weekend watchlist: some much needed yet very realistic eco-optimism
Plus adventures in drinking, hanging out in bars, and murder. (First published August 7th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Harrison Ford
loaded question: what movie have you seen the most times in its initial theatrical run?
I think for me it must be 1993’s The Fugitive. I’m not even sure how many times I saw it, but it must be a dozen at least.
The Call of the Wild movie review: a very good boi (mostly)
An old-fashioned kiddie adventure, sweetly earnest, equal parts scary, funny, exciting, sad, and happy, with only a bit of uncanny valley in its CGI doggo star. Definitely had something in my eye.
Angel Has Fallen movie review: and it can’t get up
A sad retread of The Fugitive. Dumb, pointless, confused, full of contempt for its audience, and laughably unable to convince us that Gerard Butler is an acceptable stand-in for Harrison Ford.
Armstrong documentary review: the man we put on the Moon
Meet the “nerdy engineer” who dreamed of a life in aviation… and landed a tin can on the Moon. A deeply moving portrait of the modest man who seems to have been destined for his historic voyage.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 movie review: gone to the dogs
Underwhelming: episodic, a random collection of unconnected vignettes rather than one cohesive story. Inoffensive, but missing the first movie’s fantastical animals’ perspective on the human world.
Solo: A Star Wars Story movie review: where has our scoundrel gone?
A Star Wars–flavored juice drink* of a movie (*contains 10% real juice) that tells us nothing of significance we didn’t already know about Han Solo, in an incarnation that lacks his essential charisma and precarious danger.
Blade Runner 2049 movie review: a rickety retro replicant
Visually, this dying future world is immersively hellish. Intellectually, though, its ideas haven’t kept up with the rapidly evolving science-fictional conversation.
The Lost City of Z movie review: archaeology was his religion
An adventure of the intellect and of the heart with the real-life explorer who inspired Indiana Jones, one more about the journey than the destination.
Gods of Egypt movie review: those whom the gods wish to punish, they force to watch this movie
Hilariously, casting white Westerners as mortals and deities of the ancient Nile is the least offensive thing about this crime against goofball cinema.
