2026 Movie Discussion Thread

[zendragon]

What's eating Gilbert Grape could have been made about my childhood. Grew up in a small town looking after my brother with Downs Syndrome

[driver]

Balls Up-

Marky Mark, Paul Walter Hauser and Sacha Baron Cohen(looking like he's ready to front a hair metal band) in Brasil during the World Cup. It's directed by a Farrelly Brother. On Prime.

It's pretty mid as a comedy, but if played straight with some bloodshed it would be a hell of a lot more interesting.

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....had to do a lot of dumb offline stuff today.

Sleeping Dogs (2024) (Hulu, leaving on 4/30) - 1.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Painfully uninteresting movie where Russell Crowe plays Roy, a detective retracing a crime that happened decades ago. At times, it almost falls apart due to its inane logic.

Should get 1/2 star because no one says "A man who never eats pork bun is never a whole man!"

You know this is a bad movie and this is a bad director when Karen Gillian slips into her native Scottish accent for a few of the scenes and other scenes she sounds "American." It gave the character a weird disjointed quality.

I would recount the movie, but I wasn't that invested in it and it felt longer than 2 hours despite the 1 hour, 44 minute run time. So I won't. It's basically Memento but with a weird "Made for Blu Ray" feel to it.

Just stick with the Roger Donaldson 1977 movie or the 2012 video game. A movie version of the video game would have been better than this.

The Critic (2022) (HBO Max, leaving on 5/5) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

I wasn't familiar with Carlos Boyero as a film critic prior to watching this documentary. From watching it, Boyero seems to be a more caustic Roger Ebert or maybe Armond White - his tastes make sense to him as to what he wants in a movie, but doesn't make sense when he criticizes it or as to the 'why' of not liking the movie. There's also an element of anti-feminism and being against 'political correctness' when talking about female directed movies. (I would also say his feud with Pedro Almodovar seems to be a bit homophobic too, although Almodovar didn't help matters with wanting to see Boyero fired).

At the same time, there is something to be said for liking a movie on its own and divorce from a particular film style. There's also something to be said for recognizing that tastes change and what people of the time that Carlos Boyero starting out as a film critic like is different too. It's best to avoid the temptation of viewing movies with "everything is great and nothing is terrible" without really questioning why someone thinks a particular movie is great and a particular movie is terrible. The last thing that should be done is to reduce film criticism to unpaid marketing departments for film studios and lavish praise on every movie - mainstream and arthouse - that comes out.

With that said, this documentary talks about the various feuds Carlos Boyero has had, like was mentioned with Almodovar, but also the letter where various signatures asked for his removal from El Pais. It doesn't really discuss his film criticism or why he likes a movie or why he dislikes a movie; much of the time is spent talking about how critical he is as a film reviewer, but that's just it. I came away with feeling that his film criticisms are all purely of the moment, without a bit of self-reflection on his part outside of the review. A lot is talked about how he is friendly to other people, but isn't interested in really being part of Spain's film industry despite watching and reviewing their movies.

One thing I found to be a bit sad is the fact that female film critics noted that they had to pay for everything to be able to attend film festivals; Boyero had the newspaper pay for his hotel and food, yet he complains about how it wasn't as good as the last time he was there. While younger film critics are having to stay at an Airbnb in France to be able to go to Cannes Film Festival.

The documentary has Boyero noting that this is the last time he would attend the San Sebastian Film Festival because of the top prize being awarded to Alina Grigore's Blue Moon. He hated the movie and seemed dismissive of the other movies that were shown because they didn't fit his sensibilities.

So maybe from viewing it, it could be surmised that Carlos Boyero is more of a troll that got lucky and got paid to write his reviews. It could also be surmised that what he likes is in the past, never really in the present or in the future.

The Fastest Woman on Earth (HBO Max, leaving on 5/6) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

An almost Werner Herzog-like documentary about Jessi Combs, who seeks to break the land speed record for women. The documentary talks about the person behind doing that feat - she seems to fit a lot with other documentary subjects that Herzog would do. Her pursuit is almost a crazy pursuit that she pursues because she's the only one to believe she can do it. The documentary does a tremendous job in setting up who Jessi Combs is and how she got to be famous - she became famous due to her willingness to drive any vehicle and to display a sense of fearlessness in doing so while being a TV presenter as well.

What's I liked is the subtle change in documentary format when it goes from doing the runs in the North American Eagle supersonic speed Challenger to outside of it - the aspect ratios change; it goes to widescreen/anamorphic format during the runs.

During the course of the documentary, Jessi seeks out the previous record holder Kitty O'Neil and goes to where she lives - Kitty seems to be in bad shape (her feet are nearly blackened from frostbite or hypothermia or illness). Jessi's meeting with Kitty gives her renewed focus as she tackles the runs again, although she hits snags. In a lot of ways, the documentary is a race against time, not just to set the record but against Jessi's own biology.

At some point, the documentary turns dark; several people shown earlier like Ed and then Kitty die. So death is hanging over the proceedings as Jessi makes another run in Oregon for the land speed record. The documentary shows that her record attempt lead to her death; we see the footage as everything is engulfed in flames and the hood of the car comes off, as we hear the sounds of the aftermath of the wreck.

The end of the documentary is heart breaking and an eulogy in a lot of ways; Jessi Combs is able to beat the record, but the cost was her life. The documentary then shows those that are alive and carry the memory, some like the women motorcycle club who have her bandanna on their cycles in her memory.

The final shot is with Jessi Combs' back to the camera, raring to do more.

The Fastest Woman on Earth does a great documentary should do.

 

[odessasteps]

I give the critic my highest rating: 7 out of 10. 

[J.H.]

Why can't The Critic be about Jay Sherman?

James

[Andrew POE!]

1 hour ago, J.H. said:

Why can't The Critic be about Jay Sherman?

James

I can't watch everything all the time! 

[J.H.]

I hope the rumors about The Critic TV show are true 

James

 

[J.H.]

A Bridge Too Far - The movie that proves the Caine- Hackman Theory!

Just when you think the all-star cast movie era is done there is this World War 2 yawn fest. Everyone and their grandmother is in this. Caine, Hackman, Connery, Olivier, Hopkins, Redford, Caan and hell just name a British actor and throw in Ryan O'Neal hyst for fun!

All these luminaries and this movie is... boring. Oh my god does it go 9n forever!

It is almost 3 hours but it feels like 8. It just goes on and on and on. It never ends. I feel like this movie was longer than the war itself. It just might be one of the worst big budget WW2 movies I ever watched. Who thought telling the story Operation Market Garden was a good idea?

In summation, this movie is dull, long and really just not worth your t8me... or my time sadly. I think I'm gonna go watch Force 10 From Navarone, which isn't a good movie but is a FUN movie!

