weekend watchlist: hacking capitalism
Plus the horror stories women live, cold cops, and more. (First published July 2nd, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
WWI
Jungle Cruise movie review: raiders of the recent swashbucklers
Wonderfully escapist, dripping with magnificently congenial charm thanks to the comic chemistry of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. Plus it’s sure to enrage people who use “woke” as an insult. Yay!
Charlatan movie review: more vegetative than herbal
An intriguing story with engaging performances about a compelling real-life character, but oddly inert, and can’t quite make all its many aspects gel into a wholly satisfying or wholly coherent story.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire Jan 10
Anna Waterhouse cowrites Seberg, starring Kristen Stewart; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
movies by or about women opening US/Can Dec 25–27
Chinonye Chukwu writes and directs Clemency, starring Alfre Woodard; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Tolkien movie review: it doesn’t wander, but it’s lost
This infuriatingly reductive biopic of the Hobbit author renders him as stolid and dull, and removes all the mystery and the wonder from creative inspiration. Literal-minded and free of magic.
Dumbo (2019) movie review: you will not believe an elephant can fly
The most soulless of the live-action Disney remakes yet, weighted down by too many blah characters, too much convoluted plot, unconvincing CGI, and a message that doesn’t say what it thinks it does.
They Shall Not Grow Old documentary review: more museum exhibit than movie (LFF 2018)
There’s a poignant eeriness to this modernization of WWI footage: we are looking into a past that feels touchably close and immediate like never before. But this is a novelty. A solemn one, but a novelty nonetheless.
Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero movie review: dogged soldier
In this centenary year of the end of World War I, this story of a real-life dog who served in the trenches is a gentle, engaging way to introduce kids to an essential piece of history.
Journey’s End movie review: where the war winds blow
A descent into the muddy trenches of World War I that is intimate and immediate, melancholy and profoundly moving. An experience as visceral as it is intellectual.
