Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)

A friend was hoping to watch Justice League Dark (2017) with me, but it wasn't on Max. He assured me that this sequel does not rely on viewers to know its predecessor. Indeed, Wikipedia's synopsis suggests only a tangential plot connection. Of course, familiarity with a lot of DC Comics characters helps.

Superman (Jerry O'Connell) leads Earth-affiliated heroes against Apokolips, home planet of Darkseid (Tony Todd), possibly the biggest threat in the DC Universe. They face an army infused with Superman's DNA and lose tremendously. Most of the movie takes place two years later, when a handful of still viable heroes, including a poisoned Superman, reluctant sorcerer John Constantine (Matt Ryan), troubled half-demon Raven (Taissa Farmiga), and a bitter Robin (Stuart Allen), band together to stop Darkseid from mining Earth's core to a deadly degree.

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (2021)

It appears that most of the features left on my Netflix list are upwards of two hours long. That's one reason I chose this, at 101 minutes. Another is that it's set in cold areas, in contrast to the present weather where I live. Finally, it seemed the closest thing to another Free Solo.

Nirmal Purja, who's also an executive producer, is a high-altitude mountaineer (HAM?). In April 2019, he launches Project Possible, which entails scaling all 14 Asian peaks that exceed 8,000 meters above sea level -- by winter, dramatically breaking several records along the way. At one point, he and his team have to rally to persuade the federal government of China to let them proceed, but that may be the least of their troubles.

The Imaginary (2023)

While IF has gotten more attention if only via star power, I took more immediate interest in another animation about "imaginary" yet actually existent companions. This is only the third Studio Ponoc feature ever and the second I've seen, once again based on a book.

The protagonist is Rudger (Louie Rudge-Buchanan), the made-up friend of maybe seven-year-old Amanda (Evie Kiszel). He takes the form of a same-age boy, and they have vivid adventures together while half-acknowledging the unreality of it all. Nonetheless, they develop interpersonal conflicts, especially as Amanda starts to feel isolated in sticking with someone even her mother (Hayley Atwell) doesn't believe in. When a car accident puts Amanda in a coma, Rudger fears he'll vanish by being forgotten. Fortunately, a talking cat (Kal Penn) leads him to a thriving secret community of abandoned imaginary friends, feeding off the imagination found in a common library. But unlike the rest, Rudger isn't ready to leave his real friend forever if he can help it, even knowing of an extra danger waiting for him: Mr. Bunting (Jeremy Swift), a real man who senses and consumes the imaginary in order to stay preternaturally youthful.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The only Godzilla movie I'd seen before was the 1954 original, which my dad and I found surprisingly serious. Most of the rest sounded schlocky, and Pacific Rim confirmed that I had little interest in kaiju. But GMO (heh, appropriate initials) got such a warm reception that I had planned to see it in a theater, only to discover that I'd waited too long. Once I saw that it was on Netflix, I pounced.

The story is really about Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a World War II pilot who first cheats his way out of a kamikaze mission and then is too scared to shoot the titular mutant dinosaur during an island rampage. He goes home to face poverty in a bombed Tokyo neighborhood where neighbors tend to blame his cowardice, tho one Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe) and an orphan in her care, Akiko (Sae Nagatani), shack up with him to improve their chances. He gets a job sweeping for naval mines -- and then sees that Godzilla has gotten even larger in the wake of Bikini Atoll experiments. As further devastation ensues, Shikishima and his compatriots (among them Hidetaka Yoshioka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Yuki Yamada, and Munetaka Aoki) can see that the world's governments aren't helping, so they take it upon themselves to try to kill the beast.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

I liked the Coen Brothers' remake of True Grit, tho I later learned to prefer the original. This other western has sat on my list for a while; I hesitated because it's only moderately popular and these guys are a gamble to me. Kind of an ugly title, too. But the continuing use of the "First time?" meme increased my curiosity.

Buster (Tim Blake Nelson) actually doesn't appear for long, because this is an anthology of six stories, each with completely different characters and actors (among them Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, James Franco, Stephen Root, Clancy Brown, Tyne Daly, and Brendan Gleeson). Two of them are based on literary short stories. The others seem to pay more homage to movies. Apart from the Old West setting, the main unifying theme is death.