James

[Raziel]

I can't tell you how disappointed I was when Sleeping Dogs came out and I saw it wasn't an adaption of the amazing 2012 Video Game.

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today....

The Devil Wears Prada (HBO Max/Hulu) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

No one in their right mind would work for Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep).

The idea that working at Runway would lead to 'something' is a lie. But, like everything else in the United States economy in the past 40 years, it's built on a lie. The opportunity to have shoes, belts, dresses, and purses, as Nate (Adrian Grenier) notes towards the end of the movie. Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway) starts the movie much the way Patrick Bateman starts American Psycho - the idea that there's a real Andrea Sachs under there has no basis in reality.

Andrea arrives to Runway for her job interview and is told everything about her is wrong. She shouldn't use that purse. She dresses like a grandmother. Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) tells her that the last two assistants quit. Someone shouts "gird your loins!" and people scramble like mad to clean everything up like this is Franklin M Hart Jr from 9 to 5 walking in. Throughout the movie and the first hour or so, my thought was "Fuck Miranda. Why isn't anyone threatening to quit?" Why are grown men and women groveling for this person who may have gotten everything wrong? Why are they placing so much precedence on one person?

The truth is people like Miranda Priestly are part of the last dying breaths of the "Baby Boomer" generation. They think they are 'modern' and vote in the chaos they created. Sure, they give money to AIDS relief in Africa, or go to black tie soirees to benefit a non-profit, and they may even think themselves to be liberals, but we know the truth. They vote in Reagan twice and wonder why 'trickle down economics' didn't work. They vote in Bush twice and wonder why there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They vote in Trump twice then wonder why America isn't 'great again.' They hire Miranda Priestly and wonder why other people lose their identity and sense of self. Why are people working for her experiencing burnout and turning to drugs and alcohol, they wonder?

I wanted there to be a moment in the movie where everyone lets Miranda 'have it.' I wanted Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci) to cuss out Miranda for giving the job of creative director to Jacqueline Follet (Stephanie Szostak) and he's given decades of his fucking life to her and all he wants is to be treated like an actual human being, but she steps all over him and stabs him in the back. "She'll pay me back," he tells himself as much as he tells Andrea. I wanted Emily to walk into the office and cuss out Miranda for firing her through Andy since going to Paris during Fashion Week was what she wanted all her life. Cuss her out for making Emily feel that she should starve herself to fit into clothes and Miranda demonstrate a lack of respect towards her. I wanted Andrea to say to Miranda "I'm an adult, I choose to work here, the way you act says more about you than it does about me" before flipping off Miranda. Andrea chooses to stay there, despite working at a fashion magazine not really being her thing. Andrea's function was to fetch coffee and to drop everything since Miranda couldn't just fucking get up and do that shit herself. Not write a fucking article for her piece of shit magazine.

The truth is I'm glad Miranda has her husband Stephen (James Naughton) divorcing her. She's quietly tells Andrea about how her life is falling apart, but maybe for once it would teach her something. Teach her that her husband loves her and doesn't want to wait on her to decide that spending more time at work than with him is important. Teach her that expecting her assistant to get an unpublished manuscript of Harry Potter isn't fucking normal. Teach her that expecting coffee at her desk and for her assistant to come to her house to drop off dry cleaning and give 'the book' about the next issue while saying hi to her bratty kids isn't normal either. Teach her that the social contract of working for people has consequences and people shouldn't be treated like shit just because she runs a magazine for bored and lonely housewives that are clutching magazine issues to their hearts. That maybe the staff at Runway should form an union. That maybe they should be treated with respect. That maybe they have wants, needs, feelings, desires, and are competent people continuously undervalued and underappreciated.

The revelation that somehow Miranda knew everything and would take everything with her is bullshit. This should have been the moment where Miranda met her comeuppance and realize, "Oh wow, these actual functioning adults didn't like how I treated people working for me, so now someone better at the job and maybe more compassionate will do it." Her manipulation is all she has. That's the only card she has to play. Someone in the corporate offices never think, "Wait a minute, why do we have this aging woman deciding how and what people are wearing to sell magazines? How is she worth the trouble? She knows the photographers and designers? We know them too. They'll work with the person we've picked out for them to work with, they'll get used to it." The person she did that to was caught off guard and didn't make the right decision due to her underhandedness. Andrea did the right thing at that moment and tossed her phone in the drink.

So Nick ends up getting a job in Boston working as a sous chef, maybe probably getting paid more, but who knows. It's probably the same starvation wages he got in New York, just slightly cheaper to live there. (To be honest, Nate didn't really support Andrea for her career and acted whiny and complains through most of the movie). Andrea goes to work for a newspaper and gets hired because Miranda tells her interviewer that Andrea was a disappointment but he'd be stupid not to hire Andrea. Andrea sees Miranda getting into a limo, Miranda doesn't acknowledge her, yet smiles and laughs in the car.

Despite my hatred towards the characters and the seemingly infantile deference towards one character, The Devil Wears Prada is a well shot, stylish movie. New York City looks inviting and everything looks beautiful to watch. (I was a tad irked with the 'on the nose' needledrop of U2's "City of Blinding Lights" while it showed B-roll of Paris). I realize that my possibly unrealistic expectation of The Devil Wears Prada may not work; this movie is the type of movie for people living vicariously through Andrea and love the same sort of things like fashion and stylish locations like NYC and Paris would enjoy. The movie wasn't meant for possibly bitter, possibly socialistic people like me.

In the end, Andrea is better off despite working for a woman that gaslights everyone working for her and doesn't really value people. But she has clothes that she got from Fashion Week that Emily will get.

So yay.

Call Me Miss Cleo (HBO Max, leaving on 5/6) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Bog standard documentary about "Miss Cleo," who wasn't really blamed as much as she could have been for the fraud that went on at Psychic Readers Network to scam people calling the 1800 number for a 'psychic reading.' Raven-Symone's comments about two white CEOs leading the scam is indicative of America, but Youree Harris is equally guilty. What about her going to a performing arts community and running away with the $1000s she was paid for a theater production? Isn't that America too?

With that said, the attempts to make "Miss Cleo" appear 'blameless' is a bit untruthful as well. Her connection to (mostly white) LGBTQIA community in Florida is admirable, but I couldn't help not to feel that those that knew her were scammed too on some level.

The documentary would have been better if it weren't so sympathetic towards her.

Foster (HBO Max, leaving on 5/3) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Foster as a documentary is a touching reminder about the importance of families and how children have to endure a lot, especially with foster care system. In some ways, the documentary is a bit 'sanitized' and shows the people that are trying to get it together to keep their children, or children that are trying to find stability. The documentary won't show the burnout and stress of the Los Angeles County DFACS system and how sometimes people working for it are frustrated with the system. It also won't show the people addicted to drugs trying to get their children back and fighting with judges while on less than hour's worth of sleep.

