The High and the Mighty 1954 John Wayne, Robert Stack
It’s easy to forget that Wayne made several good non-Western films. It wasn’t only the costumes and sets that changed. Wayne played more complex characters.
“Former captain Dan Roman, the flight’s veteran first officer, known for his habit of whistling, is haunted by an air crash that killed his wife and son and left him with a permanent limp.”
I enjoyed the movie. The film was heavily damaged and required several years of restoration. The print on Prime is excellent.
Fans of Airplane! will recognize several characters and scenes. They borrowed heavily from the The High and Mighty.
Several disaster films from the 1970’s were inspired by this film.
I watched Greenland after all the positive reviews here. And it was exactly as described. It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s a well-done version of the cheesy disaster flick genre.
Jurassic World: Rebirth. It’s 5.9 on IMDb, which seems unduly harsh…I’d say 6.4…6.5. One of the main complaints is that it takes every beat from the three first films, adds Jaws, and shakes them all into one movie. And that’s true. But it’s fine. And look at Mahershala and Scarlett acting their lovely hearts out.
Next up in Best First Feature: East of Wall. Let’s start with, I liked this a lot; it’s a different kind of film, and very much in the vein of what’s called slow cinema. There’s a plotline, but there’s also a lot of conversations and reflective moments.
Background: indie film maker Kate Beecroft (see quote below) found a woman who ran a ranch where a lot of troubled kids wash up. She lived with them for three years & eventually developed a script about them based on real events and decided that if she wanted to make a movie about people comfortable around horses, she’d cast some of them with themselves and put some professional actors around them. That makes all the horse scenes (barrel racing, flat out galloping) intense and wonderful. And the amateur actors are pretty good.
About as opposite from Dust Bunny as it could be, and recommended.
KATE BEECROFT: I was driving around the U.S. This would have been maybe 5 1/2 years ago at this point. And we were just trying to find stories, faces we haven’t really seen for maybe a short film or whatnot. And then we took a wrong turn when we were lost, and we landed in a tiny town in South Dakota called Oelrichs. And I met a woman there. And she said, if you want a really amazing story, head east of Wall and try to find a woman named Tabatha. And that’s what I did. And I found Tabatha and her amazing group of teenagers who live out there with her. And I lived with them for three years in order for me to learn everything I could about them before I even started filming this movie.
Two nights ago I watched If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. It’s about a woman caring for a daughter with an unspecified but serious illness. As the movie goes on, the woman’s life gets more and more stressful and chaotic. At points it becomes surreal, raising questions about how much you see is actually happening. It stars Rose Byrne, and also has Conan O’Brien in a non-comedic role. I liked it but didn’t love it. Some of it felt a bit forced, and though most of the acting was good, the acting by the daughter was pretty poor, IMO. But overall I give it a thumbs up.
Last night I watched On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. In this Zambian film by director Rungano Nyoni, a woman discovers her uncle’s dead body in the middle of a road. The death and funeral that follows uncover long-buried family trauma. The film is mainly about how the family members deal with that trauma, and don’t deal with it. I found some of the actions and attitudes surprising (and sometimes infuriating), partly because it’s set in a culture I know little about. I really liked this one, and plan to watch more by the same director. The critics love it (100% Tomatometer), while audiences don’t (66% Popcornmeter). I’m firmly with the critics.
BTW, imdb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Amazon all describe On Becoming a Guinea Fowl as a comedy. It’s not. There are a couple of funny moments in there, but it’s a heavy drama.
Dario Argento produced. A bunch of teens(?), who look much older, are invited to a preview in the movie theater. They turn into demons and fight off demons. Practical effects are great, including the demons and so forth. Neat.
Demons 2 (1987)
Somewhat recommended.
Better than the first one by quite a bit, but still not enough to really recommend it. This one is in an apartment building and that gives the characters and demons more room to move around. Effects are even better in this one and we get a very early appearance of Asia Argento, Dario’s son and famous actress. Unfortunately, she’s not a great kid actress, though this is her very first movie. Anyway, pretty good fun.
