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+

Welcome to Me (2015)

In a nutshell: a mentally ill, compulsive, Oprah-obsessed Alice wins the lottery and decides to use her money to make a show about her life. The small production studio she approaches with this idea is on the verge of going under, so they agree to take her money and do what she wants, even though no one thinks it will work. Surprise: it actually works -- I think because most viewers think it's over-the-top satire rather than the disjointed whims of a weirdo with enough money to indulge them.

There were quite a few fun moments, but I mostly just felt sad about the entire situation. It felt closer to a Roald Dahl-type world than anything in reality.

C

We Live in Time (2024)

British man and woman meet cute, share a spark then a night then a day then a life together. But she has aggressive cancer, so it's unfortunately not a lifetime together. 

There's a lot to like here: the relationship feels real rather than magical. There are plenty of bumps in the road, like disagreements about children and career ambition getting in the way of plans made. The acting is extremely strong. But it's a story I've seen so many times before.

The decision to tell the story non-linearly seems intended to elevate it to something more than "tragic romance," but it had the opposite effect for me. Rather than going on an emotional journey, I felt like I was continuously reorienting myself.

C+

Apollo 13: Survival (2024)

Really well-done documentary using archived footage and recordings of the Apollo 13 mission. Despite knowing how this turned out, it was a nail-biter. Truly inspiring work by all involved: the calm heads and on-the-fly problem solving were incredible.

My one complaint would be that, although I appreciated getting the insight of how the Lovell family got through the waiting and praying for Jim's safe return, it felt like that portion of the story got farm more screen time than was necessary. I was more interested in the actual "thing" than the emotional impact for those on the ground.

B

The Skin of the Wolf (2018)

A trapper lives alone in an abandoned town high in the mountains. We don't get any backstory about why the town is empty nor how he came to be there. He gets paid per wolf pelt by the nearest inhabited town for keeping it safe from the predators. When it's suggested that he get married to relieve the loneliness, he agrees and pays a local businessman for his eldest daughter. Though they seem to be making a go of things, it's eventually disclosed that she's pregnant with another man's child and sickly. When the trapper angrily returns her body to the businessman, demanding repayment for the deceit, the businessman offers up his younger daughter. She is not nearly as companionable as her sister was.

The mood here is fantastic. You feel the solitude and the way that the wilderness can feel like a prison, especially without any let-up from the constant drudgery and lack of empathy from one's partner. But it wound up feeling so unnecessarily empty. Could they have "made it" if she'd been encouraged to attempt a true partnership? If she (or anyone) had helped him with social niceties and taught him how to be compassionate, could things have turned out better? I think that the fact that she had a "way out" provided by her father, she never really considered trying to make it work, but instead had the mindset that if it didn't get better on its own, she'd just make it stop.

Trigger warning for those with misophonia: mute any scene in which this guy is eating.

C+

Mothers' Instinct (2024)

In the 1960s, Céline and Alice are living parallel lives right next door to each other in an upper middle class suburb. They're both stay-at-home moms to their 8-year-old sons (who also happen to be best friends) and have suit-wearing husbands. They get together for dinner and throw parties for each other's birthdays.

When Céline's son dies in a fall that Alice is seconds too late to prevent, things get understandably dark. As Céline becomes more and more interested in spending time with Alice's son, Alice sees danger and worries about her son's safety. Is Alice giving in to paranoia bred of her own guilt? Or is she perceiving actual threat masquerading as depression?

This was a capable (though rather muted) thriller right up until the last act, when things get almost silly. 

C+