and rescue if needed. It's as expensive as it is dangerous, yet she'll try as many times as it takes to reach the goal or die. You've probably guessed correctly that this story wouldn't be told unless she made it, albeit on the fifth attempt.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)

I liked the three short Marcel web videos from the early 2010s, but the announcement of this movie caught me by surprise. The shorts mostly consisted of monologues with almost no plot and rarely a second character on screen. How could the makers fill 90 minutes? When I saw that the answer was streaming on Netflix, I immediately opted to find out.

Marcel (Jenny Slate) is a walnut-sized seashell with one eye, a mouth, two stubby legs, humanlike language capacity, and a childlike demeanor. He's been living with grandmother Connie (Isabella Rossellini) at an Airbnb, unnoticed by humans until amateur documentarian Dean Fleischer Camp (as himself, more or less) moves in, discovers him, and persuades him to star in the aforementioned YouTube series. After gaining a fandom, Marcel hopes anew to find the rest of his large family, who were accidentally packed up when prior tenant Mark (Thomas Mann) left in a hurry. Imagine his dismay to learn how large the world is and how unhelpful most fans are.

Gran Turismo (2023)

I first assumed that this would be a video game movie in the usual sense, but the subtitle "Based on a True Story" told me otherwise. Like the same year's Tetris, it pertains to a game series but is not an adaptation thereof. That would explain its relative popularity.

British youth Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) has played the eponymous racing sim obsessively, to the annoyance of his father, former soccer pro Steve (Djimon Hounsou), who thinks it'll never be useful. Imagine their surprise when Jann's record arcade score yields an invitation from Nissan marketing exec Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom, looking like Tom Hiddleston) to enter another race to qualify for the new GT Academy, which hopes to turn a player into a real world-class racecar driver, albeit with a PlayStation controller-based steering wheel. Yup, a gamer bro's dream come true. But the path to stardom involves a lot more challenges than in The Wizard -- not to mention physical danger.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

In the wake of the Academy Awards, I feel a little more motivated to watch the nominees. This was the only one playing at a nearby theater this week, apart from Oppenheimer. The showing included closed captioning, which suited me fine given the accents.

Novelist Sandra (Sandra Hüller) and her preteen son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), find her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), dead of a head injury outside their French alpine lodge, evidently having fallen from a higher floor. No eyewitnesses to the event come forward. Investigators discover enough fishy details to cast doubt on the idea of an accident. Sandra's lawyer friend, Vincent (Swann Arlaud), advises a focus on the possibility of a suicide, while the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz) at her trial leans heavily on the likelihood that she killed Samuel. Daniel testifies in her favor, but his word carries only so much weight. (Funny how almost all the characters have first names spelled the same in English.)

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Wow, when was the last time a new movie had this much up-front popularity? Going by both IMDb and general social circles, I'd say 2003, with The Return of the King. Of course, it's been released only a week in the states, so I don't assume lasting momentum. But between its initial reception and my appreciation of the first part, I saw fit to check it out almost ASAP.

In keeping with where we left off, young adult Duke Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) now walks among the desert-dwelling Fremen, with his clan's killers initially uncertain whether Paul still lives. He and the Fremen are warring to stop House Harkonnen from taking over spice operations on Planet Arrakis. His mom, Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), and Fremen leader Stilgar (Javier Bardem) look forward to Paul awakening as the prophesied messianic Kwisatz Haderach, but most Fremen don't believe it. And Paul hopes to avoid it, because his own spice-induced visions appear to foretell consequent mass devastation more than salvation.

The Next Three Days (2010)

I had previously seen only one thing directed by Paul Haggis, Crash. Clearly, he's had trouble keeping up that kind of momentum. He hasn't even written or produced anything released since 2018. But this one looked halfway promising. It's also about to stop streaming on Netflix, so I gave it priority.

