Lightning Round Catch-up, End of Summer Special
Hello, all. As you might imagine, I haven’t felt like writing for myself in the last few weeks given our cat Sandwiches’s poor health. She’s dying of cancer and it’s only a matter of time now. The tumor on her chin continues to grow and bleed, and she’s been having more bad days lately despite the steroid and antibiotic shots, as well as the Clindamycin and Gabapentin we’ve been putting in her food. Jene and I are doing what we can, but it’s been very hard to see our baby struggle. This week we’ll start talking with an at-home euthanasia specialist. I hate all of this, but here we are anyway.
For the moment, I’m posting a link to our Gofundme fundraiser to help with medical bills. Our current goal ($2400+) is not currently listed on the site since Gofundme started off small for some reason ($1300). We haven’t even added the cost for at-home euthanasia either, though I’ve read estimates of about $600 or more. I’ll update our goal when we know for sure. For now, I’d like to thank everyone who’s already donated and to everyone who’s sent well wishes to Jene, Sandwiches, and me. It’s not an easy time for us, but we really appreciate you. Here’s the Gofundme.
I’m still getting ready to move in with Jene by the end of November. Which is and isn’t a little daunting since I’ve already been living with her for the last 2.5+ years now. Planning how and what stuff to move into storage has still proven more time-consuming than I’d like. So for today, I thought I’d do another overdue lightning round-up of some worthwhile new movies. I’ll have more new writing soon.
April: I was totally disarmed by this experimental Georgian drama about a troubled OB-GYN who also practices illegal abortions. Tense, moody, and sometimes borderline psychedelic. On MuBI. A+.
Best Wishes to All: Really impressed with this imaginative, surreal Japanese horror drama, about a young woman who discovers the secret behind her hometown’s prosperity. Kept wishing it got even meaner/grosser, but this is already pretty upsetting. On Shudder. B+.
Cloud: As you might expect, Kiyoshi Kurosawa tears it up with this creepy, tense, and morbidly funny thriller about the perils of the online resale market. Glad I saw it in a theater, the sound design is typically creepy. A-.
Coolie: Rajinikanth’s latest overstuffed action drama is surprisingly not a remake of Amitabh Bachchan’s movie of the (virtually) same name. It has its moments though. C+.
Daniela Forever: For a while, Nacho Vigalondo’s scifi breakup drama is a great AI era update of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, especially since we now know that AI is really more an inadequate kind of synthesis than a genuinely creative intelligence. Vigalondo’s movie falls apart in the end, but is still worth a look. C+.
Dark Nuns: Troubleshooter director Kwon Hyeok-jae does what he can with this visually poised and narratively dim exorcist thriller, a sequel to The Priests (2015). I haven’t seen The Priests, tbh, and I don’t plan on seeing it now either. I just remember liking Troubleshooter, is all. C+.
Dead to Rights: This jingoistic Chinese blockbuster—an over-produced war epic set during the Nanjing Massacre—is sensational and deeply unpleasant. I’m with the little girl seated behind me who said, when one protagonist is threatened at gunpoint: “I don’t want to watch this!” D.
Diablo: Chilean action star Marko Zaror goes Full Terminator in this charming, if lop-sided, Columbian action drama, which mostly follows Scott Adkins as he struggles to bond with a teenager that he kidnaps. I’ve previously joked that this is like Over the Top minus the arm-wrestling, and I stand by that comparison, especially if you recall how much of that movie is Stallone struggling to bond with his unlovable son. Good action, weird melodrama—sure, yes. B.
Downton Abbey: The Final Chapter: Maudlin, self-serious, baffling, and very fun with the right company. No grade for this one, but Jene and I enjoyed ourselves.
Eephus: A beautifully spacey elegy to America’s past-time. Earns its sentimentality and then some. Loved it. On MuBI. A.
Espantaho: This Filipino horror drama, about a family feud and a haunted estate, works better as a sudsy domestic drama than a horror thriller. Still, fans of director Chito S. Roño’s poignant 2018 family drama Signal Rock may still want to check this one out. On Netflix. B-.
Exhibiting Forgiveness: Never really surprising, but exceptionally well acted and directed family drama about an absent father and his grieving son. Pretty satisfying. On Hulu. A-.
Final Destination: Bloodline: Loved it. They play the hits so well that you never really have to care about the characters for long. Something gruesome and squirmingly funny is always just around the corner. On HBO Max. A-.
Havoc: No idea what movie some of my peers saw, but Gareth Evans’s latest action pic is a blast. Strong fight choreography, visually arresting filmmaking, and a rare Tom Hardy performance that I didn’t mind. It’s also a Christmas movie, I guess. On Netflix. A-.
