The Look of Silence (2014)

Yet again, I chose a viewing based on what was about to drop off my Netflix list. It's another documentary with more talking than anything else, but at least it's on a subject I knew almost nothing about.

This is a companion piece to 2012's The Act of Killing, similarly directed by Joshua Oppenheimer (no relation) and an anonymous partner. Here we follow optometrist Adi Rukun, sometimes providing his services or hanging with his cheerful children, but mostly interviewing older Indonesians who remember the anti-communist purge of the mid-'60s, along with younger relatives. Many of the seniors had a hand in the massacre of hundreds of thousands and were never penalized for it, because they had the government's blessing then and ever since. Adi also watches an earlier video of two men who had killed his brother.

The Nice Guys (2016)

I was not planning to see this so soon after other action crime comedies. But once again, Netflix said it would stop streaming at the end of the month. (Also, my smart TV will stop including Netflix on April 17, presumably for planned obsolescence, but my Fire Stick should take care of that.)

In '77 L.A., a suspicious death leads politically active porn actress Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley) to suspect that someone will try to kill her next. She hires thuggish Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) to protect her, and he attacks drunken, semi-competent PI Holland March (Ryan Gosling) for following her to try to resolve the first death's mystery. Nevertheless, Healy talks March into a team-up when they realize there are bigger threats to counter. Who's targeting all these folks in the porn industry, and why?

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Previous movies in the franchise (who knew there was more than one other?) bombed hard, but this reboot fares a lot better among critics and general audiences. It's worth noting that a tabletop role-playing game makes for a much more flexible source material than a video game -- no preestablished heroes, for one thing. To my mind going in, it was quite a gamble.

In a high fantasy setting, bard-cum-rogue Edgin (Chris Pine) and his barbarian partner in crime, Holga (Michelle Rodriguez), escape from prison two years after their arrest for helping to steal the fabled Tablet of Reawakening, hoping to revive Edgin's wife (Georgia Landers). They discover that Forge (Hugh Grant), a comrade to whom Edgin had entrusted both the tablet and care of his 12-to-14-year-old daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), has betrayed them and convinced Kira that they abandoned her. They reunite with unconfident young sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith), who in turn recommends recruiting his unrequited crush, shapeshifting Doric (Sophia Lillis), to steal the tablet again, with temporary aid from obnoxiously awesome yet stuffy paladin Xenk (Regé-Jean Page). This will not be as easy as before, given Forge's defensive measures, not least Red Wizard Sofina (Daisy Head), who has a darker scheme cooking.

Brothers After War (2025)

This is the first documentary sequel I've ever seen. Brothers at War (2009) escaped my notice, but this one has a much higher IMDb rating, albeit with few votes yet. When I happened to be very close to the theater, I picked this viewing partly for a convenient start time and partly because someone I trust had endorsed it.

Director Jake Rademacher has surprisingly many literal brothers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here he pays visits to them and some veteran friends, including women, to see how they're doing. (None of my sources name them all.) Some are doing quite well; others are struggling on at least one front. They all know soldiers who died either in battle or later by suicide.