Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

When I saw Top Gun for the first time about a decade ago, I didn't get much out of it. I couldn't remember much later besides the control tower buzzing and the death of a wingman, and it seemed to me there wasn't all that much action for a designated action flick. But in light of the sequel's much better reception, I had to check it out. Maybe it would be like the later Mission: Impossible entries.

For decades, "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) has been content to turn down promotions above his U.S. Navy captaincy and serve as a skilled if rather unruly test pilot. But with drones being the apparent wave of the future, his superiors offer him only one choice for further flights in the service: teaching at the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, a.k.a. TOPGUN. They wouldn't give him even that if not for his buddy-turned-admiral "Iceman" Kazansky (Val Kilmer). Mav has very little time to train a small group of aviators and pick the best for bombing a canyon base. And unlike supervising admiral "Hammer" Cain (Ed Harris), he wants to ensure they not only complete the objective but all make it home safe. He never was one to accept theoretical limits.

Public Enemies (2009)

This sat on my list for a long time before my friend and I were looking at possibilities. The same friend had rewatched Road to Perdition with me, so I'm not surprised he wanted another gangster flick that briefly includes Frank Nitti (Bill Camp herein).

As the title implies, the story concerns multiple notorious criminals, but they've been pared down quite a bit from the Bryan Burrough novel. Most of the focus is on John Dillinger (Johnny Depp in one of his last normal-looking roles), starting with his 1933 arrival at -- and immediate break from -- Indiana State Prison, so he's already notorious. When he's not committing armed robbery or having standoffs with law enforcement, he's wooing one Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) from the moment he lays eyes on her. The other major focal character is FBI Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), in charge of the pursuit.

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Not once does anyone on screen mention licorice or pizza. The title comes from a real-life record store chain that existed in the story's setting of 1973 SoCal. That's the kind of unappealing randomness I sooner expect from the Coen Brothers or Quentin Tarantino than from Paul Thomas Anderson. But Anderson was trying something a little more comedic than he ever directed before, so I'll give him that. And once I read a description, it seemed as good a place as any to start catching up on Best Picture nominees.

The Netflix jacket turns out to be misleading again. Yes, Gary (Cooper Hoffman) is a high-earning Hollywood actor in high school, but the focus is not on his acting career, his schoolwork, or even his classmate interactions. Rather, he aggressively courts Alana (Alana Haim), in her late 20s, as soon as he lays eyes on her, and then he recruits her assistance in business ventures unrelated to his acting, like waterbed sales. Basically, he wants to grow up even faster.

John Wick (2014)

Sometimes when traveling, I choose movies I expect not to get too invested in, just in case I miss part of it due to technical difficulties, lack of time, or tiredness. I had already heard this movie summarized as one man killing many men to avenge his dog, which probably wouldn't resonate with me. Nevertheless, it's pretty popular and will soon have a third sequel, so I thought there might be more to it than the summary suggested.

Well, yes, to a point. First, the dog killers also beat John (Keanu Reeves) up at his home and steal his rare fancy car. Second, the dog was a posthumous gift from his late wife (Bridget Moynahan) and thus something of an extension of her. Third, little did they know that John was a legendary hitman, an underworld bogeyman à la Keyser Söze, having retired only for the sake of settling down with his wife. Fourth, lead thug Iosef (Alfie Allen) is the son of a Russian mafia leader, Viggo (Michael Nyqvist), who tries to kill John preemptively to protect Iosef. Once you know all this, it's little surprise that John is willing to kill anyone who stands between him and retaliation.

Flee (2021)

I was not aware that a nearly fully animated feature with voice actors not all playing themselves could be called a documentary, tho some have come close. Waltz with Bashir may have been the first I saw that truly qualified. Anyway, I watched Flee partly to complete another year's worth of Academy Best Animated Feature nominees and partly because, on a flight where I had trouble hearing the dialog through earbuds, subtitles came in handy.

