The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Once again, nobody had recommended this flick to me, broadly or personally. Nor was I interested back when it came out, if only because I hadn't really "discovered" James Bond yet. But after some pretty depressing viewings in a depressing period, I wanted to return to a franchise that usually avoided such a feeling -- pre-reboot, anyway. Disappointment was still possible, of course.

In the off chance that you're interested in the plot, it begins with James (Pierce Brosnan) stealing back the cash of old millionaire Sire Robert King (David Calder), only to realize too late that the thieves wanted him to take it back in order to trigger a subtle death trap. King was funding an extensive Southwest Asian oil pipeline that rivals would want to sabotage, so M (Dame Judi Dench) assigns James to stay close to King's daughter, Elektra (Sophie Marceau). We all know how close James likes to get to a beautiful woman, but he may get more than he bargained for....

Joker (2019)

I put this off for a bit in part because a fellow cinephile made it sound extra depressing. Then again, he had also said that No Country for Old Men was the most depressing film he'd seen, and I largely shrugged it off. Perhaps it was best to go in expecting the worst. And having seen several episodes of Gotham.

In early '80s Gotham City, when Bruce Wayne still has his parents but already seems sullen, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a professional clown of no repute, hopes in vain to move on to stand-up. Life has not been good to him or his mother (Frances Conroy) lately. Or ever, reportedly. As he deals with one hostile jerk after another (was Gotham ever not a hellhole?) -- including Bruce's father (Brett Cullen), to whom Arthur has a connection I never dreamed of -- he comes to see lethal violence and an extremely unorthodox sense of humor as coping mechanisms.

Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

I think I had two main reasons to put this on my queue: The Academy nominated it for Best Picture, and the early '70s were a good time for dramas. Of course, it wasn't so good if you wanted a happy ending. And once I realized who the title characters were, an unhappy ending was a foregone conclusion.

You don't need to be well versed in history to recall that Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) was the last tsar of Russia. This movie begins in 1904 with him and his wife (Janet Suzman) welcoming a son after four daughters. That may be the last time we see them both happy, and it's not for long, as they learn of little Alexei's hemophilia -- terrible news for anyone and all the worse for an heir apparent to the throne, whom the public should not see as fragile. Little do they know how moot that point is, thanks to growing unrest in the empire. For the next nine years, Alexandra entrusts her son's health to the mysticism of Grigori Rasputin (Tom Baker of Doctor Who fame), without her husband's approval.

Destry Rides Again (1939)

Just as I thought, this is the earliest western I've reviewed on this blog. I thought wrong about it being a sequel, tho.

In an unspecified state and decade, the fictitious town of Bottleneck is a regular Dodge City, where men frequently fire guns in the air when celebrating -- and at each other when slightly provoked. It's an open secret that Mayor Slade (Samuel S. Hinds) is in the pocket of Kent (Brian Donlevy), who's been gathering land thru swindles and force; and Frenchy (Marlene Dietrich), whose wiles help beau Kent with crimes. When Bottleneck abruptly needs a new sheriff, Slade appoints former deputy turned town drunkard Washington Dimsdale (Charles Winninger). But Dimsdale, nostalgic for the late Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Destry, summons Tom Destry Jr. (James Stewart, playing a Jefferson twice in the same year) to be his deputy, hoping to turn things around.

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

All I recalled learning of this one was that my mom had seen it and reported that people in India apparently know how to put on lavish parties. I didn't need her to tell me that India favors spectacle. Still, it sounded potentially interesting.

Don't read too much into the title: While rain eventually falls, it doesn't affect the plot. Or rather the four or five plots, which might constitute a metaphorical monsoon. The overarching theme is preparation for the New Delhi wedding of Aditi (Vasundhara Das) and Hemant (Parvin Dabas), neither of whom seems to mind that it's an arranged marriage, tho Aditi needs to remind herself why she didn't go another route. That lack of concern may be just as well, because there are enough other concerns flying around, starting with the price of the celebration, which mainly worries Aditi's dad, Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah).

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

I realize this is neither modern nor widely regarded as a classic, but I've encountered just enough references to it that I thought to educate myself. Besides, after some of the rather ugly films I'd seen recently, a G movie seemed up my alley.

In 1920s England, eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke, no longer even attempting a British accent) has trouble looking after his eight-year-old twins, Jeremy (Adrian Hall) and Jemima (Heather Ripley), as candy magnate heiress Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes) discovers upon almost running them over. Despite her and the Pottses getting off on the wrong foot, Truly soon finds the kids endearing and encourages Caractacus to pursue his more promising ideas. Once he gets enough money, he buys the kids' beloved scrapyard car, which had won races in the aughts, and refurbishes it into a surprisingly nifty vehicle, named for its distinctive sound. As he gives the kids and Truly a ride, Truly feels more like a member of the family....

I Lost My Body (2019)

The announcement of Academy Award nominations was the first I'd heard of this Netflix-adopted feature. I didn't bother to learn much about it in advance. The title told me to expect drama, and I knew it was foreign if not French.

Oddly enough, the "I" of the title refers to an entity incapable of verbal communication: a severed right hand that has mysteriously taken on a life of its own. (This isn't a backstory for the Addams Family's Thing; the skin's too dark.) Retaining more than just muscle memory, it sneaks out of a lab fridge in search of the rest of its body, a young man named Naoufel (Dev Patel in the English dubbing). Scattered throughout the movie are flashbacks in the life of Naoufel, the early ones appearing in black and white, often with a camera focus on his hand.

Swimming to Cambodia (1987)

Yes, already another movie that's partly about war in southeast Asia, but that's about where the similarity ends. I previously mentioned this one as a predecessor to Monster in a Box, so I knew it would be nearly all monologue, with comic elements, and therefore not half as disturbing.

The overarching theme of Spalding Gray's anecdotes herein concerns the making of The Killing Fields, in which he got sixth billing as the unnamed U.S. consul. But once again, the unity is rather loose. He talks about what he did in Thailand between shots, what he did back in Manhattan, and the history of the Cambodian War.

Fires on the Plain (1959)

The only movie I'd previously seen directed (not associate-directed) by Kon Ichikawa was The Burmese Harp. As war flicks go, it's pretty gentle. This one notoriously isn't.

We can tell from the very first scene that there won't be a happy ending: The protagonist, WWII Private Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi), has TB, but the only accessible hospital on the Philippine island of Leyte is too full to take anyone who can still walk. Nor is he welcome back at his company in this condition. An officer orders him to grenade himself if he can't get treatment, but when he comes to that bridge, he decides to wander instead. Alas, by the end, he may wish he'd followed the order.

For Sama (2019)

It's not often that I watch inherently tragic documentaries, no matter how honored they are. In this case, I accepted a Meetup invitation to see it in a theater. That meant more immersion, but at least I wouldn't feel alone in bearing it.

Made with a home movie camera and a few clips apparently from surveillance cameras, FS begins its story in 2011, when the then-18-year-old videographer, going by Waad Al-Kateab (her real name is not public information), attended the University of Aleppo. If that city name rings a bell, you should have a good idea what the focal conflict is. Waad's narration partly addresses her toddler daughter, Sama, to whom she wants to explain why their family didn't escape sooner and why they had a baby at all in a setting like that.