In Pittsburgh, Lara (Elizabeth Banks) gets arrested on the charge of murdering her boss, whom she didn't get along with. Few besides husband John (Russell Crowe) believe she even might be innocent, based on evidence and lack thereof. After three years, when it looks like there won't be another appeal, John starts plotting to bust her out, with no willful accomplices. His deadline moves up when she's set to be transferred in, yup, three days....

Maestro (2023)

My parents recommended this to me. I obliged partly because it was easy to find streaming. It actually has the lowest IMDb score of all current Best Picture nominees, but it still looked more promising for me personally than some of the others.

The story follows Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) from his big break conducting the New York Philharmonic in the 1940s to a retrospective interview in the 1980s, with a bit of skipping. The emphasis lies on his relationship with Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), whom he marries and has three kids with despite his preference for men. She's not just a "beard" to him; he does love her, at least sometimes. But his extramarital affairs aren't discreet enough to prevent rumors, and they and his heavy smoking and drinking start to drive a wedge between him and Felicia.

Mean Girls (2004)

That's right, the original, not the musical currently in theaters. I had no desire to see it when it debuted, but people have continued to make references to it. Then I put it on my Netflix list and kept passing it over. What finally persuaded me? A limited DVD selection at the Red Cross while I gave platelets. (That unit was having technical difficulties with streaming.)

Cady (Lindsay Lohan) has been homeschooled up until age 16, leaving her good at grades but naive about the social environment at her new high school. Her first friends are outcasts, Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese), who warn her about the elitist clique known as the Plastics, especially leader Regina (Rachel McAdams), Janis's former friend. Nevertheless, when the Plastics invite Cady to join, she doesn't resist. Janis sees this as a golden opportunity to learn dirt on them and possibly engineer revenge. Cady agrees after discovering how bad Regina is -- and then comes dangerously close to becoming just like her.

Elemental (2023)

This got such a lukewarm reception that I might have waited decades to watch if not for the Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination. Then I thought about how it's not reportedly controversial like Wish or Turning Red. At the very least, I knew it would be visually interesting in a way reminiscent of Inside Out.

Element City has long been home to beings made of liquid water, clouds, and a combination of soil and plants, but it has little accommodation or patience for its latest immigrants, the fire folk, who mostly live in a district on the outskirts. Protagonist Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis), a second-gen resident, expects to take over the general store that her ailing father, Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen), founded. But upon a surprise visit, Inspector Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), obviously a water man, discovers enough plumbing violations that he feels obliged to have the place shut down. Ember's pleading changes his mind only after he's sent his report, and together they take it up with his employer, cloud woman Gale Cumulus (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who agrees to ignore the report as long as they can finish Wade's assigned project of fixing a canal leak within a few days.

Nimona (2023)

My inclusion of this on my Netflix list was quite tentative. The ad had looked only so promising, and I hadn't heard of the graphic novel on which it's based. But the Academy has nominated it for Best Animated Feature, and I've seen only two other nominees for the year so far.

The main setting looks like a near-future metropolis, except that knights in shining armor are still around, sworn to protect the realm from magical threats. Sir Ballister "Bal" Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) stands out as the first commoner ever to be knighted, facing mixed reactions. At the knighting ceremony, his sword fires a laser beam and kills the queen (Lorraine Toussaint). Seemingly everyone else, even boyfriend Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang), presumes he intended as much. (It doesn't help that he sports black armor and facial hair.) Bal escapes and lies low, trying to figure out a way to clear his name. The first entity to find him is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), who usually presents as a fangy teen girl but is actually an ancient, super-speedy shapeshifter. As a fellow vilified outcast, she insists on being his sidekick in whatever he plans next.

DC League of Super-Pets (2022)

I didn't expect to see another movie that begins with the last day of Krypton so soon, but Netflix announced that it would stop streaming this month. (I get Max now; it just takes me a little longer to set up.) DCLoSP didn't tempt me when it was in theaters, if only because nobody I knew was talking about it, but it does get decent ratings across sites, along with a number of minor award nominations and one win. It seemed apt for light fare to pass the time.

