Marriage Story (2019)

Seeing fewer than half the Best Picture nominees has not prevented me from appreciating certain Academy Awards ceremonies, but I still got the urge to squeeze in a fifth out of nine this year. Since there's a wait on the DVDs and I didn't find showtimes convenient, it had to be the only Netflix original other than The Irishman. While MS is popular overall, I had been warned that some dislike it, and there seemed a likely reason it was the only nominee I hadn't heard of before the nominations were announced.

Don't let the title and poster fool you: It should be called Divorce Story. It begins with theater director Charlie (Adam Driver) and actress Nicole (Scarlett Johansson again) listing what they love about each other -- to a counselor as they prepare to separate gradually. At first their split is pretty much amicable, but Nicole backs down from a decision not to get lawyers involved. Soon there's a battle for custody of their circa six-year-old son, Henry (Azhy Robertson), made more difficult because Nicole intends to stay in Los Angeles instead of their old haunt, New York City.

Atlantic City (1980)

Uh-oh, Louis Malle at the helm again. I calculated about a 50% chance of liking his work. On the plus side, it guaranteed Susan Sarandon in her hotter years and Burt Lancaster in his, well, later years. Also, funnily enough, Wallace Shawn as a waiter.

Sally (Sarandon), a waitress training as a casino dealer, seems to have her life sufficiently together until her wayward husband, the serendipitously named Dave Matthews (Robert Joy), unexpectedly shows up. He doesn't tell her that he stole dope from a Philadelphia mob, but he gets some help in selling it from her neighbor and secret admirer, minor thief Lou (Lancaster). When trouble catches up with Dave and then comes to Sally's door, Lou finds himself caught between his usual self-serving outlook and a desire to help her, if only out of lust.

My Dinner with Andre (1981)

I knew very well that this might bore the heck out of me. It is little more than two men talking over dinner, after all. And some haters quip that it's not even that. But a 7.8 on IMDb and 91% on Rotten Tomatoes are nothing to sneeze at, and I've appreciated some films with few characters and/or minimal action, so I braced myself and went ahead.

It helps that there is some semblance of conflict. As Wally (Wallace Shawn, not as himself) says in the opening narration, he's been avoiding formerly close theater comrade Andre (Andre Gregory, also not as himself) for some time, after Andre suddenly left for a long journey of exploration. At their half-reluctant restaurant meeting, Wally decides to ask a few questions and let Andre do most of the talking. Only when the 110 minutes are more than half over does Wally start saying more than two sentences in a row. To say he's finally comfortable is a stretch, but at least his grievance is no longer with Andre himself.