Scandal (1950)

No, this has nothing to do with the 2010s TV series. This is an Akira Kurosawa film from the same year as Rashômon, which would explain why it gets overshadowed.

Somewhat famous painter Ichiro Aoye (Toshirō Mifune) and more famous singer Miyako Saijo (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) happen to stay at the same hotel, and they engage in friendly conversation on a balcony. Alas, it looks juicy enough for photojournalists to spin a tryst tale. Aoye threatens a lawsuit, but Saijo would rather keep quiet and wait for the whole thing to blow over. Editor Asai (Shinichi Himori) believes that Amour magazine will be most profitable doubling down on its false version of events. Aoye hires the first lawyer to approach him, Hiruta (Takashi Shimura), despite the latter having nowhere near the repute of the defense. Hiruta does sympathize, but he can hardly resist Asai waving money at him to take a dive....

Blind Chance (1987)

I don't recall ever learning about this movie before. It may have been recommended based on political controversy: The Polish government suppressed its release for six years, and part of it is still censored with a caption to indicate as much. I sure wasn't tempted by the Netflix description, which seemed way too vague and, in fact, illogical ("three diametrically opposite points of view"?). Regardless, the picture's popularity, including Martin Scorsese's endorsement, held promise.

Young man Witek (Bogusław Linda) has just lost his father and dropped out of med school, but those events have little bearing on the rest of the plot. From the moment he starts running for a departing train for whatever reason, we are treated to three alternate timelines based on what he may do next, particularly with regard to a stranger in his path. Each timeline sees him take a different political stance (communist, anticommunist, or neither) and a different love interest, two of them his exes.

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

I had rejected this option once before, but a Meetup group was set to discuss it. You can tell it's a small group, because they rescheduled when I couldn't get the disc as soon as estimated. I made a point to wait until the day of our session to watch so the details would stay fresh in my mind. Let's hope I remember enough of the discussion now.

In 1902, much of a large Gullah/Geechee family prepares to move from what is best known as St. Simons Island, Georgia, to the mainland for better opportunities. Among other things, this includes a visit from relatives who have already been away for quite a while, and it shows, especially with the Christian convert (Kaycee Moore). The old matriarch (Cora Lee Day) is too traditional to leave, and her grandson (Adisa Anderson) has trouble deciding.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Given how much I loved the first Doctor Strange outing, it would take an extraordinary misfire for his next eponymous feature not to be worth my while. This one is only moderately popular, probably below average for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (that term seems inadequate now), but hey, that didn't stop me from liking X-Men: Apocalypse.

Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been having a glum but quiet time in New York when he and Wong (Benedict Wong) suddenly have to fight a giant demon targeting teen America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who can open portals between alternate universes but manages to do so only when terrified. Noting signs that a witch summoned the demon, Strange seeks support from his old comrade-in-arms, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), now finally going by "the Scarlet Witch." Alas, she's the summoner. She wants to absorb Chavez's power through a method that would kill Chavez, just to try to be happy in a more promising universe with the option of moving again as needed. Strange can't abide that, but Maximoff is too powerful for him to take on alone. The answer may lie in another universe....

Starman (1984)

It took a gradual buildup of information trickling to me over the years to get me interested in this flick. Moderately good reception. The mid-'80s. Sci-fi. Romance. Jeff Bridges, with an Oscar nod. John Carpenter. Eventually, I got tired of seeing the title without knowing the rest.

Paranoid officials fire missiles at an alien ship, which crash-lands in the Wisconsin wilderness. The one alien aboard (Jeff Bridges) enters the nearest house, finds photos and DNA of a dead man, and assumes the man's shape, accidentally freaking out the man's widow, Jenny (Karen Allen). He strong-arms Jenny into helping him travel to Barrington Crater, site of a previous ET visit, within three days. It's not just the hostile government that worries him; apparently, something in the atmosphere is toxic to him, or else he's missing something vital. Jenny initially tries to escape her kidnapper but develops sympathy and eventually...well, see a hint in my first paragraph.

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.