The Church (1989)
Recommended…barely.
At one point, this was Demons 3, but was changed into its own movie with no connection. It is definitely the best of the bunch and its budget looks almost doubled. Asia Argento is in this one as well, but I get a kind of creepy vibe as she is only a young teen and movie tries, at least briefly, to have her dress up sexy and so forth. Even creepier since her dad produced it. Unpleasant.
That is two minutes in a much longer movie and the movie is pretty solid aside from that.
Another day, another Film Independent Spirit nominee screener, this one for editing.
The Testament of Ann Lee. A fairly faithful (heh) imagining of Ann Lee’s founding of Shakerism (“United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing”), led by Amanda Seyfried. Not strictly a musical as some define it; the bursts of song are often Shaker hymns, sometimes modernized, but don’t narrate or advance the plot. Still, there’s so much music and dance in it that someone can argue that.
Anyway, my wife (who is religious) loved it, I thought it was okay. Fundamentally I was less interested in Lee’s journey, though paradoxically I became a lot more curious about Shakerism, especially because it was briefly strong here in New England.
The editing was terrific, most notably in the dancing, and I’ll keep that in mind when voting.
KPop Demon Hunters (2025). A bit late to this one for this year, but having some time I finally took the time to watch it. The visual style from Sony Pictures Animation is one that is reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which I liked so having much of the same aesthetic was something I very much enjoyed. Although I do not listen (or watch) k-pop in general, I had enough understanding to get into some of the broad cultural strokes of the movie and enjoyed how they played into it.
The story itself was, although coming from a fantastical premise, one that I felt was impactful and resonated with me. In the same way Turning Red examined certain cultural norms, this film does the same though looking at a different situation. Although I feel the action scenes certainly overshadowed the more introspective content, it was still in general a good mix. I enjoyed the music as well and liked how they made it be an integral part of the story rather than something that just happened because someone happened to have an emotional moment that required it.
On the whole an enjoyable film that surprised me as to what theme it treated in the end. I only knew about it from the song perspective and basic premise and enjoyed finding something more than just a visual and auditory spectacle.
Whaaaat? I had a lot higher hopes and expectations for this and boy did it let me down. This was at best an average movie and I think actually a bit below average. We are…supposed to hate Marty? I know I kind of did.
If this movie had a point or theme, I missed it. I just found myself not enjoying the self-centered, immature antics of the Marty character.
I’m not sure why this is getting such acclaim. I did not have an enjoyable experience at all.
I expressed my dislike for this film in post #4150. It tried make me root for a character that doesn’t deserve my sympathy and pretends there is redemption in a mere act of belated human decency that exacted no real sacrifice. The acting was fine, but the direction, cinematography, and especially the script annoyed the Hell out of me.
The Ghost Writer (2010). Also known as The Ghost. This was one of those films that was all the more enjoyable because I went in completely blind, having no idea what it was about or even who was in it. So I’ll give you the opportunity to enjoy it the same way if you don’t know anything about it, and I recommend doing just that.
I’ll just say that while slow-moving at times, it’s a pretty fine mystery/thriller. As to who’s in it, it stars Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, and Olivia Williams. Some might be put off by the fact that it was directed by Roman Polanski (who was also co-writer with Robert Harris), but this comes down to being able to separate one’s opinion of an artist’s character from appreciation for his art.
Train Dreams (Netflix). The life of a logger in the Pacific Northwest in the early 20th century. Just a beautiful film, in a beautiful locale, beautifully shot. See it.
I watched Cleaner last night on Max. A radical environmental group takes a bunch of rich-folk hostage inside a high-rise and demands justice, but one woman saves the day. A tired premise which has been previously used with much more success.
Not recommended, although there are some decent action sequences.
I couldn’t agree more. A quiet, subtle performance by Joel Edgerton, leading an excellent cast. I was in a somewhat melancholy mood when I saw it and it touched me deeply. Not for all tastes but well worth your time.
