Panique (1946)

Boy, in nine days, I've seen three movies in theaters with my dad. This time, we heard snoring. That doesn't reflect my own view of the showing; I just thought it fair to mention that somebody might have been that bored.

The mood at a Paris carnival is soon spoiled by the discovery of a murder. The go-to suspect in the minds of locals is one Desiré Hirovitch, whom they know only as "Monsieur Hire," a misanthropic misfit with stalker tendencies and subtle cleverness. He confides to his unrequited crush, Alice -- arguably the focal character -- that her boyfriend, Alfred, is the killer, but Hire deems its inappropriate to send the police after a romantic rival. Surprisingly early in the story (so I might as well tell you), she learns that Hire was right. But which side will she take?

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

The first decade of the Academy Awards (1928-1937) is notorious for having not-so-hot Best Picture winners and nominees on the whole. As a result, it has accounted for a large portion that I haven't seen yet. I just reduced that number in spite of mixed reviews from both contemporary and later critics.

Said to be mostly faithful to reality except for the ending, the film depicts stage producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (William Powell) from his days as a struggling carnival barker in 1893 to his death in 1932. You might see him as cut from the same cloth as Donald Trump, what with his cycling between considerable wealth and brokeness, his dishonesty, his questionable business practices, and his womanizing. The last of these traits wins him two wives, Anna Held (Luise Rainer) and then Billie Burke (Myrna Loy, given second billing misleadingly but understandably in light of Powell). He also has a fair-weather-friendly rivalry with Jack Billings (Frank Morgan) through the years.

Two for the Road (1967)

Fulfilling my promise to my dad, I made sure that the next film we saw in a theater didn't involve superheroes. Indeed, there's very little action at all. OK, it wasn't my idea: He noticed that this was showing at AFI and suggested it. The main draw for both of us? Lovely Audrey Hepburn.

The first spoken lines are from Joanna (Hepburn) and Mark (Albert Finney) respectively: "They don't look very happy." "Why should they be? They just got married." After that, we're treated to a series of flashbacks, including how Joanna and Mark first met, their parenthood of a young girl, and (sigh) their mutual adultery. Most of the memories pertain to travels in Europe, primarily France and then Italy.

Wonder Woman (2017)

When was the last time my mom watched a comic book movie in a theater? Had she ever? Well, now I know what it takes: a feminine if not feminist focus with positive reviews. Pretty sure those two factors have never coexisted in the subgenre before. And I was just itching for the first promising DC Comics silver-screen entry since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. (The LEGO Batman Movie doesn't look my type.)

Diana (Gal Gadot), Princess of Themyscira and not Wales, has always lived on a magically fog-hidden island of warrior women who apparently never grow beyond middle age. Despite the desire of Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) to keep her out of danger, danger comes to them when American spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) accidentally enters the fog while chased by German soldiers. He tells of "the war to end all wars," which Diana takes as a sign that Ares, god of war, is making a comeback. Alas, other amazons no longer consider it wise to try to protect anyone but themselves, so only she sets out with Steve on a quest for peace -- tho the two of them have different ideas of how to achieve it.

Get Carter (1971)

No, it's not the 2000 version with Sylvester Stallone. As with most remakes, the original (based on Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis) remains more popular. We may have Michael Caine to thank for that; he was always a better actor than Stallone.

Jack Carter, a thug, hears that his non-thug brother died under personally suspicious circumstances, but it looks enough like an accident that the authorities will inspect it no further. As he starts asking around, he clearly hits a nerve when other thugs advise him to drop it. This only encourages him, of course. It's hard for him to know what answers to trust, but one thing is clear: The resolution will get ugly.

Queen of Katwe (2016)

Ads for this movie jumped out at me because, for the first time to my knowledge, Disney was portraying native sub-Saharan African humans. Specifically set in Uganda, with a number of authentic Ugandans, tho they had to settle for South African backdrops and cast members much of the time. I appreciate that most of the actors, regardless of age, had little to no prior experience, so they probably gained a bit. And we the viewers lose nothing from it.