It does show the good aspects of the system and the good people involved with it. Like Earcylene Beavers who has several children in her home that want to stay with her because she truly cares for them. Mary who despite struggles in school is in the foster care system and ends up staying enrolled in college despite her grade issues. Or Chris and Raeanne who have a daughter together, but separate in the epilogue. Or Jessica, who earns her master's degree and works for the county in DFACS. Or DeSantis, who struggles with group placement homes and is at least trying to have a better life.

The documentary jumps between these different storylines at various points; in a way, it seems to be very much a "Los Angeles story" than anything else. Jessica talks about wanting to become an actress, obviously due to the Hollywood influence that has over people, and talks about the acting craft involved rather than the material aspects.

For the most part, Foster is a decent documentary that's a bit above average in its presentation.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (saw in the theaters) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

No one in their right mind would watch The Devil Wears Prada 2 after watching The Devil Wears Prada on the same day.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 begins much the same way as The Devil Wears Prada did - with Andrea Sacha (Anne Hathaway) brushing her teeth. The difference being this is 20 years later from the first movie with Andrea walking into an awards luncheon for her newspaper New York Vanguard as two of the people on the staff receive awards and then...are laid off via text message. Meanwhile, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) and Nigel (Stanley Tucci) with her newest "Emily" Amari Mari (Simone Ashley) attend a red carpet event as a news article is on Nigel's phone about Runway writing a piece about a company that does sweatshop labor. Of course, Miranda's boss Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman) gets wind of the article and wants it to be fixed.

The world of The Devil Wears Prada 2 quite resembles our present day world in 2026. Newspapers are closing down, magazines are dying, consolidation is occurring everywhere, even Letterboxd itself might be sold to someone else soon. The unspoken aspect of course is that journalism is being controlled by right wing leaning oligarchs like Larry Ellison as he and his son has bought Paramount and now are looking to have Paramount buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Andrea shouts "journalism fucking matters," but does it really matter today? The movie never tells of Andrea and other journalists running afoul of the right wing techbros that are in the movie due to political affiliation. I guess, like everything else in 2026, the hope is those controlling the government and the media conglomerates will just die of old age or will miraculously be voted out of office (as if they would actually leave when they lose).

So the solution to the problem for both Andrea and Miranda is for them to combine their 'powers.' Andrea will work at Runway as a features editor to clean up Miranda's PR mess and will get her own office, right over the objections of Miranda since Irv and his son Jay (B.J. Novitz) hired her directly. The movie has them meeting up with Emily (Emily Blunt) who is now at Dior. Miranda agrees to everything that Emily wants as far as the changes Emily wants in order to repair the advertising relationship at Runway.

Most of the movie has Andrea navigating her way through the changes and the efforts to please Miranda with securing an interview with Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu), who is pretty much a stand-in for Jeff Bezos' ex-wife. The movie becomes a power play with Jay and Emily's boyfriend/Sasha's ex-husband Benji (Justin Thereoux), who is probably the most annoying character I've ever seen in a movie. He's like J.D. Vance but even less self-aware and is Sam Bankman-Fried (he grossly tells Miranda at a dinner that AI will replace fashion brands, photographers, and writers). Yet Emily wants to hitch her wagon to him....

In a way, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is surprisingly more of a female take on The Fast & Furious series or the MCU films. People looking glamorous and walking everywhere and stylish clothes with almost nausea inducing camera work in NYC and in Milan. Anguish in rich, glamorous places never looked so good. The problem is the writing for this isn't as good or as acidic as the first movie; it seems a bit too self-referential at times and the snark of the characters is a bit reduced. Everything is a bit too sterile in its lighting as well in comparison to the first movie. (Also, that song “Runway” from Lady Gaga is annoying and absolutely sucks).

What's interesting is it seems like the writers might have addressed what made me so mad during the first movie. Miranda's behavior is addressed (there's numerous scenes where she's told to say something different and she even hangs up her own coat!) and she even does contrition with Nigel. Apparently, Miranda giving the job to someone else happened more than once to Nigel, yet Nigel stays and is a 'good soldier.' Nigel delivers the speech at the end of the night while Miranda and Andrea meet with someone for a competing offer to Jay. This offer undercuts what Benji was offering and was made by...Sasha.

It appears to be a healthy working relationship between Andrea and Miranda now. Andrea is valued, Miranda actually thanks Andrea for the article, the underlings get promotion, Nigel stays and gets a promotion too. Plus, there's a totally sweet moment where Nigel reveals that he got Andrea the job. "Forever my girl," he tells her.

In the end, Andrea is better off working with a woman that had gaslit everyone working for her and now does really value people. A nice horizontal shot showing everyone happily working together at night.

So yay.

Dangerous Play (HBO Max, leaving on 5/6) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

It's somewhat crazy how much soccer/futbol has had to deal with corruption in its sport even in the 1980s. Except in this case, referees are flown into Colombia, sequestered from the public and other places, and are threatened if they don't let the Colombian national team win for the drug cartels.

Not the best documentary, but not the worst. It does tend to drag a bit towards the end. What ends the deal is soccer is canceled in 1989 after the death of a referee.

Saw a short film Trans on Criterion Channel. 

[odessasteps]

4 hours ago, J.H. said:

I hope the rumors about The Critic TV show are true 

James

 

I saw a clip of either Al Jean or Mike Reiss saying the prospects looked good.

[Technico Support]

@Andrew POE! I really hate Devil Wears Prada.  Thank you.  The narrative is so unbalanced and weird.  Priestley is undoubtedly a horrible person, but everything in the story reinforces the idea that she’s 100% right.  The scene where Andy tells Nigel how miserable she is, and rightly so, is maddening.  His response: suck it up, lots of women would love this job.  What the actual fuck?  Real anti-worker, sweatshop mentality.  The movie’s most well known scene has Miranda putting Andy in “her place” and abusing her over some fashion bullshit, and it’s played like she’s in the right.  Woooooooo girlboss shit yaaay!

Horrible people do horrible things to good people with no comeuppance.  Andy drops her friends and family for a job that would forget her tomorrow, but she’s in the right.  This is the most pro-corporate, anti worker shit I’ve ever seen.

Aside from being poorly conceived and badly written, I think hiring Streep is actually a problem.  She’s so good and charismatic, it’s hard to see her as the villain.

