Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Gary and I saw this during its initial run and I remember laughing so hard that I nearly fell out of my seat. Was it mass hysteria? Was I feeding off the crowd and they from me? It's definitely still charming and earns a few chuckles, but the jokes now feel rather obvious. Perhaps it's just been copied to death and simply cannot evoke the surprised belly laughs it once did.

Two things have not changed: the way that the reading of W.H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" gets the tears flowing every single time and the wretchedness of MacDowell's acting.

B

The Incident (1967)

A couple of thugs are looking for trouble in late night New York when they hop on a subway train with more than a dozen other passengers, one of whom is a bum sleeping it off. They start by messing around with the bum but turn their attentions on the other riders, terrorizing each in turn. It's a nasty little movie that took me forever to finish because of how distasteful it all was. Not only were the hoodlums behaving hideously, but the "keep your head down" mentality of the riders was just as repugnant. As long as they weren't the ones in the spotlight, most didn't want to help or engage.

The one scene that I thought actually worked was when it was the black man's turn to be put on the spot. He'd actually decided, despite his wife's objections, to remain on the train past their stop because he wanted "to see this," thinking that he would be protected because he considered himself on the side of the ruffians -- having no love for whites, he conveyed with a smile that anything they wanted to do to the other passengers was just fine by him: "you want to knock heads together, go ahead!" But his enjoyment turned to fear and anger as he realized he was just another target for them. It reminded me so strongly of those who think they're on Team Trump... sure, it might be fun watching the left freaking out. You might be eager to see aliens ejected because "they shouldn't have been here in the first place." But Trumpers aren't special and will also eventually also be hurt in ways that are both tragic and predictable. Just because they aren't first in line for trauma doesn't mean it isn't coming for them -- there's no "team" when it comes to bulles: there are only potential victims.

C-

Meru (2015)

I don't understand mountain climbing. I mean, I appreciate John Krakauer doing his damndest to explain it as a talking head here, but the truth is that I don't want to understand it. To me, it's like trying to understand self-flagellation. The thought of exhaustedly standing atop a mountain, finally having achieved a near impossible goal, and then having to GET BACK DOWN? No thank you.

This film, for me, only explains myopic obsession. A team of three attempts a never-done-before climb and doesn't achieve the summit. It's a horrible experience, leaving one (Renan) disillusioned with his team and another certain he'll never return. But, years later, after Renan stages a stunning recovery from a devastating skiing accident, the team decides to try again despite warnings that he could suffer a stroke in the attempt. Why would the other two agree to this? Reckless obsession is my only answer to that.

But wow. That shot of them sitting on that teeny tiny ridge together? Thrilling. I admit it.

C+

Freaky Tales (2025)

This grabbed us minutes in, but I still can't really tell you what it's about other than the whole vibe of the '80s: it's shoulder pads, punk, early rap, video stores, bright colors and attitude. This is an anthology -- moving around a handful of stories -- none of which really get the time to fully shine. We get interested in the patrons of a punk club deciding to fight the skinheads who make their lives miserable before shifting to a female rap duo trying to break out, which then shifts to something else. Luckily, the stories all held attention, but none managed to ever feel "complete."

Great time, but it's a high that doesn't last past the credits.

B-

Aporia (2023)

Since Malcolm's accidental death, his widow Sophie and their daughter have been so overtaken by grief that when his best friend tells her of a machine that could get Malcolm back to them, it's an immediate lifeline for her and she insists they try to use it. Though this machine can't send a person back in time, it is strong enough to hit a target with a "bullet" of energy, assuming you know exactly where the target was at a certain time. Theoretically.

Even though time travel has been done dozens of times before, this story found a new idea to explore. No one goes anywhere new or repeats any days -- instead, reality itself shifts around its inhabitants. The exception to this reality shift is that the person/people in the room with the machine only remember the "original" timeline, having to play catch-up with the new reality everyone else has lived. 

Judy Greer made me feel the weight of the unintended consequences and the guilt that goes along with them. It's a real "what would I do" story and, in the end, I was so satisfied with their answer to that question.

B+