Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale had a sort of funny bit; after Lord Grantham sold Grantham House, his London mansion, to fund repairs to Downton Abbey, he looks into buying an apartment. He is shocked to learn that the bedrooms are on the same level as the drawing rooms and that other people will be living above and below them.
Plus there was sort of a callback to Julian Fellowes’ previous film Gosford Park; Noel Coward attends a dinner party at Downton Abbey, much like Ivor Novello attended a party at Gosford Park.
Another Herzog documentary and it contains about two great moments and a bunch of pretty good “drone” footage(actually helicopter filmed).
It’s the Kuwait Oil being ignited and burning freely around 1992 or so. Sadly, 30-40 minutes of this film is just footage of the burning.
One sequence, though, is great. Herzog speaks to a woman who lost everything. She does not like speaking any more and struggles to even function after thee shock she has experienced.
Later, he speaks to a family with a little boy who became fully selectively mute. He used to speak, but after the war, just decided that is it and won’t speak again.
A good movie, but a weaker Herzog doc. Only 50 minutes, thank goodness.
The ending where they ignite a bunch more oile wells…is disturbing.
A companion pieces to Grizzly Man. Both docs are about people who are obsessed with getting close to something in Nature that is dangerous.
Tim Treadwell go closed to Grizzly Bears, and was killed because of it. The Kraffts, a husband and wife, were obsessed with volcanoes…and both were killed instantly by rogue pyroclastic flow.
Using a ton of their footage, Herzog and his editor put together a great film. You can see the Kraffts when they were younger and cautious…and when they were “older”(40s) and were being downright crazy with their risks.
We owe a tremendous amount to one lone Japanese camera man who was near their death site at the time of the tragedy. He was, thankfully, able to film and run away from the volcano and its near invisible pyroclastic flow. He survived, and we even get to see the Kraffts in probably their final moment.
Were the Kraffts insane? Did Mr. Krafft push his wife to take greater risks? Why so obsessed with volcanoes? Did they love each other?
Tons of questions. Few answers.
Herzog both admires and looks down on people so obsessed with danger. It should be pointed out that it is possible the Kraffts gave advice to Japanese reporters/photographers and got them all killed as well. Many Japanese people were killed due to being in the same spot the Kraffts were. The Japanese likely figured these two knew what they were doing, but alas, no.
Great film, one of Herzog’s best docs. Watch this and Grizzly Man and you will see so many similarities.
Her starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Spike Jonz.
The premise is a guy who falls in love with a sentient AI, but it’s not really a movie about AI. It’s a movie about the main character moving from a sort of selfish attitude toward relationships to a more enlightened one. It does gently explore some ideas about the implications of machine consciousness. In some ways, such as the prediction that people would get emotionally attached to their AI, it seemed rather prescient.
Interesting movie. It was a sentimental and gentle story but there were parts of it that felt Kauffman-esque in their absurdity.
Sentimental Value (2025). A complex and deeply nuanced drama that’s actually not easy to describe. I thought it was going to be about generations of life and death in the house that two sisters grew up in, but it turned into something quite different, although the house is important.
I’ll try to give a flavour for it without any spoilers. The focus is on the life of two sisters, and one in particular, Nora, who is a stage actress and leads a troubled and unhappy life. The father, an aging film director, leaves after his divorce and becomes estranged from the girls, then later seeks to reconcile. He gives Nora a script that he wrote for his next film, telling her that he wrote it just for her. She turns down the role and refuses to take the script, forcing the father to hire a Hollywood actress for the role, who becomes entangled in the complex family relationships as events unfold.
This movie won the Grand Prix at Cannes and snagged 9 Oscar nominations this year, including Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, two different nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, and Best Original Script. Mostly in Norwegian but with some English scenes, as all the actors are fluent in English. Very sweet, moving performance by Renate Reinsve as Nora.
Flight of the Phoenix 2004 Dennis Quaid, Miranda Otto, Hugh Laurie
Remake of the 1965, James Stewart movie.
They updated a few things, but generally stayed true to the original movie.
A twin engine passenger/cargo plane crashes in the desert. Many of the passengers are construction crew workers leaving for a work holiday.The cargo includes a generator, work lights, tools and equipment.
The airplane is cut apart and reconfigured as a single beam airplane. It’s hoped the make-shift plane will get them to safety.
I prefer the original. But, the remake is pretty good. It’s a version that todays audience is more likely to watch.
Small correction – not “Best Actor”, since the critics apparently believed the film had no male actor in a leading role, but rather, a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Stellan Skarsgard. In my view he was significant enough that it should have been considered a leading role.
Neon campaigned for him as Best Supporting; that doesn’t make it right, but it’s part of that awards-season calculus that distributors do every year. As a result, he has been nominated for 26 different awards as ‘supporting’.
Every once in a while nominations go against the studio or distributor For Your Consideration campaign, but it’s rare.
Word on Westerns interview Steve Carver. The producer and director of Lone Wolf McQuade.
Chuck and David disliked each other. Steve Carver says they didn’t talk or discuss the fight choreography between shots. I think that’s why it doesn’t come across well on screen.
Oh, it worked for me. The scene where Brandon Frye (the detective) was talking with “The Pin” in his kitchen and his mother brings him a glass of cold milk was hilarious. When you are a kid everything can be very serious, particularly the death of an unsolved high school ex. LA Noir and a modern high school should not work together, that they do is just art on screen.
This comment makes me think (and maybe I’m stating the blindingly obvious that everyone else already understood), the movie (Brick) is from the perspective of an unreliable narrator. The kids see themselves as hard-boiled detectives dealing with the crime of the century. It’s not supposed to represent what’s actually happening, it’s showing how they see themselves.
Somewhat relatedly, when I first watched the opening episode of the TV show Derry Girls, I thought it was funny, but a bit contrived and very over the top. Then I realized that the whole thing is told from the perspective of teenagers, for whom everything is heightened and for whom trivial (to adults) things are critically important. Once I understood this perspective, I dropped into that world and thoroughly loved the rest of the series.
That brings something to mind I hadn’t considered. If it’s to be viewed as coming from more of a subjective point of view (with an unreliable narrator, at least in that regard), maybe it works better than I was giving it credit for. I’d want to watch it again with that in mind, though, before settling on that viewpoint.
I maintain that the only way the film Thor: Love and Thunder works is if it’s being presented by an unreliable narrator in the form of Korg. If that wasn’t the intent, then it’s just a terrible film.
Bugonia (2025) Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons
I really enjoyed this one. A bit sad & disturbing but not to the point of making me never want to watch it again. In fact, I’d say a second watch-through is almost needed to appreciate the genius-level acting by the leads.