Hit: The Third Case: The action in this Tamil mystery-thriller series is still pretty satisfying! On Netflix. B.
I Don’t Understand You: Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells co-star as a couple who pull an Amanda Knox on a little old Italian lady in this recent black comedy. Not as funny or as surprising as I’d like, but still, good enough, especially Rannells. C+.
Jaat: More Bollywood nationalist propaganda, but the action scenes are fun. On Netflix. B.
The Luckiest Man on Earth: Once again, Paul Walter Hauser does the most in this surprisingly involving dramatization of Michael Larson’s real life Press Your Luck scandal. Good, sturdy, fine enough. B.
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning: Ok. C+.
My Mom Jayne: This touching and surprisingly well-made documentary is about as good as I’d read. Smart and introspective. On HBO Max. A.
The Naked Gun: Eh. C+.
A Normal Family: This South Korean family drama, about two feuding brothers and their equally fractious wives, is and isn’t what it looks like. It’s also not the thorny/brainy ethical thriller it’s advertised as either. Still, pretty satisfying anyway. From Christmas in August director Hur Jin-ho. A-.
The Paradise of Thorns: This moving, soapy Vietnamese drama has a soft landing, but it makes sense in context, and the move itself is very compelling throughout. On Netflix. B+.
The Phoenician Scheme: At the risk of taking Wes Anderson for granted—this one’s also pretty good. A-.
Predator: Killer of Killers: In case you ever take for granted just how much dumb fun Heavy Metal: The Movie is. On Hulu. C-.
Retro: Starting to think that I’m just not a Karthik Subbaraj man. On Netflix. C-.
Ronth: The ongoing renaissance in Mayalayam language Indian cinema continues to produce a wealth of gorgeous, confidently directed slice of life dramas. Ronth furthers that trend with a mostly subdued, but ultimately ferocious cop drama. Pretty strong and well worth sticking with. A-.
The Rule of Jenny Pen: This nursing home horror pic is about as gleefully sadistic as I expected, but also a better crowd-pleaser than I was lead to believe. On Shudder. A-.
The Shadow’s Edge: Jackie Chan and his stunt team score a rare hit with this shockingly entertaining remake of Eye in the Sky (2007). I wasn’t expecting to be so completely charmed by a new movie from Larry “Ride On” Yang, but I was. Tony Leung Ka Fai ftw. B.
Sikandar: Salman Khan’s latest action vehicle is exuberant and goofy, but not as consistently surprising or unhinged as I would have liked, especially knowing what director A.R. Murugadoss can do (Darbar, his Rajinikanth collab, is much more fun). Still, this has more than a few giddy highlights. On Netflix. C+.
Sister Midnight: This Indian-American dramedy, about an unhappy young bride, is well-directed and pays welcome attention to its setting. The comedy falls flat for me, like a monotonous and stillborn combo of Mr. Bean and Wes Anderson. C.
Straw: Taraji P. Henson sweats up a storm and Teyana Taylor wears a very strange wig. On Netflix. D+.
Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted: A great subject and mostly attentive filmmaking in this docu-portrait of the elusive musician. You can tell that there’s a lot more beneath the surface though. B.
T Blockers: Trans vigilantes take back the streets in this very satisfying Australian horror-scifi thriller. Eager to see more by the filmmaker. B.
Thudarum: This slow-burning Malayalam language Indian star vehicle, about a cabbie (Mohanlal!) who becomes entangled in a crooked cop’s scheming, is a bit overwrought. Still good enough, especially for Prakash Varma’s surprisingly unsettling performance. On Hulu. B.
Thug Life: Really glad I didn’t read reviews of Mani “Dil Se” Ratnam’s latest Bollywood epic before watching it, because wow, again, what? On Netflix. A-.
Tomb Watcher: This Thai gothic chiller is basically a treacly romantic-drama that slowly and strangely transforms into “Ligeia.” Not for everyone. On Netflix. B.
A Vanishing Fog: A surreal Columbian character study about a lonely caretaker. Reminded me of Carlos Reygadas’s earlier movies. Love the last scene. B.
Vulcanizadora: Another black comedy character study from Joel Potrykus (Buzzard, Relaxer), who’s just as good as Todd Solondz when it comes to nailing his arrested adolescent protagonists. This one’s bleak, but also very funny. A-.
Weapons: What a pleasure to see the director of Barbarian continue to impress with this funny, mysterious follow-up. Eager to rewatch. A-.