weekend watchlist: sweet, funny, frank pillow talk
Plus apocalyptic adolescence, exasperating planetary levels of bureaucracy, and more… (First published September 10th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Olga Kurylenko
movies by or about women opening US/Can Nov 22
Jennifer Lee codirects and cowrites Frozen II, starring Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Johnny English Strikes Again movie review: the spy who was a complete doofus
Better than the unfunny first one, not as witty as the clever second one. But it has a bit of sly Brexit bite that is very welcome right now. Laugh until you cry!
The Death of Stalin movie review: the great dictator
Audacious, outrageous, bleakly funny. Not since Charlie Chaplin sent up Hitler and invited us to laugh at terrible reality has there been a movie like this.
A Perfect Day movie review: war is hellacious
This compact little satire — set in 1990s Balkans — is a small, personal story about huge unfairnesses and injustices. Bleakly, bitterly, blackly funny.
The Water Diviner movie review: magic unrealism
When director Crowe sticks to historical adventure, his film is tense and exciting. But it lacks a sense of magic that it needs to make it fully engaging.
film critics! damned if we do, and damned if we don’t
Great. Now we critics are being chastised for not spoiling movies…
Empires of the Deep (the accidentally funniest trailer you’ll see this year)
China is attempting to out-Hollywood Hollywood… and the results (so far) are hilariously awful…
wtf: medieval melons go to war
The new comic-book inspired poster for the film *Centurion*…
Quantum of Solace (review)
We can only blame *Casino Royale.* The 2006 reboot of James Bond was so brilliant, so satisfying, so organically of the moment that it could only prove hard to top, and even hard to equal.