Edited May 2 by Technico Support

[Andrew POE!]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

@Andrew POE! I really hate Devil Wears Prada.  Thank you.  The narrative is so unbalanced and weird.  Priestley is undoubtedly a horrible person, but everything in the story reinforces the idea that she’s 100% right.  The scene where Andy tells Nigel how miserable she is, and rightly so, is maddening.  His response: suck it up, lots of women would love this job.  What the actual fuck?  Real anti-worker, sweatshop mentality.  The movie’s most well known scene has Miranda putting Andy in “her place” and abusing her over some fashion bullshit, and it’s played like she’s in the right.  Woooooooo girlboss shit yaaay!

Horrible people do horrible things to good people with no comeuppance.  Andy drops her friends and family for a job that would forget her tomorrow, but she’s in the right.  This is the most pro-corporate, anti worker shit I’ve ever seen.

Aside from being poorly conceived and badly written, I think hiring Streep is actually a problem.  She’s so good and charismatic, it’s hard to see her as the villain.

The second one is 'better' because they somewhat address the pro-corporate/anti-worker mentality of the first one, but...

Spoiler

the person rescuing Miranda (again) and Andrea is another millionaire. So they accomplished nothing. Maybe if they went all the way with being pro-worker, they would have Miranda, Andrea, Nigel, and then Emily pool their fortunes together for a Patron startup. An online fashion magazine about real people and what real people wear. 

 

[J.H.]

Force 10 From Navarone - I love this movie. Sure, it is a far cry from The Guns of Navarone but this movie is a way to kill 2 or 3 hours in the evening. In fact that is just how I saw it on ABC Channel 7 when I was about 10. Compare this cast with A Bridge To Far and it helps that the cast is small, as opposed to the latter where the cast is so bloated with names that it becomes a labor to get through.

No sir, this is an action movie and looking at it now it rules!

I mean, it has a young Harrison Ford before he became Harrison Ford. It's got Robert Shaw in a role that he doesn't have to rely on his bag of accents and actors tricks. Hell, Edward Fox is so  charming as Miller that you can forgive him for being in A Bridge To Far!

Throw in Carl Weatbers and you've got yourself a pretty good version of The A-Team!

I love this movie. It is fun, funny at times and the ending is the payoff we want but with a sort of bittersweet twist. Hell, if you've got a 2 hour block of time go ahead and watch it. It's worth the time and makes you glad we won World War 2!

James

Edited May 3 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today....

Cruel Intentions (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

There's no other decade in movies like the 1990s.

Cruel Intentions was one of those movies that's still just wild to watch even today. Although the first half has some highly questionable bits (with gay shaming, slut shaming, and grossly inter-racial shaming occurring), it's very much carried by its actors. Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kathryn Merteuil and Ryan Phillippe as Sebastian Valmont are two of the most gorgeous people on the planet in their heyday; hell, even lesser characters like Selma Blair as Cecile Caldwell, Eric Mabius as Greg McConnell, Joshua Jackson as Blaine Tuttle (with his frosted/colored hair), and Sean Patrick Thomas as Ronald Clifford are hot too. (Real ones would find Cecile attractive in a goofy way).

The bulk of the movie is Sebastian finding himself falling for Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), to whom Sebastian and Kathryn made a bet that he couldn't break. Sebastian manipulates Greg with using Blaine as his sexual blackmail to find out who wrote a letter to Annette and Kathryn gets Cecile in trouble with her mother Bunny (Christine Baranski) when Bunny finds Cecile's letters to Ronald in her dollhouse.

I will say that the movie's soundtrack and musical usage is actually really memorable - Kathryn teaching Cecile to kiss set to Blur's "Coffee and TV" is a great moment with a bit of symbolism in the lyrics happening (Cecile is seen as a sheltered person so the song has a lyric of "take me away from the big bad world"). As is Fatboy Slim's "Praise You" while Annettee and Sebastian are riding along in his convertible. The better music usages were when Sebastian finds Annette as Counting Crows' "Colorblind" plays (which mirrors Sebastian's feelings toward Annette) and at the end as everything is revealed at Sebastian's funeral to The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (which mirrors Kathryn's realization that her drug habits and manipulations are now known).

Something like this during the late 1990s made guys like me growing up wish we could have that kind of income and be as rich; there's something positively living vicariously through seeing Ryan Phillippe riding in a convertible at the opening of the movie and seeing Old Westbury Gardens throughout the movie where Annette and Sebastian are staying. Although to be honest, Phillippe isn't really a good actor (I can't help but to feel that his real life relationship and feelings toward Reese Witherspoon are apparent, especially during the car ride where she makes him laugh).

Cruel Intentions is a peak of MTV style filmmaking.

Sliding Doors (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Sliding Doors is as much of a romantic comedy as it is about a character wondering why they are stuck in a rut in their lives and if they could have done something different. Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) missing or catching a train meant two different paths - both involve her being fired from her PR firm. If she catches the train, she meets James (John Hannah) and have a conversation with before going home to catch her boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch) in bed with Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn). If she misses the train, she has her purse stolen, a cut above her eyebrow, and goes back home to see Gerry come out of the shower.

Through both of these paths, the character would have done different things - the girl that missed the train would be working anywhere - a local pub, a sandwich shop - to make ends meet while completely struggling. The girl that got the train has a relationship with James and begins a startup after cleaning the office space it's in. She gets a haircut and dyes her hair, which is liberating. It's a bit deceptive to think that the girl that caught the train is 'happier' - Gerry tries to get back together with Helen and Helen feels that James is cheating on her with another woman. The truth is James is divorcing the woman and is having to maintain the relationship for the sake of his mother.

Both timelines converge with an accident - Helen that missed the train falls down a flight of stairs and Helen that caught the train is hit by a lorry. Both timelines have the women pregnant - Helen down the stairs with Gerry's child and Helen hit by the lorry with James' child. Both lose their children; Helen that would had James' child is now dead. So the timeline where Helen missed the train is the correct timeline, the correct order - so much for being able to get out of a rut in life and having a startup. I guess the message is there is no escape. The movie ends with Helen meeting James, as if for the first time, in an elevator.

What I found interesting is how John Hannah would seem like a Scottish Hugh Grant; he's the character you 'root' to get Helen due to his humor and his charm. (Plus, he did a pretty convincing impression of the Monty Python actors in one scene recounting the sketch about the Spanish Inquisition). Helen's accent isn't really the best British accent and did sound more like what someone thinks upper class Americans sound like, but hey it can't be faulted too much for that.

I did love the usage of jump cuts throughout the movie as Helen has a drink and cigarettes at a pub after finding Gerry with another woman earlier in the movie.

For the most part, Sliding Doors is a decent late 1990s romantic comedy/drama.