The story covers in brief the adolescence of real-life Phiona Mutesi (herein played by Madina Nalwanga) from 2007 to 2012. Coming from one of the poorest families in one of the poorest regions of an overall poor country, she doesn't expect to make much of her life. Then missionary Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) discovers her talent for chess and encourages her to compete as far as she can. Of course, in true Disney fashion, her mother (Lupita Nyong'o, evidently employed only by Disney nowadays), not without reason, does not readily see the value in having her stray from her assumed position in the world. And Phiona herself repeatedly doubts her worth.

7th Heaven (1927)/The River (1928)

Gosh, it had been 15 months since my last silent. That may explain why I decided to watch two at once. Netflix didn't even mention the second being on the same disc, probably because it's a sorely incomplete restoration, hence my lack of a separate review. More on that later.

In 7th Heaven, Chico (Charles Farrell), a sewer cleaner hoping for a better life, encounters someone worse off than himself and his buddies: Diane (Janet Gaynor), a broke young woman who needs to get away from her physically bullying drunk sister. At first, Chico shows Diane only baseline hospitality, but then he shields her from arrest by pretending to be her husband. She helps him keep up that charade to prevent his arrest by moving into his high-rise, the "heaven" of the title. He gradually grows as fond of her as she is of him, but before they can have a conventional wedding, World War I leads to an extremely immediate drafting. Chico promises to "visit" Diane, as if by telepathy, every morning at 11, but will there be miracles enough to protect this romance, especially in light of a more present suitor?

Rush (2013)

My idea of fun auto racing is the Mario Kart series; the real thing is even less on my radar than most sports popular in the U.S. So I was in no, eheh, rush to see a movie about it. But given Rush's awards and nominations, not to mention its place in the IMDb top 250, I decided to give it a shot.

Based largely on true events, it depicts two Formula 1 racers who were big in the 1970s. James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) is a party animal and ladies' man. Engineering genius Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl, convincing enough to wow the real Lauda) abandons his aristocratic Austrian business heritage and prefers not to project a congenial air; he is to be feared. By some chance, from their first race together, they form an intense personal rivalry -- but those have a way of growing to resemble friendship, especially when one of the two men has a crisis....

The Big Red One (1980)

I had put this film off, because it runs 162 minutes. How serendipitous that I should get around to it on Memorial Day weekend.

The title's emphasis falls on "One," as in the numeral 1, sported in red by the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in World War II. Writer-director Sam Fuller was a veteran, which may explain why the narrator, Pvt. Zab (Robert Carradine), says he enlisted in order to get book material. His squad has the curious distinction of five men who never die or get badly wounded while the replacements drop like flies.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017)

I had enjoyed the first GotG but had trouble ranking it with respect to other parts of the Marvel Cinematic, er, Universe. It's just so different. First of all, very little takes place on Earth, and only one major character, Peter "Star-Lord" Quill (Chris Pratt), is even half human, tho others tend to have an implausible similarity. Second, the Guardians are antiheroes, first teaming up for a prison break. Third, they're mostly rather subtle in powers, and their equipment isn't very innovative. The movie relied almost entirely on a sense of fun via dialog, emotion, and retro references. It worked, but I had yet to see how well it could work again, apart from the perhaps overly faithful first episode of the ensuing TV series.

Vol. 2 first shows the Guardians, having earned their moniker, doing what they do when the galaxy isn't facing clear and present danger: mercenary work. And a little theft on the side by the most corrupt ones, which is why such big-time saviors still have a lot of people after their hides. But those pursuers are arguably incidental to the main plot. Peter finally meets his mysterious biological father, Ego (Kurt Russell), who's actually extremely powerful and offers to share his wonders. Gamora (Zoe Saldana) thinks it's too good to be true, especially after hints from Ego's empathic companion, Mantis (Pom Klementieff); but Peter, tired of his unrequited crush on Gamora, dismisses the suspicion as resentment. Of course, anyone familiar with stories in general should guess who's correct....