Black Widow (2021)

While my mom enjoyed Wonder Woman and Black Panther, she was only half-interested in this woman-led superhero feature. If Dad and I had decided to go to the theater instead of using Disney+, she wouldn't have watched. Hey, it has only a marginally better reception than Captain Marvel at present. But I still didn't feel like waiting any longer to see it.

I knew this was a prequel, but I didn't realize that most of the plot took place in the wake of Captain America: Civil War, when Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding from the U.S. government for being among the rebel Avengers. She's not actually the only "Black Widow," just the most public; there's quite an army of thusly dubbed hitwomen trained from childhood under General Dreykov (Ray Winstone). Yelena (Florence Pugh), a Widow who had basically been Natasha's foster sister for a few years, finally makes contact again out of desperation: Dreykov has been controlling the Widows' actions via a chemical compound, but a special gas in a small supply of vials can counteract the effect instantly, completely, and indefinitely. To distribute the gas as needed, Natasha and Yelena will need to learn the location of the base of operations, known as the Red Room, with help from their past ersatz parents, Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour). Of course, they'll be up against a lot of similarly skilled women, including an intimidatingly armored elite whom Wikipedia identifies as Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

It looks like my queue is currently short on war movies, especially ones depicting American soldiers. Had I realized in time, I might have pushed this World War II drama, the third in a trilogy by director Andrzej Wajda, back to Memorial Day weekend. Or if I did have an appropriate viewing lined up for then, I'd have pushed this several weeks out for the sake of spacing. Oh well.

In 1945, Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski), Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski), and Drewnowski (Bogumił Kobiela) have served in the recently disbanded Home Army of Poland and are now anti-communist agents. Their first attempt on the life of Polish Workers Party secretary Konrad Szczuka (Wacław Zastrzeżyński) results in the death of two misidentified men. For most of the rest of the film, they seem to be dragging their heels about a second attempt. They hardly believe in their cause anymore, and Maciek at least may have something more to live for after meeting barmaid Krystyna (Ewa Krzyżewska).

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

A horror movie about making a horror movie? When I first heard about this, it sounded halfway comical, yet it clearly wasn't played for laughs. When I learned the focus more precisely much later, I became mildly intrigued.

In an assuredly alternate 1921, F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich again) is beginning to direct the classic Dracula knockoff Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. Many of the people involved had expected him to be highly controlling but are perplexed by his secrecy, followed by his unusual process for dealing with the vampire's actor, Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe, in the role that got him into Spider-Man), whom they never heard of before. Schreck is creepily eccentric, but that just means he's an ahead-of-his-time method actor, right? ...Right?

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Huh. I hadn't realized going in that Disney had no production or distribution claim on this movie. Or on Spider-Man: Homecoming, whose tags I've since corrected. Better be careful with these things. Regardless, the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to follow Avengers: Endgame does retain continuity, being set some eight months later.

Peter Parker (Tom Holland), still in high school, goes on a class trip to various European nations. With its inadequate planning, this would be a pretty lame vacation if not for Peter secretly being Spider-Man and thus a fated danger magnet. In this case, the danger takes the shape of rampaging elemental giants, which Spidey takes on with help from a new super stranger (Jake Gyllenhaal), aptly nicknamed Mysterio. He may be reminiscent of both Iron Man and Dr. Strange, but many Marvel fans already know him better than that....

Cold War (2018)

It's been a while, Paweł Pawlikowski. I see you're still writing and directing B&W tragedies set in post-WWII Poland and running less than 90 minutes. Well, I respected the last one well enough....

OK, this story takes place only partly in Poland and across more than a decade. Wiktor is a music director rapidly smitten with a vigorous younger singer, Zula. The main hangup between them comes in the form of politics: While neither is fond of the communist regime, Zula prefers her homeland to France, Germany, or Yugoslavia. She marries another man and Wiktor takes up with another singer, but Zula and Wiktor still have feelings for each other. Both their lives get messy.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

I swear I did not set out to chase schmaltz with one of the most depressing titles ever. Still, if there's ever a good time to see something heavy, it's after something overly perky.

In 1968 Czechoslovakia, Tomas (early Daniel Day-Lewis) is a surgeon who really gets around. Presently, his focal relationships involve two artists, Sabina (Lena Olin) and Tereza (Juliette Binoche), who are not immediately aware of their mutual connection. Tereza becomes the more devoted, even marrying him, despite her disapproval of his continuing promiscuity. Sabina eventually takes up with another man, Franz (Derek de Lint). Their lives get more complicated with political unrest followed by an upsurge in communist oppression.

No Man's Land (2001)

Boy, I hadn't used the Eastern Europe tag since 2015. It's possible I've neglected to add it to some entries, but the fact remains that I just haven't seen many films set in that part of the world, let alone made there. This one required the cooperation of production companies in six nations.

In 1993, the Bosnian War is in full swing. The story, unfolding over the course of maybe half a day, begins with Bosniak soldiers attempting to cross the titular area; most of them evidently do not survive the first several minutes. Ciki winds up wounded in a trench and hides as two Serbian soldiers show up, the senior one planting a "bouncing" mine under a Bosniak body in order to kill anyone who moves him. Ciki then kills the senior and wounds the junior, Nino, but decides to let Nino live for now, if only because he might prove useful. They then discover that the man on the mine, Cera, was merely unconscious. Will the ceasefire last long enough for any of the three to get out alive?

Liza, the Fox-Fairy (2015)

This rivals Son of Saul for the year's most popular Hungarian film. I don't think I ever saw one before. But in light of (heh) its dark comedy status, I might have skipped it at a European Union showcase anyway, if not for a Meetup invitation and my dad's interest.

The setting is a fictional variant of 1970s Budapest, for reasons still not clear to me. On the surface, the story could take place almost anywhere and at any time. Liza (with a long E sound for the I) starts out as a nurse for a Japanese ambassador's widow, both of them fond of the music of dead J-pop singer Tomy Tani. Liza actually sees an ethereal Tomy before her, mistaking him for an imaginary friend while the on-and-off narrator identifies him as a ghost. More importantly, he's a sort of grim reaper, taking the shape of whatever his victim desires. You don't want someone like that to develop a crush on you.

A Perfect Day (2015)

Now here's something I didn't expect: a movie shot in Spain by a Spanish director and crew, but set in Bosnia and with mostly English dialog. While director Fernando León de Aranoa didn't make anything that I'd heard of before, he must have some overseas pull, because the cast includes Benicio Del Toro and Tim Robbins.

Nor did I expect such a conflict to carry a whole movie: Back in the '90s, a group of volunteers tries to pull a body out of a well. Sounds easy, but in a wartorn mountain nation, it's not easy to find available rope or travel to reach it. Obstacles include poverty, hostility, evidence of mines, and bureaucratic UN workers being frustrating if not worse than useless. And the dead man isn't a minor issue; he could start an epidemic if not extracted in time, which was probably the intent of whoever dropped him in.

Ida (2013)

How appropriate: Immediately after a film with almost no female presence, I watch one in which the female presence outweighs the male presence. Both connect to WWII, only in retrospect in this case. You see, a Polish woman in her early 20s, who has spent most of her life in an abbey and is preparing to become a nun, learns that her parents were Jews and had given her a different first name from "Anna." This being the early '60s, you can guess how they might have gotten separated. She does have one known living relative, Aunt Wanda, who will reluctantly help her search for answers.

You're most likely to have heard of Ida via the latest Academy Awards, where it won Best Foreign-Language Film. But before I even knew of its nomination, I had taken Netflix's strong recommendation to put it on my list. Of course, one look at the deliberately black and white cover told me that it wouldn't exactly be fun.