Jim Henson: Idea Man (2024)

I was just short of eight years old when Jim Henson died. To me, the Muppets have never been the same since. I already knew a fair bit about him before this documentary arrived, but after seeing enough hype, I decided it would make a nice palate cleanser.

The 108 minutes consist largely of relatives and co-workers talking about the life of Henson, peppered with brief clips of his works. Like Won't You Be My Neighbor?, it has a few supplementary simple animations. Unlike WYBMN?, it holds pretty strongly to chronological order. There's little focus on Henson's later efforts such as Fraggle Rock.

Kill Bill: Vols. 1 (2003) & 2 (2004)

Sometimes I bewilder myself. I have now watched every feature film directed in full by Quentin Tarantino, despite not expecting to like them overall. These two are popular -- the first is still in IMDb's top 250 -- but what I knew of them gave me reasons to deprioritize. Perhaps a warning that they would stop streaming on Netflix this month increased my interest, along with a realization that people still talk about them from time to time. I split the four-hour collective runtime over two days. I wasn't sure I'd go on to the second volume, but the first ends very unsatisfying by design.

Beatrix (Uma Thurman) is a globe-trotting hitwoman until a pregnancy inspires her to turn over a new leaf. She tries to marry under an alias, but jealous ex-boss Bill (David Carradine) has everyone at the wedding rehearsal shot. Only Beatrix survives, waking from a four-year coma and swearing to kill all five of her former co-workers (among them Vivica Fox, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, and Daryl Hannah) for their part in the massacre, along with anyone else who gets in the way.

The Holdovers (2023)

Had I remembered that this was set around Christmas, I would have waited until late July if not December. As it was, I knew only that it was an Academy Best Picture-nominated comedy drama featuring Paul Giamatti. And that it was available on Prime.

Paul Hunham (Giamatti, naturally) is the Scroogiest teacher at a prestigious New England boarding school in 1970. Since he's unpopular and was going to spend winter break at the school anyway, he is assigned to supervise five boys who can't go home for one reason or another. Unlike the headmaster (Andrew Garman), he believes that the students need extra discipline at this time. Four of them get parental permission to go on a ski trip instead, leaving the neglected, rebellious, yet rather scholastically adept Angus (Dominic Sessa) alone with Hunham, cook Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), and occasionally custodian Danny (Naheem Garcia).

Suzume (2022)

Ah, my first anime in about five months. Apart from that, all I knew going in was that it involved a young adult duo, a magic door, and an ominous-looking feline. That much looked promising to me.

The title character (Nichole Sakura), an orphaned modern high school girl, meets college man Souta (Josh Keaton), who asks where to find nearby ruins. Intrigued by his strange quest and handsome looks, she heads there after him and learns the hard way that he's dealing with dangerous supernatural forces. Specifically, he wants to ensure that an earth-shaking giant "worm" invisible to most people stays locked in the land of the dead, called "the Ever-After" in translation. Alas, Suzume unwittingly moves a "keystone," a statuette that turns into flesh-and-blood talking kitten Daijin (Lena Josephine Marano) and abandons its post, increasing the likelihood of doom on Japan. Souta tries to work alone but grudgingly admits that he'll need Suzume's help to lock secret doors in abandoned areas across Japan until the imprisonment is stabler. Suzume's guardian, Aunt Tamaki (Jennifer Sun Bell), becomes increasingly worried about the girl ditching school and running off with a strange boy. Souta's fair-weather friend Serizawa (Joe Zieja), unaware of his duty, wants to find him too.

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

I hadn't heard of this feature until it got prominently advertised recently on Netflix. It turns out to have been a sleeper hit. Not sure what to expect, I picked it mainly so I wouldn't spend long deciding.

In the present South, young adult Zak (Zack Gottsagen) has been restricted to an assisted living facility, because he has Down syndrome and his family lost patience caring for him. After several attempts, he escapes, hoping to make his way to a faux-wrestling school run by "the Salt Water Redneck" (Thomas Haden Church) as advertised on old videotapes, despite having no money. While Zak hides in a motorboat, Tyler (Shia LaBeouf), a crabber who has committed enough offenses to make serious enemies of his rivals (John Hawkes and Yelawolf), takes the boat for a getaway before noticing Zak. Since the school is en route to Tyler's destination, he grudgingly allows Zak to travel with him. As you probably guessed, the grudge passes.