Monkey Business (1952)

A scientist (Cary Grant) is working to find a "fountain of youth"-type solution. When one of the test subject chimpanzees gets out of her cage and mixes up an extremely effective formula then dumps it in the lab's water cooler, things get a little out of hand.

I say "a little" because it's apparent that this is supposed to be a zany, fast-moving laugh-riot with Grant and Ginger Rogers as wife taking turns behaving like a 20-year-old and a child respectively. Though there were a couple of silly moments, it was, for the most part, terribly mild.

D

Ten Little Indians (1966)

Ten people are gathered together at a remote mountain-top mansion at the invitation (or hiring) of a man none of them have ever met. After each is accused of a crime via record player, the group is understandably on edge. But once one of them dies by poison, they realize that they are all in danger.

This is effective while managing to retain a light tone. It's a fun watch.

B+

Torn Curtain (1966)

Paul Newman plays a scientist who pretends to defect to East Berlin, but is actually spying to gain weapons intelligence. Too bad he didn't fill his fiancé in on this plan... if he had, most of what follows could've been avoided. And, my goodness, I would've loved to avoided this movie because it's overlong and deadly dull.

D+

The Clovehitch Killer (2018)

Tyler -- nice kid who's into scouting (his dad's his troop leader) and church -- happens to be growing up in a town with dark memories of murder. Ten women had been tortured and killed by a perpetrator with a signature knot. Even though the murders stopped a decade ago, the town hasn't stopped with memorials in their honor, so every kid in town knows about the murders. When Tyler finds some torture porn he's pretty sure belongs to his father, he starts to wonder.

This is not a good movie. It's loosely based on BTK, but all of the terror has gone out of things, perhaps because our guides are two teenagers who never seem to be terrified. Also, Dylan McDermott as the suspect is somehow non-threatening, even when he's literally torturing someone. 

C-

Gideon's Daughter (2006)

Bill Nighy (the only reason I watched this) is a high-profile PR expert -- in high demand with just about everyone except his high-school daughter. Miranda Richardson is a mother pressuring for action after her son's preventable road-accident death. They meet and start a relationship, which causes him to rethink his life choices.

It's fine, but nothing that's going to stick with me long-term.

C+

Stop Making Sense (1984)

I absolutely loved American Utopia, so of course I was going to see this earlier concert film. I'm glad to report that Byrne has always been exactly who he is -- no embarrassment over being silly, even when he was younger. And the music is really really good. It just made me want to see something live again.

B

Anesthesia (2016)

This is one of those "intersecting stories" deals where everyone's supremely unhappy with the exception of one couple... so, of course, tragedy's gonna strike to make sure they aren't happy either. There's a college-age cutter, a perpetually drunk wife with a cheating husband, a successful lawyer trying to get his old friend into rehab, a sick woman, etc. etc. It's a misery fest without purpose.

D+

Julia's Eyes (2011)

Julia, who is losing her sight, finds out that her sister Sara, already blind, has hanged herself. While digging into what happened, Julia discovers that there was a man in her sister's life, but most people couldn't quite remember him.

I wanted to be pulled in by this movie. It was spooky and reminded me a bit of "Wait Until Dark." But the plot device of a man who is never noticed, except by the blind, was just too ridiculous.

C 

How to Build a Girl (2020)

Johanna is a hormone-filled teen with writerly ambitions. Though her family isn't blessed financially, it's clearly a home filled with love, even though Mom is obviously suffering some depression since the recent birth of her twins. When an opportunity to submit a sample to score a gig as a music critic pops up, Johanna seizes it and is soon writing reviews.

This is a lovely film that made me think that all girls between the ages of 12 and 18 could benefit from viewing it. Johanna rises to the top, messes up, hurts people, gets hurt, and yet can still choose her future. Like all of us. The movie also tackles the harsh truth that family can be both your support system and a disappointment -- people are so many things and we've got to give each other a break.

And man -- I've never found Alfie Allen to be anywhere near attractive, but this movie could've made 16-year-old me fall deeply in love. 