Animal Farm (2025) (saw in the theaters) - 0.5/5 star

Spoiler

Animal Farm (2025) completely missed the point of the actual book. George Orwell as a writer seems to delight both liberals and conservatives in equal measures with his works - 1984 makes liberals want to fight against a dystopian future where wrong is right, down is up, peace is war. Animal Farm makes conservatives want to fight against the idea of a shared socialistic society that arises when a government is taken away and people are left on their own; naturally, divisions arise from it.

It feels like writer Nicholas Stoller, who penned the odious Get Him to the Greek, just didn't feel like bothering to capture any of the nuance of the actual novella, so he opted for a Wikipedia article and read the first paragraph. The allegory at play is more indicative of what's happening in the US rather than Stalinism taking over.

Since he didn't bother to write it, I won't bother to really review it. I took a nap during part of it and I felt like I didn't miss anything. The vitriol that I normally have for Angel Studios isn't here for this; it feels like they were taken for a ride and distributed a movie that would appeal to Trump supporters, lowly educated, lowly intelligent, and lowly capable. The voice actors seemed bored and maybe out of place (I did enjoy that a transgendered actor Laverne Cox voiced Snowball so the people that show up for Angel Studios is faced with transgender lives and those lives matter, I can hear the Angel Studios faithful clutching their pearls from here).

There's fart jokes, a needledrop of "Get Ready For This," one of the characters is turned into glue, and the climax looks like something from 1984 and not Animal Farm. The lone positive is Propellerheads/Shirley Bassey's "History Repeating" in the closing credits.

Just take a nap or stare at the ceiling. It's much better than this.

The Big Hit (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

The Big Hit wouldn't have been released if it weren't for Quentin Tarantino doing Pulp Fiction and Steven Soderbergh doing Out of Sight. It's positively unhinged filmmaking with it's blend of action, comedy, and drama. It's very much 'happy violence' as people do flips in slow motion to shoot at people, there's car chases, explosions, and action setpiece moments throughout the movie.

Melvin Smiley (Mark Wahlberg) seems like the sort of character that would be found in Grosse Pointe Blank or in Out of Sight; he's relatively 'well adjusted' even as a hitman. His problem is his relationships with his fiancee Pam (Christina Applegate) and his mistress Chantel (Lela Rochon); Chantel is perversely fine with his hitman job, but is turned off by stepping on a dead body in the shower ("he's kinda cute though," she says).

There's honestly utterly hilarious scenes throughout the movie. The kidnapping scene had me busting out laughing - "I've been abduct." "It's abducted." "I'm reading what it said." "Just improvise." "Dollors. Who wrote this?" The recording shows up in a later scene as Cisco (Lou Diamond Phillips) calls Jiro Nishi (Sab Shimono) about his kidnapped daughter Keiko (China Chow) and...Jiro hangs up on him. There's also the famous call tracing scene with Cisco and Gump (Robin Dunne). "Gotta bust the mother-fucker who's busting your trace!"

Eventually, Keiko is found to be at Melvin's place as Cisco rats him out to their boss Paris (Avery Brooks), who is the godfather to Keiko. Cisco and armed goons go to Melvin's place while he has Pam and her parents Jeanne (Lainie Kazan) and Morton (Elliott Gould) over. A shootout takes place where Morton gives a toast to Jeanne ("70 year old woman who looks like a 25 year old ape") and vomits all over Cisco while Melvin and Keiko escape.

The last twenty minutes or so is genuinely crazy fun to watch; Melvin's car lands on presumably Cisco and Melvin goes to a videostore to return a copy of King Kong Lives and fights it out with Cisco to stab him while a hanging rafter crashes down. Melvin is saved by Jiro's massive display for his movie Taste The Golden Spray (I laughed for about five minutes at that). Melvin manages to show up in the end and rides away with Keiko in a limo.

Mark Wahlberg at this point of time wasn't really a good actor; his attraction towards China Chow is obvious, especially during the turkey scene (this is another movie where two of the actors had obvious attraction towards each other). This movie is probably one of the more fun Mark Wahlberg movies before he turned into a po-faced serious actor. (Although The Other Guys does show he can be funny later).

The soundtrack for this is actually great too with a cover of Joe Jackson's "I'm A Man" played several times and a few other tracks from Save Ferris among others. (Mark Wahlberg does a song at the closing credits too that's sorta bad).

The Big Hit isn't as big as it thought, but it's not terrible either.

Mortal Kombat (1995) (HBO Max, trying to watch Mortal Kombat movies before I see Mortal Kombat II) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Objectively speaking, this is a terrible movie. But it captures so much of what it was like middle school and high school for those of us growing up in the 1990s. It's big, it's loud, it's brash, it's kinda dumb, there's a lot of blue lighting everywhere, and it's like drinking Fruitopia with Pop Rocks. It's a pure sugar rush of a movie.

Having watched a few 1980s Chinese films and a lot of 1970s Shaw Brothers films, it's like a bigger budget version of those movies. The set designs, production designs, and details like that are worth watching - fight choreography is actually really well done. The actors involved like Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage, Bridgette Wilson as Sonya Blade, Talisa Soto as Kitana (although she was a bit too serious), Christopher Lambert as Rayden, and Trevor Goddard as Kano seem to be 'winking' the entire time they are on screen; Ashby has legitimately funny moments. "You're lucky he stopped us."

The highlight is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung. Tagawa seriously went above and beyond what's to be done in comic book/video game based movies, much like Raul Julia as M. Bison did in Street Fighter: The Movie. Tagawa's opening lines are legitimately scary as he seems possessed when he points toward the camera at Liu Kang (Robin Shou).

The ending is a letdown since it ends on a cliffhanger, but for the most part, this is a decent action/kung fu movie.

Watched Stafford's Story short film on Criterion Channel. 

[odessasteps]

Watched She Couldn’t Say No (1940) with Eve Arden. She’s a lawyer who’d rather act as her barrister boyfriend’s secretary than practice herself. Through a series of events, they end up as opposing lawyers on a case. Acceptable screwball comedy. Who knew Eve Arden was so pretty as a young woman after only seeing her mostly from stuff in the 60s and 70s. 

[zendragon]

I've been meaning to re-read Animal Farm for a few years now

[J.H.]

Oh man I saw the Big Hit in theaters!

Not enough Avery Brooks

James

Edited May 3 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

8 minutes ago, J.H. said:

Oh man I saw the Big Hit in theaters!

Not enough Avery Brooks

James

With Avery Brooks there, I kept wondering if this movie was a secret DS9 episode and the whole thing was an illusion from The Prophets or a holodeck malfunction. 

[J.H.]

10 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

With Avery Brooks there, I kept wondering if this movie was a secret DS9 episode and the whole thing was an illusion from The Prophets or a holodeck malfunction. 

That is the thing about anything Avery Brooks is in, it just might be the will of the Prophets

James

 

[J.H.]