Krypto (Dwayne Johnson), the last dog of Krypton, likes saving the day with owner Superman (John Krasinski) but becomes overly jealous of the attention Supes lavishes on Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde). In his sulking, he's late to notice Superman's abduction by Lulu (Kate McKinnon), a hairless guinea pig who'd been a like-minded lab subject to Lex Luthor (Marc Maron). Lulu has gotten her paws on orange kryptonite, which bestows random superpowers -- in her case, strong telekinesis -- on nonhuman animals, and tricked Krypto into swallowing just enough green kryptonite to depower him for most of the 105-minute runtime. Her platoon of guinea pigs with other powers apprehends the rest of the Justice League in a bid to take over the world. Fortunately, she has betrayed four other critters in the pet shop, who are now willing to use their incidental powers to team up on Krypto's rescue mission. They just have to get the hang of it fast, because Lulu will wait only so long to kill the Justice League.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

I wanted to see this the moment I learned that it was the first feature directed by Hayao Miyazaki since he semi-retired a decade ago. I didn't bother to look up much else about it. The reputed semi-autobiographical nature led me to suspect another realistic story like The Wind Rises, but only the first act could pass for realistic.

In World War II, when Mahito is a preteen or early teen, his mother dies in a fire. Following Japanese tradition, his father marries her pregnant sister, Natsuko, and moves from Tokyo to her country home, where a bunch of seniors also live. Traumatized Mahito isn't keen on his new classmates or his new maternal figure, but he does take interest in a ruined building in the nearby woods. Moreover, a mysterious gray heron seeks his attention with increasingly abnormal behaviors, provoking curiosity and spite. When Natsuko disappears into the woods and no one can find her for hours, Mahito decides to follow the heron, fully expecting a demonic trap.

In the Line of Fire (1993)

I had seen a few allusions to this picture, primarily back in the '90s. Perhaps it would prove no more of a classic than the same year's Cliffhanger. But it was one of the few titles on my Netflix list to grab me at the moment and not be too much like anything I'd seen lately. Besides, it was due to stop streaming soon.

Decades after not preventing the JFK assassination, Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is still in the Secret Service. He and junior Agent Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott) investigate the apartment of a man (John Malkovich) who has reportedly shown signs of plotting a new presidential assassination. That man goes by multiple names but prefers "Booth" -- as he tells Horrigan in one of many hard-to-trace calls. Seems Booth is even more obsessed with Horrigan than with the commander in chief (Jim Curley), claiming a sort of kinship with an agent who got a raw deal but also taunting him for potential cowardice. As Horrigan struggles to find out who Booth is and when he'll strike, the chief of staff (Fred Thompson!) opposes the security measures Horrigan wants, because it's a bad look for the presidential campaign.

Man of Steel (2013)

When this came out, I got the impression of a middling reception that didn't live up to the hype. More recently, I've seen it counted among the more popular DC Comics non-Batman movies. Perhaps Dark Knight Trilogy writers Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer helped. It was time for an informed opinion.

You might see this as something of a remake of both Superman: The Movie and Superman II, minus Lex Luthor. It begins with the birth of Kal-El shortly before riding away from the explosion of his home planet, Krypton. When we first see him as an adult on Earth going by Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) among other names, he hasn't started calling himself Superman, wearing the iconic costume, saving the day regularly, or even reporting news for the Daily Planet; he's just working odd jobs and vanishing whenever someone catches him using his powers. Reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) tracks him down just as he discovers the answers of his origin left for him by his father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe). But her testimony isn't what really draws the world's attention to the existence of ETs, because a group of renegade Kryptonians under General Zod (Michael Shannon) publicly demands that Kal-El be turned over. You see, Jor-El sent a crucial MacGuffin with him to prevent Zod from kickstarting a "pure" society....