Life with Father (1947)

Nearly a year after my first Michael Curtiz comedy, I've tried a second. I'm afraid the restoration, at least on the DVD sent by Netflix, leaves something to be desired, less for the faded Technicolor than for the audio feedback that makes some dialog hard to understand. This probably has something to do with the movie passing into the public domain in 1975.

Based on a play based on a book based on the life of Clarence Day, Jr., this adaptation focuses more on his stockbroking father (William Powell) and his mother (Irene Dunne), somewhat peculiarly calling each other "Clare" and "Vinnie" respectively. The plot meanders, thanks partly to four sons having their own concerns, but an overarching theme is that Clare was never baptized and keeps rebuffing Vinnie's requests for him to rectify that. More broadly, he wants to run the household like he does the office, with little success. He's not the only stubborn family member.

Tully (2018)

Jason Reitman was my favorite director to rise to prominence in the 2000s, with the triple whammy of Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air. Alas, he couldn't maintain the momentum, leading to a series of less esteemed efforts. Tully looked like a partial recovery. I was also curious to see a second hit from writer Diablo Cody.

Middle-aged Marlo (Charlize Theron) starts the movie heavily pregnant for the third time, her other children being 8 and 6. Her rich brother (Mark Duplass) offers the gift of a night nanny, a concept she had never known before. At first she declines, but before long, she's too drained, and not just in the breast-pumping sense. Enter the title character (Mackenzie Davis), a 26-year-old nonconformist who proves quite competent at taking care of all infant nighttime needs other than nursing -- and goes above and beyond the call of duty for the family. Once Marlo gets past the discomfort of a rather intimate connection to someone she hardly knows, she values Tully tremendously.

Ex Machina (2014)

Generally, I like stories that focus on artificial intelligence, including, yes, A.I. So why did I put this one off so long? Probably because the ads made it look intense. More so than it turned out to be, I'd say. It's not the kind of movie that lends itself to sincere previews, which may be why it suffered financially from limited release.

Sometime in the very near future, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a sweepstakes to spend a week at the extremely private mountain facility where his tech company's CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), has been secretly working alone on androids. It appears that only two are presently active: servile and silent Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno) and the far more focal Ava (Alicia Vikander), who doesn't quite look human yet but has a lovely face. Nathan assigns Caleb to interact with Ava, albeit with a clear wall between them, to determine whether she's both conscious and relatable. Unfortunately, Nathan and Ava do not see eye to eye, and the latter badly wants to escape, so Caleb will have to pick a side. And of course, any movie set in a secluded area with no cell reception -- where a power outage means a lockdown, no less -- is bound to have something dreadful happen.

Thieves' Highway (1949)

Why do I keep forgetting that I've seen so many Jules Dassin movies? Did I just assume I'd know more in French than in English, because I started with Rififi? (The man was born in Connecticut, for crying out loud.) Or is it just that none of them live up to that one in my mind? Anyway, this one came out the year between The Naked City and Night and the City, so you could bet it's urban and noir.

Nick (Richard Conte) returns from war to find his produce-farming father legless from a vehicle accident and almost certainly swindled by San Francisco-based dealer Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). Nick decides with neighbor Ed (Millard Mitchell) to take two truckloads of in-demand apples to Figlia and drive a harder bargain than Nick's dad did. AFAICT, that's the extent of the justice Nick has in mind. But he underestimates what depths Figlia will go to for extra profit.

Badlands (1973)

My previous exposure to Terrence Malick consisted of his co-writing of Dirty Harry, which I liked; and his solo writing and direction of Days of Heaven, which I found dull and forgettable. With his 20-year career hiatus, he doesn't have an extensive filmography, and the few other titles I recognized seemed pretty unpromising. So why'd I see this, his debut as a director and as a producer? Partly for its reception and partly for my first Meetup in a while.

Only afterward did I learn that the story is inspired by true events, albeit under different names and with a lot of details changed. Kit (Martin Sheen, younger than I'd ever seen before), a 25-year-old newly fired garbageman, takes a shine to 15-year-old Holly (Sissy Spacek, also younger than I'd ever seen before). Her father (Warren Oates) disapproves, of course, but Kit is undeterred. Things escalate quickly, and Kit shoots the old man dead. Kit and Holly take to living in the wilderness, but they can't stay put for long, and Kit perceives little choice but to kill again....