The Devil Wears Prada - I got a free ticket and figured "what the fuck? Why not?"

It was good, even if there really wasn't a main antagonist. You could make the argument that Emily Blunt was a the villain but she's Emily Blunt and she has this ability to be funny and likable in everything she's in. I'm convinced she play Eva Braun and somehow makes likable.

Meryl Streep is not the caricature she was in the first movie. They get across that it really is about the work for her character and that 3veryth8ng else is second. Hey, shout out to my sister's alma mater Chapin!

Look I liked this movie, hell I liked it more than first BUT I wouldn't pay more than $4 for it.

James

 

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today....

Primal Fear (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Primal Fear is quite literally the Avengers of serious adult actors. Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Alfre Woodare, Andre Baugher, John Mahoney, Frances McDormand, Terry O'Quinn, Maura Tierney, Steven Bauer, Stanley Anderson, and Edward Norton all in the same cast? Wow, we're eating, people.

The movie is very much what Hollywood would put out in the 1990s - courtroom dramas with intelligence and legal maneuvering based on best selling novels. Sadly nowadays, this type of movie doesn't make $100 million at the box office; the best we can do for a movie based on a book is Colleen Hoover movies and 99% of those movies have been garbage (except for Regretting You, that's a comedy classic).

With Richard Gere plays Martin Vail, a defense attorney who has a tendency to defend clients of dubious morals and scruples, but is able to get them off the charges. What's interesting is at the start of the movie - we see the characters that will be intermingled through the entirety of the movie. Vail sees Janet Venable (Linney) at a bar after arriving for a function. Venable's boss State Attorney John Shaughnessy (Mahoney) talks to Archbishop Richard Rushman (Anderson). We see Judge Miriam Shoat (Woodard) walk in. What's established with the movie is how defense attorneys and prosecuting attorneys know each other - it's a small world that they can never truly leave.

After the event, Archbishop Rushman is found murdered with Aaron Stampler (Norton) running away and the police chasing him. Vail decides to take on Stamper as a client because he believes that Aaron didn't do it. The movie takes the tact of also making it seem like Aaron Stampler didn't do it either....until Dr. Molly Arrington (McDormand) meets Roy while doing videotaped evaluations. Tommy Goodman (Braugher) goes to Aaron's apartment and is attacked by Alex (Jon Seda). It seems to point to someone else having done it, even with Aaron and Roy having the same body.

The truth is found on a tape that Martin Vail takes from the Archbishop's office and watches with Goodman and Naomi (Tierney). Archbishop Rushman was forcing Aaron and Alex to participate in sexual acts with Linda (Azalea Davila). Aaron has repressed the memories of the events so deeply that he refuses to remember them, even when asked about them. What's interesting is what Vail does - he has Goodman give a copy of the tape to Venable and asks Aaron about Roy with the camera turned off. The scene with Roy and Vail talking has Vail actually laughing a bit as Roy makes fun of Aaron and then punches Vail.

The movie then becomes Martin Vail realizing that his client did commit the murder. Vail tries to expose Shaughnessy and his bad real estate deals on the stand, but it gets him in trouble with the judge. Judge Shoat holds Vail in contempt and Vail points out that "I won't get a fair trial in this court." Which is correct - Venable badgers and leads her witnesses (Goodman and Dr. Arrington) when they are on the stand, yet nothing is said to her. Venable attempts to damage the credibility of Dr. Arrington with Dr. Arrington being a neuro psychiatrist, despite Dr. Arrington having previous experience and evaluations of other people. Vail should have objected to that, since Venable isn't an expert either; what does she know about Dr. Arrington's qualifications anyway?

Aaron goes on the stand and Martin Vail whispers words that call back to their conversation in the cell; Aaron answers the questions then Venable cross examines him. Aaron turns into Roy and assaults Venable with Judge Shoat throwing the trial out and Aaron being declared not guilty by reason of insanity. In the scene in the judge's chambers, Venable tells Vail she was fired, apparently for not doing a good job despite her casting Aaron as the murderer and the testimony for him being discredited.

The point seems to be in this movie that the prosecution has a strict view of their attorneys, even with judges in the proverbial back pocket. People like Martin Vail are pointed to being the cause of society's problems in this, despite Vail trying to do his job and sincerely believing in his clients. "I believe in the notion that people are innocent until proven guilty. I believe in that notion because I choose to believe in the basic goodness of people. I choose to believe that not all crimes are committed by bad people," he says.

Then what to make of what happens at the end of the movie? Aaron reveals to Martin Vail that he remembers trying to break Venable's neck and therefore remembers committing the crimes; Aaron murdered the Archbishop and Linda. Aaron reveals that there was no "Roy" or even an "Aaron." How long had Aaron been keeping up the charade? It goes back to the passage in the Scarlet Letter that was noted earlier in the movie - people have two masks they display. With Aaron, it's more like three. (What's interesting is Norton having Aaron/Roy clap when Vail found out Heath Ledger used later as the Joker in the Dark Knight).

For the most part, Primal Fear is a great adult courtroom drama at a time when Hollywood did this regularly.

Disclosure (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 1.5/5 stars

Spoiler

There are times in which Disclosure looks to be a better and more interesting movie. When the movie focuses on the very real issue of sexual harassment in the workplace as Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas) has to defend his personal and professional reputation against Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore) is where the movie is good. Sanders being forced to do so after a night spent with Johnson where she attempts intercourse and he tries to push her off is a palpable and relatable emotion that the audience experiences.

It's just that the movie begins to forget this and tries to tell THREE different stories and fails at doing so. It tries to be a corporate espionage thriller, it tries to be a legal drama, and it tries to be a sexual thriller. There's moments where seemingly things don't work out - the cleaning lady is sent out of the country that witnessed the aftermath, Sanders finds his access is reduced. Things start lining up too easily for Sanders as apparently someone he left a message on a machine has the recording of that night. It starts to look like bad writing, even though the source novel for this is a Michael Crichton novel.

After Sanders wins the sexual harassment mediation, he gets his job back and $100k and Johnson is forced to step down after the merger. Yet that's not what happens in the last 30 minutes or so.

The movie has Sanders going into a hotel suite and uses VR as things are being deleted by Johnson (with a virtual avatar of Demi Moore to boot). At this point with the VR world and Sanders walking around and looking at files and a video call with Johnson, the movie turns into a shit show. Sanders is able to get copies of what was deleted from a different person and it's faxed over in time for a meeting. At a meeting with CEO Bob Garvin (Donald Sutherland), Sanders reveals that Meredith Johnson knew everything and authorized everything related to some computer drive that was assembled by hand in Malaysia. It's as though the movie completely forgot about what happened in the previous hour and half leading up to the last 20 minutes. Meredith Johnson yells at Sanders (in a really well acted scene from Demi Moore despite the dumpster fire the movie became) about how he's incompetent despite evidence to the contrary.