B+

The Block Island Sound (2021)

Sea life is washing up dead on the shores of Block Island, which prompts a scientist to head to her hometown with her daughter to see what's up. Since her dad and brother share a house there, she stays with them. It soon becomes obvious that her Dad isn't behaving normally.

Great set-up, but just boring and annoying execution. Also, the lead actress always looked like she was half-smiling, which took some of the heat out of her frustrated speeches.

D

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)

Sam (Karen Gillan) is following in her absent mother's footsteps as a gun for hire. On her most recent job, one of the bodies left behind was the son of someone with the ability to enact vengeance for his death. With an orphan in tow, Sam makes her way to the three women her mother trusted most.

The vibe here is Baby Driver -- hyper-stylized and dangerous, but with a dash of fun. The problem is Gillan, who seems too focused on keeping emotion off her face and any trace of accent out of her voice to be in any way effective as a sympathetic character. But man -- the fight scene while her arms were "dead" was fantastic.

C-

Host (2020)

A group of friends gets together over zoom for a seance. Though the medium reminds them to take it seriously one, of course, just can't stop from goofing around a bit and this has devastating results. Though it's no masterpiece, it is effective and extremely clever -- especially for a "pandemic"-themed script. It also runs just under an hour because they didn't spring for the premium zoom package & the call had a time limit. That was a fun touch.  

B-

The Jazz Singer (1928)

The son of a devout Jewish Cantor is uninterested in following in his father's footsteps. Instead, he spends time at the local juke joint entertaining the patrons with secular songs and antics. When his father finds out, there's an ultimatum thrown which results in "Jakie" leaving home and his father declaring that he no longer has a son. Soon Jakie has refashioned himself as Jack Robin -- a rising star. But he still misses his dear ol' ma...

This is boring, barely sketched, trash. I'm fairly certain that the only reason it's remembered at all is because of its legacy as the first talkie. But Jack's singing is not even that good -- I found it and his accompanying performances to be cringey. 

D

Midnight Sky (2020)

The world has become uninhabitable, so the population is heading underground. One scientist decides to remain alone at an Arctic research station in hope of contacting and preventing a crew on its way back from a multi-year mission in space from returning to Earth. He soon discovers a small girl left behind at the station and she gives him the drive he needs to keep going. We also spend time with the astronaut crew excitedly on its way home, not realizing that there's very little to come back to.

I appreciated the performances and pacing, but wasn't a huge fan of the emotional manipulation.

B-

The End of the Tour (2015)

David Foster Wallace is finishing up a book tour for Infinite Jest and agrees to have David Lipsky -- a reporter for Rolling Stone -- spend the last leg with him. This film was recommended to me more than 5 years ago, but the recommendation contained the sentence, "Nothing happens in this movie," which didn't exactly put it at the top of my to-see list. But I'm glad I finally got around to it. Though there are no big scenes, this felt like an honest glimpse. 

Wallace and Lipsky are two writers who, under different circumstances could've been true friends. They just hang out, doing mundane things like going to the movies and to the mall and shooting the shit. I especially enjoyed the way that Wallace opened his messy home to Lipsky -- sharing his last pop-tart and setting him up with a mattress on the floor in a spare room the dogs insist on being able to enter whenever they want. 

Jason Segel as Wallace did a surprisingly great job. He was eager and guarded and protective and petulant. He was a real person who seemed to sometimes forget the reporter/subject relationship, getting his feelings hurt when Lipsky wanted to lightly pump his friends for stories. Though it's true that nothing spectacular happens, that's kind of what makes this story so special.

B+

Freaks (1932)

A tight-knit group of circus performers fall in and out of bed with each other. But, when a trapeze artist starts making a fool of a sincere midget in order to get his inheritance, the rest of the "freaks" decide to take action.

Most of the players were cast for their physicality rather than their acting ability, but that doesn't hurt things at all -- I wonder if that's because so many of them had likely been performing most of their lives by this point? Also, though it runs barely over an hour, there's a lot of depth here. You forget about the initial shock of watching a woman with no arms sew, smoke, and eat with her feet, for example, and begin to feel protective of them: indignant that anyone would deliberately treat them unkindly.

B