Baby Driver (2017)

Sometimes I drag my heels about checking out something popular simply because I don't like the title. I was OK with Baby Doll, but this title is stranger (I didn't know of the Simon and Garfunkel song), and an R rating means no place for a literal baby. Turns out "Baby" is the nickname of Miles (Ansel Elgort), a youthful-looking driver in his early 20s.

In particular, a getaway driver for a network of armed robbers. Years ago, he stole a car from crime boss "Doc" (Kevin Spacey, eheh), who was impressed and let Baby work off his debt. Alas, he's done such a good job that Doc may never let him retire. Between his burgeoning relationship with waitress Debora (Lily James) and the increasingly troubling jobs, it won't be long before Baby takes the big risk of rebelling....

Blow-Up (1966)

My only previous sample of director Michelangelo Antonioni was L'Avventura, which was by no means an adventure movie. That may explain why I had told Netflix I was not interested in his first English-language feature. But sometimes I open my mind further and add previously nixed entries to my queue. And after all, this one inspired The Conversation, which I liked.

Thomas (David Hemmings), a London fashion photographer, takes some shots of an affectionate couple at the park. The woman (Vanessa Redgrave) doesn't want anyone else to see those pictures, but Thomas feels no obligation to surrender them. Later, after, y'know, blowing them up, he discovers the probable reason for her objection: There's a gunman hiding in the trees....

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Well, how do you like that: I said before, "I doubt I'll take a chance on Australia or The Great Gatsby." What changed my mind? My dad's invitation to watch the DVD with him. By this time, I had forgotten Baz Luhrmann's involvement and started wondering whether I would find the story more engaging than I had in the F. Scott Fitzgerald book.

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) narrates from a mental hospital how he knew his most captivating New York State neighbor, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, perhaps practicing for the same year's The Wolf of Wall Street). Gatsby is an obscenely rich man of mystery, throwing lavish parties attended by just about everybody for miles around. But he confides in Nick that it's all an effort to draw the attention of the woman he loves, who happens to be Nick's cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan). She married man's man Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) back when Gatsby felt too poor to marry. With Nick's help, Daisy does come back into Gatsby's life, but of course this means inviting trouble....

Europa (1991)

Not to be confused with the previous year's Europa Europa, this film went by Zentropa (the name of a fictitious railroad company) in the U.S. Director Lars von Trier must have been arrogant even back then, because he flipped off the Palme d'Or judges for not awarding it. Still, it is far more popular today than the winner, Wild at Heart. I decided to see why.

Leopold (Jean-Marc Barr), a young American of German descent, decides to show some mercy to Germany in the months after World War II by taking a job there as a sleeping car conductor for Zentropa, where his uncle (Ernst-Hugo Järegård) works. From the train windows, he sees that the nation is hardly in peacetime as the U.S. military clashes with the "Werewolf" resistance. It turns out that the inside of a train isn't much better for neutrality, as friendly folks, including a love interest (Barbara Sukowa), seek to involve him in their sordid plans with or without his knowledge or consent.

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)

I enjoyed the first two entries in this trilogy more than most viewers, but I couldn't be sure that I'd like the threequel. Some posters show the vampires at the beach by day, suggesting excessive deviation from the previous setup. Interestingly, while IMDb votes reflect diminishing returns for the series, Rotten Tomatoes reports a gradual climb. I didn't dare check it out in a theater and might never have gotten around to streaming it, but after my dissatisfaction with an art film, I needed...well, a vacation.

Dracula (Adam Sandler) appreciates the many happily married couples at his hotel, not least his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and son-in-law Johnny (Andy Samberg), but they make him miss his long-gone wife. Mavis thinks his stress comes from being too busy for family time, so she arranges a vacation on a cruise ship that caters to monsters but still has a place for humans like Johnny. Indeed, Captain Ericka (Kathryn Hahn) is human -- and immediately sparks the romantic interest of Drac, of all monsters. He's concerned that this is not what Mavis had in mind for their trip. He should be more concerned with how Ericka really feels....