Bob Glover isn't happy with Meredith Johnson so she gets shitcanned so a bunch of people in offices much nicer than mine can have the merger go through. Yay, Corporate America.

The point the movie is trying to raise seems to be a misguided point completely. It's trying to show that sexual harassment isn't real, which is gross. It's trying to say that people like Meredith Johnson are making up sexual harassment or are abusing sexual harassment for their goals; the writers are much like those in the current Trump administration that don't believe racism exists and tries to have the DOJ go after the Southern Poverty Law Center for infiltrating the KKK or don't believe that DEI exists and eliminates it because 'it punishes white people.'

The truth of sexual harassment is that it's real. As Meredith Johnson points out in her attack at the board meeting, those that in power at a company abuse their power. What she did is nothing in comparison. The movie could have said something more about the fact that older white men always end up in leadership and as CEOs - why were there not attacks against Bob Garvin and why were it only against Tom Sanders? If Tom Sanders' behavior was that much of a problem, why go through the trouble of granting him mediation and not just give him a severance package? It was suggested that everyone working with Meredith Johnson and with the CEO was conspiring against Tom Sanders because they knew about deeper issues with manufacturing and he didn't, so why keep him? The movie has Garvin seemingly changing sides at the end (probably because Meredith Johnson had taken the fall for him) while he has Stephanie Kaplan (Rosemary Forsyth) run their Seattle offices.

(Dennis Miller manages to find a part in the movie, so that should be a signal where this movie is politically)

I will say that the office in the movie looks really inviting; Tom Sanders will never know the pain of an 'open office layout' and having to share his desk with someone that has their AirPods on too loud while you can hear the Joe Rogan podcast from them. But nope, he gets a really spacious office layout with a basketball and hasn't been cleaned in months.

Disclosure could have been so much more than it was.

Max (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

What I love about this documentary short film is it addresses a lot of the stigmas that transgendered people face and is geared towards those who aren't knowledgeable or as aware of what they go through. It's not just a 'phase' or because they're suicidal...the person feels like they were born the wrong way and they have to get to a state where they feel complete. For allies like me, it seems more educational and non-judgmental.

Max seems like the type of person that anyone would want to hang out with at punk clubs or listen to vinyl records while have drinks and cigarettes with; he becomes the person he wants to be. One statement that he made stuck with me: "Am I willing to give up everything I have for everything I've ever wanted?" For people to reach a place of happiness, wholeness, and peace, that's what has to be done.

Max does show the flip side to it; it's hard. He doesn't feel like he can cry anymore. He has to spend a lot of money to have bottom surgery. There's a lot of counseling involved (despite what people on talk shows and the news media and dare I say the current POTUS would say); it's not just an easy decision made one day. I found it interesting that he mentions how women have control over their bodies and their destinies with what they do with their bodies, which is the same thing as what he wants to do (they had control until the current SCOTUS decided to roll back Roe v. Wade, so now we're in Gilead).

Documentaries remain the truest form of cinema.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Mubi, leaving on 5/14) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry seems to be a Georgian (the country) take on Alexander Payne's About Schmidt, but with a middle aged woman named Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) who lives in a village. She carries on an affair with a delivery driver named Murman (Temiko Chichinadze) whilst dealing with neighbors that are quite mean and rude to her. She proceeds to be mean and rude to them back. Her affair doesn't lead to anything for her, other than a persistent feeling that she is happier alone than with someone. A lot of this is due to the relationship with her deceased brother and father and what she feels about her mother.

Death hangs over the movie a lot - in fact, the opening scene has Etero nearly falling off a hillside as she picks blackberries. The near-death experience makes her question a lot of things, but it's not really a dramatic shift in her life like a lot of movies would do with such an experience. It's rare to see a movie tackle the idea of love in a person's late forties. Approaching that age myself, it also made me consider similar questions as well and what I would want out of life too. The movie doesn't have an emotional breakdown for Etero and seems to be more of a deadpan sense of sadness, like out of Aki Kaurismaki's movies.

Etero towards the end checks into a hotel room with Murman, has sex, and breaks off the affair upon her return. Etero is to go to a populated city in Georgia to run tests, due to a black discharge she saw while picking blackberries. She presumes it to be a sign of cancer and treats it as a 'final goodbye.' While at the doctor's office, she discovers that she is pregnant and the final scene has her crying over the sonograph, much like Jack Nicholson crying over the photo of a child in Africa at the end of About Schmidt.

The way the movie goes about its drama is a bit slower in comparison to other movies; it can be mistaken that this movie is 'boring' even with dwelling on its themes.

For the most part, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is a bit underrated drama from a country that I haven't seen a lot of cinema from. I'll be seeking out other work from Elene Naveriani too.

Watched Ife and Monsieur Le Butch short films on Criterion Channel. 

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today...work stuff got in the way.

We Don't Live Here Anymore (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

It is apt to compare We Don't Live Here Anymore to Closer. Both movies came out the same year and both involve two couples engaging in adultery with the partner of each couple. Where Closer seems to be more of a devastating shock, We Don't Live Here Anymore seems to be more of a saddened realization.

What's chief with the differences is the fact that the two couples in this - Jack (Mark Ruffalo) and Terry (Laura Dern), Hank (Peter Krause) and Edith (Naomi Watts) - know each other. Jack and Hank teach at the same college; Hank teaches creative writing and trying to get published, while Jack teaches literature and trying not to be boring in class. The movie is a much more subtle take on adultery and infidelity - Hank and Edith have a sense of boredom in their marriage with Hank resigned to the fact that he won't get published until he does. Jack and Terry try to maintain a semblance of togetherness, but their collapse is more dramatic.

The key scenes that illustrate their differences is near the start of the movie after the two couples have a get together. Hank and Edith listen to classical music with their daughter Sharon (Jennifer Bishop), while Jack is hung over and Terry is up with their kids Sean (Sam Charles) and Natasha (Ginger Page) running around the house and fighting. The children seem to be the barometer for where the couples are - Sharon seems to have a knowing look and suspicion when she sees her father Hank kiss Terry's hand at a restaurant and Sean and Natasha suspect that Jack and Terry are divorcing.

The standout acting performance is Laura Dern as Terry. Terry is a whirlwind of activity, at times appearing to be manic depressive. She spends an inordinate amount of time cleaning the house and is bothered with the fact that they have no money despite a professor's salary. Terry's confrontation with Jack is anguishing and saddening to watch; Dern's face contorts in pain as Terry lives in the pain she experiences.

