The Magician (2010)

Gary and I absolutely LOVE the show "Mr. Inbetween," so we looked up this faux-documentary that introduced the character more than a decade before the show debuted. 

It's gritty and funny -- just like the show -- but the character of Ray is less polished and in control of his feelings. I guess that's appropriate for a character that is now 15 years older than he would've been at the time this was shot. Basically, the show's better, but I think if I'd seen the movie first, I'd not have been disappointed and it couldn't suffer in comparison.

B

The Dig (2021)

A British landowner hires an excavator to dig into the mounds on her property. When he makes the find of a lifetime, the museums and government predictably swoop in to take control.

I was really enjoying this quiet story of two people determined to peek into the past and treat the finds with the respect deserved. But then the script shifted focus to a ridiculous pasted-on "love story" concerning a young archaeologist, her obviously gay husband, and the strapping cousin of the landowner. Just no.

C+

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Before it had even really begun -- right after the first words "If you must blink, do it now" were uttered -- I said to Gary "I already love it." I was crying within 10 minutes and enraptured throughout. It's just a beautifully constructed story with just the right amount of humor and compassion. 

My only critique is that Charlize Theron's voice work took me out of it both for its recognizability and her unnecessary notes of annoyance before her true identity is revealed.

A-

Rasputin and the Empress (1933)

Rasputin, a conman with the talent of persuasion, infiltrates the royal court of Russia as a spiritual guru. When he is able to "cure" the hemophiliac prince, he is allowed almost free rein and gets dangerously close to a coup.

There's a lot of heavy-handedness here, but it is compulsively watchable. The fact that the history is so recent makes it feel rather surreal.

C+

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)

Just a quiet, unsensational film about a small-town teenage girl in need of an abortion. The boys in her class taunt her as a "slut," her father is casually cruel, and her boss is a lecher who insists on kissing her hand with a disgusting amount of enthusiasm at the end of her shift. When she goes to a women's clinic in her town to get a pregnancy test, it turns out it's one of those places that only want to help you keep the baby -- though, I must say, I was happy that the women there were portrayed as gentle and kind. She and her cousin get on a bus to the city, but their quick trip turns into three days and they don't have money for that. 

It's heartbreaking to watch these children have to figure out their next move, especially when you consider that their substantial roadblocks aren't the worst ones in this country. At least they were just one state away from a place to legally get a second-trimester termination without parental consent and she was lucky enough to have a supportive friend with her. 

The best moments in the film, though, were those constant encounters with boys and men who think nothing of subjecting these girls to sexual advances. The film got it so right -- if you have girls and you aren't constantly talking to them about what's going on their life, you better start doing so immediately. Their world is filled with predators -- even "nice guy" ones.

A

Freaks (2019)

A young girl is being raised by her single father in isolation. She is taught that there is danger outside and that people are trying to kill her. They have a plan in case everything goes to shit -- she will take cash across the street and live with the family there. To this end, she is memorizing false details about her "life" so that she can fit in to normal society. But the ice cream man who's often parked right outside seems to have a plan of his own...

It took a while for me to understand what was going on. While sometimes that type of deliberate obfuscation can be frustrating, in this case it worked -- mainly because I didn't feel jerked around. But though it's well-told, it did feel derivative -- basically an X-Men type rip-off. Also, despite her young age, the actress in the lead is very very good.

B

Ravenous (2018)

This started off promising. We're dropped into the middle of a zombie apocalypse and watch different people (some alone, some with one or two others) navigate the new world. The dead often stand still, staring, only giving chase when noise breaks them out of their stupor. They've also stacked huge monuments composed of chairs, which is cool.

Until it isn't. Because nothing makes sense and there is no explanation given. The best part of this movie is a joke told early on: A man goes to the doctor for an examination. After a few minutes, the doctor tells him "You have to stop masturbating." "What? Why, Doctor?" "Because I'm trying to examine you."

D+

The Silencing (2020)

A master hunter now runs a wildlife sanctuary to honor his daughter who has been missing for years. When a body with an odd scar on her neck washes up nearby, he and the local authorities think they might be on to something.

Oh, this is bad. It must have made sense at some point, but I'm guessing editing excised major bits that would make sense of this bizarre plot. They never even bother explaining WHY these kidnapped girls are silenced (via vocal chord surgery). It's so dang dumb. And so is the sheriff.

D+

The Tenant (1976)

Trelkovsky is offered a small Paris apartment formerly occupied by a woman who threw herself out of the window. His neighbors are more difficult than most and he notices that people in the communal bathroom across the way often stand stock-still in there for long periods. By the time he finds a human tooth secreted in one of his walls, he's pretty much losing it.

It's a bizarre, but not unwatchable movie -- though the English dubbing tries its best to be offputting. The weirdest thing of all is that I never knew this film existed. Polanski is very good in the principal role and it's different enough that it seems logical for it to be well-known. As my sister said, "why isn't Polanski in drag one of the first image results when he's searched?" 

C+

Unsane (2018)

Sawyer has relocated to a new city to escape a stalker. She visits a counselor to talk things out and signs some "boilerplate" paperwork that turns out to actually be commitment consent forms. So, that could've been cool and interesting -- an insurance scam perpetrated by a psychiatric hospital -- but, unfortunately, that wasn't all there was to this movie. It's a stupid, insulting mess. I have no idea why we kept watching this pile of garbage.

F

Remember Me (2010)

A girl witnesses the murder of her mother. Flash forward a decade and we're in the year 2001 and the girl is in college. A guy whose older brother committed suicide years ago has distanced himself from his wealthy family. The two meet and fall for each other and whatever. There seemed to be no reason to tell this unremarkable story nor any reason to set it in 2001. Which... come to think of it... is a sort of big year, right?

When the couple takes a short trip for Labor Day weekend, I was starting to roll my eyes because I finally got what this was. And, yes, it's true that most lives that got snuffed on 9/11 weren't huge ones. But it felt pretty manipulative to use such a tragedy to give this story importance. I don't think it worked.

C

Morning Glory (2010)

After being let go from her previous producer gig, the only employment Becky can find is as an EP on the lowest-rated national morning news program. She impresses the staff immediately but finds herself with an almost impossible challenge when she brings a celebrated but curmudgeonly newsman to her "fluffy" morning show.

This could've been great if it had embraced the "show don't tell" philosophy. If there had been a few approving glances, for example, we would've understood how valued Becky was. The same goes for her romance -- at the end of the movie she tells him he was the first person she wanted to tell her big news to, and I didn't even realize they'd made it past the casual sex phase. Basically, the movie needed about 8 more minutes to let some of the relationships breathe a little bit so we could see their depths. As it stood, this is fun, when it had the potential to be fun and moving (like a bran donut).

B