Queen and Slim

 Wonderfully shot, every scene. Great.

Coco

These Pixar movies look amazing.

The King of Staten Island

 

This movie has it all! Pam Adlon, Herc from The Wire, and Bel Powley who was great in that movie where she writes letters to Aline Crumb.

I liked it more than Trainwreck, but not as much as Funny People.

Just Mercy

It's 1992, which means all the cars look GREAT.

Becoming

Pretty standard Netflix fare. Not that good and not that bad. You watch it and it took ninety minutes, and when it's all over you turn on Queer Eye or Ozark. I dunno - Becoming is a really just passable ad for Obama's book. It has some really great and inspiring footage of girls all across the country. I mean, wow, what a mind-blow that must have been to be fourteen and have the former First Lady, this former First Lady, listen to what you're saying and give you a hug. Michelle Obama, of course, absolutely rules and is totally fucking missed, but the movie doesn't have a lot of bite or grit, which is the only thing I want to see. Oh well. Recommended only if you want to further lament our national state of chaos. It's a nightmare out there, each day worse than the last.

No Direction Home

The problem with streaming is that you get used to bein' able to watch something whenever ya want, but then the moment you really want to watch it, the darn thing isn't available on any of the services anymore. Fucking dumb.

The Mandalorian (Season One)

How fun, and -- gosh -- better than all those dumb movies! It was nice to see a Star Wars story that's wasn't too grand or spectacular, and one that hardly focused on family legacies or magical/mystical mumbo jumbo. Seeing this season end with Giancarlo Esposito and his flowing cape and light-up sword made me a little skeptical, however, for Mandalorian season two, as I'm afraid that the future of the series will trend toward Jedi spiritualism and the unmasking of a Fett dynasty rather than maintaining the toward desolate landscapes and one-on-one blaster combat of these episodes. We'll see!

Yesterday

The great thing about Yesterday is that it's really just pretty good! Not a masterpiece, not a classic, just a top-notch weeknight watch on pay cable. All of the right levels of drama, comedy, and quirkiness, and not a lot of nerdy-ass Beatles fan service. Thumbs up.

The Adventures of Baron Munchasen

I watched The Baron a number of times as a kid, which means I still enjoyed it as crusty old adult. I also - and this was pretty astonishing to me 'cause I haven't watched it for two decades - remembered all the dialog and all the vocal inflections. What a trip! I mean, for all these years, I doubt I could have quoted this movie to you, but from the moment we pushed play I could hear Sarah Polley's voice a second before she said anything. Same for John Neville and Winston Dennis and all those other guys whose names I didn't look up. How cool is the brain, ya know?

That said, the whole movie is yelling and explosions. Yipes. Definitely wouldn't have cared for it if I'd seen it as a pretentious grown-up rather than as a precocious child.

That Thing You Do!

The story's super cute, and the acting's real fun, but - wow - how boring is the camerawork and editing? Jeepers. No zip. No pizzazz. Nothing exciting seems to happen - and this is rock and/or roll!

Gattaca

 

Not that great, but neat that it had Gore Vidal and Ernest Borgnine.

The Plague Dogs

Neat era for animated features.

Toy Story 4

Ack, nowhere near as good as number three.

Toy Story 3

Outstanding!

Except for the Ken and Barbie stuff which I thought was cliche and corny, and will probably make the movie feel more and more dated as the years go on.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

 

This movie was annoying. I wanted to like it, but I didn't get its sense of humor or find the dialogue or delivery amusing. Also, so much orange.

Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson and co. took full advantage of the medium of film in this one, and - hey - that was pretty cool! The set design, pacing, dialogue, color schemes, casting, humor - all of it felt uniquely geared toward the cinematic experience. As we watched Grand Budapest Hotel I thought, wow, this feels like a shining example of narrative cinema's strengths and possibilities, even though when the movie ended I found that it hadn't quite - as the kids might say - "hit me in the feels" or made me want to award it four stars like I would with stone-cold classics like Silence of the Lambs, Frankenhooker, or Tales of the Grim Sleeper.

But, hey, bravo!!

What About Bob?

Bill Murray sucks.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

I kept thinking, "They'll go blind being in the desert sun like that."

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness

Everyone obsessed about that Carole B., but I just want to hear about the sex and drugs. Prince Alberts! Alcohol abuse! Squirrely facial tics! There's some heavy stories here, and murder is the least interesting of 'em all.