I was reminded throughout the movie how Ruffalo's performance reminded me a bit of his character from You Can Count on Me; with this, it's a more 'grown-up,' 'responsible' version of that character. Jack has the push/pull of going running with Hank while also smoking too before their runs. Jack goes off every chance to see Edith; as Terry points out, it's always for errands with Edith too, like getting beer or getting egg noodles. At some point, Jack is more sneaky about it - he bicycles off to Edith and Hank's house to see Edith, then bicycles back after having sex with Edith while Hank is asleep.

Despite Dern and Ruffalo's acting performances, Watts and Krause seem to be on a bit of the 'short end' with the writing for their characters. Edith seems to only be interested in having an affair with Jack; we never really gain insight into her character. Hank is more likely to pursue affairs with other women besides Terry; he makes a comment to one of his students that's passing by in the hallway and hits on the student during class about her assignment. Terry and Hank's affair is purely physical, while Jack and Edith have a more emotional connection. What's interesting is the fact that Jack and Edith knew their partners were cheating on them before it was told to them.

Towards the end of the movie, everything is revealed; yet Hank knew. Terry knew too. There's no big blowup between the couples; Jack and Hank talk and it ends with a shrug as Hank goes to the movies. Edith leaves with Sharon for Edith's mother. The movie leaves our characters with the realization, but no next step. Which I think is the point - it is not intended to learn of the aftermath, just the actions.

What I did like a lot with this movie is the usage of voiceover for quite a few of the scenes. There's also a scene earlier in the movie as Jack looks at his kids and his daughter says something that reminds him of something Terry said at a different point. I liked how they cast the children in the movie; the camerawork focuses a lot on characters' eyes in this. The child actors bear resemblances to the adult actors that are playing their parents in certain features.

We Don't Live Here Anymore isn't as famous as Closer, but it's equally good.

The Wizard of the Kremlin (saw at the theaters) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Showing The Wizard of the Kremlin at a Regal Mystery Movie / AMC Screen Unseen was probably not a good idea.

Let's be honest - the audiences at Regal or AMC aren't that intelligent. They can't understand a wordy, dialogue-filled movie like this. They don't fill up the theaters to see something like this. They're all going to see Michael or Project Hail Mary or the latest Angel Studios garbage. This would have been a movie that 20-50 years ago would have brought people in. At the screening I went to, I counted at least four people walking out, including an older guy on the same role as I with a baseball cap. One of the guys I talked to after the movie told me he didn't know who any of the people were and he fell asleep.

The fact is that the movie is about recent Russian history after the fall of the USSR, Reagan's Evil Empire. The fact that an American audience seemingly doesn't know any of the history or recognize Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) is a failure of the United States educational system. As Putin said in the movie, Russia didn't lose the Cold War, they just offered an olive branch. As one of the characters touring a bot farm said, they wanted the most idiotic. Congratulations, Regal/AMC audience. You're it.

The United States lost and are still losing. What is above illustrates that. Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

A lot of reviews on Letterboxd have wondered why everyone speaks in English and there's an earlier movie called The Death of Stalin where the actors in that did the same thing. It's almost poetic that this movie speaks to what The Death of Stalin did. Where that was a comedic farce that had everyone involved dying, this is a deadly serious drama. It's the Birth of Putin.

The thing is what happened in the movie as Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano) laid out to Rowland (Jeffrey Wright) is happening today with Donald Trump - Putin seized upon a weakness as Prime Minister and saw his drunk predecessor Boris Yeltsin (strapped to a chair) failing to give addresses to the Russian people. Two bombings happen and Putin vows to find the perpetrators. "If they're on the shitter, we'll find them on the shitter," he says. With saying that, Putin seizes upon his country's fear and pointed an enemy to them for the country to hate. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?).

As the movie progresses, it is not about Putin per se. It's more about Baranov and his placement in history and with the fall of USSR / early democratic efforts of Russia. The movie resembles a bit of Olivier Assayas' earlier movie Something in the Air, which is about a French youth hooking up with revolutionary causes and trying to find his place within them. Baranov is trying to find his place within similar causes and finds himself with the actors' academy where he meets Ksenia (Alicia Vikander) and Dmitri Sidorov (Tom Sturridge). Dmitri wins over Ksenia's heart because he's dangerous and exciting and Vadim is kinda boring.

After college, Baranov goes to work for a television station and for Boris Berezovsky (Will Keen) as the television station tries to prop up Yeltsin's campaign and manages to get him elected. The television station then turns to Putin, the Prime Minister. They try a similar campaign, but Putin really doesn't play along. The war efforts is the marketing campaign, he tells them. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?). Yeltsin resigns and hands Putin the presidency.

The conflict within the movie is with Baranov doing Putin's bidding and Boris Berezovsky finding himself exiled. It goes through the history - the re-elections of Putin with virtually no opposition running against him (I imagine the current President Trump wishes he could have something like this in 2028, Constitution be damned). The London Olympics with Russia hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. Baranov talking to the radical groups within the country and essentially convincing them to support Russia after receiving briefcases full of cash. Berezovsky hung himself. "I guess exile got to him," Putin muses. We all know the truth.

To be honest, the movie does run a bit dry. Everyone does seem a bit flat and unemotional in their line reading, maybe almost Robert Bresson-like to be fair. Which I think was Assayas' point; history for the people living in it isn't going to be the most exciting thing that results in emotional outbursts. Baranov thought he was doing the right thing until he found himself on the outside of Putin. He just didn't realize how far it would get him.

It gets Baranov shot in the back of the head at the end of the movie.

Compared to Olivier Assayas' previous movies, is this his best? No, not really. His previous English language movie Personal Shopper had a certain vibe to it and was geared for the arthouse crowd (like me). This is also geared for the arthouse crowd. Maybe if Regal and AMC actually showed arthouse cinema in their theaters, a movie like this would have brought a better audience.

But I guess, nope, no more arthouse cinema for the masses. Regal and AMC will double down on another musical biopic or a Blumhouse horror movie.

Watched Lemon Tree on Mubi (Safdie Brothers/Sean Baker-like short film) and We Will Always Be Here on Criterion Channel (documentary short film about East Austin). 

[J.T.]

On 5/1/2026 at 9:47 PM, Raziel said:

I can't tell you how disappointed I was when Sleeping Dogs came out and I saw it wasn't an adaption of the amazing 2012 Video Game.

I would love to see this but I can't bear to see 55 year old Will Yun Lee resort to using a stunt double for some of the action scenes because his knees suck. It would break my heart.

[Technico Support]

Ah yes, Disclosure.  The third (and least) in what the Rewatchables pod described as the "Michael Douglas' Dick Gets Him in Trouble Trilogy."