weekend watchlist: a timely cure for collective cultural amnesia
Plus drone warfare, murder most genteel, and more. (First published May 7th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Emily Watson
The Happy Prince movie review: in the gutter, looking at the stars
Writer, director, and star Rupert Everett’s labor of cinematic love, about the last years of Oscar Wilde, is a small wonder of contradictions: nightmarish yet sanguine, a bit sordid yet full of grace.
On Chesil Beach movie review: no sex, please, we’re British
This stilted, utterly implausible film manages the astonishing feat of being both histrionic and monotonous at the same time, trolling us with absurd clichés, yet doing so with a quiet solemnity.
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri May 18
Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen read a book.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Fri May 18
Saoirse Ronan has trouble on her honeymoon; Laetitia Dosch has trouble with everything; plus, documentaries about women navigating personal and political strife.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Thu Mar 01
Documentaries by Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Jen Randall, a drama by Saila Kariat, and more.
PBS ‘Frontline’ and BBC ‘Panorama’ take on Harvey Weinstein
A good primer on the rapid unraveling of Harvey Weinstein, with hints of how much more story there may still be to tell.
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri Feb 09
Lots of movies to chose from, but most are playing on only a very few screens.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle movie review: deliver us from “edgy”
Save us from male artists who think they are dangerously, uniquely innovative. This stew of toxic masculinity and CGI-cartoon violence is nothing but tediously mundane.
Little Boy movie review: faith-based bomb
A shamefully miscalculated tale of whimsy and come-to-Jesus inspiration with a bizarrely inappropriate haze of Norman Rockwell-esque nostalgia.
