Deep Water (2022)

Rich, retired tech guy is married to a shameless cheater. But man is she hot, so he puts up with it. Or does he? I mean, it's pretty weird that her boyfriends keep disappearing or winding up dead.

Whatever. If this movie went a little further, a little more camp, it could've been hilariously bad, turning it into a guilty pleasure. Instead, it's just terrible.

D-

Dark Eyes (1987)

aka: Oci Ciornie

An older Italian man shares his story of love and loss over a drink with an older Russian man, so most of the story is in flashback. And it's one of those movies where there's a lot of ridiculous behavior and loudness and selfishness and blech. I was bored and annoyed.

D

Fast Color (2019)

The earth hasn't had rain in eight years, so there's no running water and what's available costs dearly. A woman with the ability/curse to cause earthquakes whether she wants to or not is being sought by the government. Her mother and daughter live on a remote farm and also have abilities -- but on a much smaller scale. There's some weird after-effect to using the ability that causes streaks of color... for no other apparent reason other than for there to be a cool effect.

Boy. This is one stupid movie. Once the young woman figures out how to harness her abilities, she "takes apart the sky," which causes a downpour. The response of the authorities is to pull firearms on her. But why? Are they gonna kill the person who made it rain? So fucking dumb. A huge waste of time.

F

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)

I have said -- often -- that Nicolas Cage is one of the best actors in history and certainly the best of his generation. His full commitment to even the most ridiculous of his roles makes it incredibly hard to fault him. What a joy to see him in the absolute perfect role. Cage, Pascal, and Sharon Horgan are all wonderful. The packed theater laughed so hard at times that it was impossible to hear all of the lines -- I cannot wait to watch it again so I can catch everything. 

The couple of complaints I have feel absolutely inconsequential in the face of the brilliant meta of the movie, but I'll mention them for funsies: 1) no way should Tiffany Haddish's agent ever have made it into the field and 2) the conclusion of Ike Barinholtz's agent's story should've been on-screen.

Now I gotta go and re-watch Paddington 2.

B+

Murder Most Foul (1965)

Miss Marple forces a hung jury by being the single juror to have enough reasonable doubt about the accused. The suspect was found in the same room with a hanged woman, fiddling with the rope. Before the next trial can be scheduled, she's off to solve the crime by going undercover as a thespian with a small theater troupe in which the deceased had particular interest.

It's a very slight -- and occasionally silly -- little mystery.

B-

The Last Letter from Your Lover (2021)

A present-day journalist doing research stumbles across a misfiled love letter that piques her interest. With the help of a smitten archive clerk, she locates more and begins to piece together who the people are and what became of them. At the same time, we follow the letters' writer and subject in the '60s, when they were falling in love.

If either of the couples had a spark of heat between them, it would've helped immensely. As written, though, it's a couple of tepid affairs in different worlds and times.

C-

David Brent: Life on the Road (2017)

After "The Office," David Brent gets a job as a cleaning-products salesman, but dreams of being signed by a record producer. To that end, he hires a band, rents a tour bus, books half a dozen gigs, and takes a few weeks off work to hit the road.

It's sometimes humorous, but mostly cringey -- just like all of the scenes in The Office which focused on him. It's like an all-David Brent extended episode and that's just too much of him.

C

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

A salesman, singer, priest, and young woman all check into the El Royale -- a past-its-prime hotel that straddles the border between California and Nevada. Most of the guests are not who they seem to be and even the hotel's single employee has secrets. I was having a great time with this film. The shifting timelines and perspectives worked wonderfully to keep me guessing, but not to the point of frustration.

But the big climax was a letdown. It felt like something I'd seen hundreds of times before: one scary dude holds sway over a handful of people who do his bidding without question. Yawn.

B

Come Sunday (2018)

Carlton Pearson is a star in the Pentecostal world. He's a charismatic black preacher who led a megachurch of blended ethnicities: blacks and whites worshiping together. But, when he reveals his controversial new belief that God isn't sending anyone to hell, his star quickly wanes.

I first heard about Pearson on This American Life and was moved by his story but, unfortunately, this movie does not resonate in the same way. A bigger focus on the "before" could've helped us feel the full impact of the "after." 

C+

Lansky (2021)

Meyer Lansky, one of the main figures in American gambling, decides it's time to tell his story. He contacts a writer and spends several weeks reminiscing, on the condition that the story won't be told until after Lansky's death.

It's just boring. Sam Worthington as the writer is boring. The agents trying to find Lansky's money are boring. The writer's love interest story line is boring. Even flashbacks to gang hits -- one of which involves graphic eye gouging -- are boring. 

C-

Whirlpool (1950)

The wife of a well-known psychoanalyst is caught shoplifting, but she is "rescued" by a man who talks her out of the situation. Soon, she's meeting him for sessions to cure her of her kleptomania. Little does she know that he has another agenda...

This could've been a tense ride, but it had a major issue standing in its way: Gene Tierney is just a pretty blank. She plays her part more like an 8-year-old in a grown-up body than as a woman who can speak for herself.

C

Hustlers (2019)

Strippers at a higher-end club are living large until the recession hits. After a couple of years of scraping by, they hit on a scheme to bilk marks out of thousands.

Though the early scenes in the heyday of the club were sloppy, they were fun and lively at least. Once the second part started, all life drained out of the movie. It felt like the same thing over and over and I was simply bored.

C

Seberg (2019)

This story digs into the time that the FBI kept actress Jean Seberg under surveillance for her support of civil rights organizations like the Black Panthers. To her credit, she refuses to back down, but that doesn't mean that the constant scrutiny and personal attacks didn't take a horrible toll on her health.

Prior to this, the only thing I knew about Seberg was her haircut, but Kristen Stewart really brought her to life for me. She's dauntless, fragile and inspiring. The story, however, is a little too black and white and the crisis of conscious experienced by one of the agents felt too obviously manufactured.

B-

No Time to Die (2021)

Bio-weapon that can target specific DNA must be stopped and Bond's the guy for it, even though he has to come out of retirement to do so.

It's a good installment that feels somewhat smaller than Craig's others. The chase sequence in the first scene is truly amazing, though. I felt some of the landings physically.

B-

The Bubble (2022)

At the height of the pandemic, the cast of the long-running "Cliff Beasts" franchise quarantine together while shooting the latest installment.

This film suffers from bad timing. In real life, the "bubble" portion of the pandemic is past since most of the population has been vaccinated at this point. But the "hole up" days are not so long ago that there's a sense of nostalgia about them. Maybe it wouldn't really matter if this film had been released a year ago or in five years since the humor is, at best, mild.

C-

Fresh (2022)

Just as Noa is getting fed up with the subpar dates she's finding on the apps, she meets Steve in a grocery store and decides to take a chance on him. After a few pretty great dates, they go away for the weekend. And that's when this film takes a seriously hard turn.

It was one of those "what the hell would I do in that situation" movies and Noa is probably the best surrogate I could hope for in that regard. She made smart moves and I would up rather satisfied with the outcome.

B

A Guy Named Joe (1944)

Hot shot bomber pilot is always pissing off his commanding officer and disappointing the woman who's desperately in love with him. He does what he wants without much regard for anyone else. Once he's killed in combat, he still has a chance to redeem himself as an angelic guide for other pilots.

I'm not really sure what to think of this movie. It wasn't until the very end -- like the last 10 minutes or so -- that I started to like Spencer Tracy's character. And, since he's in every single scene, that's a long time to wait. Good idea and sweet resolution, but too much annoyance in between. One scene, however, was such a beautiful standalone example of everything that's good in humans that I will likely remember it for the rest of my life...

C+