Amin (not his real name) lives in Denmark for quite some time without telling anyone, even his fiancé (not fiancée), what his life was like before. As the trauma interferes with his conviction to marry, he finally opens up to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen about how his family of six had to get away from the rigors of wartime Afghanistan and then Soviet Russia when he was a teen. For most of the story, they were not all together.

Minari (2020)

I regret that this entry has come so late. First I took a while to nudge Netflix for its unusual delay. Then I didn't make time for a review before my vacation, which ran longer than anticipated. And of course, I had higher priorities when I came back. Let's hope I don't forget any important details.

In 1983, a family of four, the parents originating from South Korea, moves to rural Arkansas. Having been poor in California, Jacob (Steven Yeun) hopes to make it big as a farmer, specializing in exotic crops like minari, which Americans call water celery among other names. His wife, Monica (Han Ye-ri), isn't nearly so gung ho about the move, not least because their young son, David (Alan Kim), has a heart problem and might need emergency care far from the nearest hospital. The parents make extra income with the same unglamorous work as before: separating male and female chicks for a hatchery. The plot thickens when Monica's oddball mother, Soon-ja (Oscar-winning Youn Yuh-Jung), moves in against Jacob's wishes.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

When this came out, I figured I'd see it on my 40th birthday. I jumped the gun by two days, because a friend and I were perusing HBO Max, which puts numbers first in otherwise alphabetical lists. I wasn't big on the world of Judd Apatow, but it seemed appropriate. Besides, I tend to find comedies more enjoyable with company.

In chatting about their sex lives, three electronics store clerks (Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, and Romany Malco) see through a weak lie by stock supervisor Andy (Steve Carell) and correctly infer that he's, well, the title character. They then throw everything they have into changing his status, whether he likes it or not. Fortunately, he develops an interest in nearby vendor Trish (Catherine Keener), who has her eye on him too. But she's no virgin, and he's having trouble mustering the nerve to tell her he is.

At the Circus (1939)/Room Service (1938)

These aren't among the most popular Marx Brothers movies, but it's hard for me to picture them ever completely failing to amuse me. Not sure I'd have time for both sides of the disc (165 minutes total), I gave priority to AtC, partly because it's a little more highly rated and partly because I had already seen the Flying Karamazov Brothers version of RS.

As befits the '30s, both comedies are about financial desperation. In AtC, a circus owner (Kenny Baker -- not that one) is secretly robbed by the guy he owes money (James Burke), who plans to use the "unpaid" debt as an excuse to take over the circus. Luckily, a circus employee (Chico) had already invited an attorney associate (Groucho), who could serve as a detective in a pinch. If they can't find the loot, they can try to make up the difference by selling entertainment to the owner's estranged rich aunt (Margaret Dumont). In RS, a struggling play producer (Groucho) and his troupe and friends have been freeloading at a hotel managed by his brother-in-law (Cliff Dunstan), but the irascible director (Donald MacBride) is about to kick them out. They persuade a newly arriving playwright (Frank Albertson) to feign illness, delaying the eviction until they hopefully make money from his play.

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

An old French classic is already iffy for me; one that gets reviled in some circles is iffier still. I had planned to skip this one, until I got invited to a Meetup group to discuss it. Hey, if it was bad, at least we could harp on it together.

None of the characters have given names, and the setting is ambiguous apart from a fancy resort. What's important to know is that a man (Giorgio Albertazzi) insists that a woman (Delphine Seyrig) had had a romantic liaison with him at a Czech spa and agreed to meet him again around this time, but she denies ever meeting him before. The other man of note (Sacha Pitoëff) evidently disapproves of the first man's actions and challenges him to games of Nim.

Lone Survivor (2013)

I don't know what possessed me to deliberately put this at the top of my queue right after The Lost Patrol, another war movie with, well, only one survivor. At least this time, we get fair warning on that score.

In 2005, four Navy SEALs (Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster) are assigned to capture warlord Ahmad Shah (Yousuf Azami) in a mountainous region of Afghanistan, where radio signals are unreliable. When civilians happen upon them, they abort their stealth mission and try to get back to safety before the Taliban shows up in force. You already know they fail that too, and things don't go well for the first rescuers.