Newish movies
– Baldur
Bjarnason
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a bit of a stint watching new-ish movies. That is movies that have come out in the past five to ten years that I missed out on.
I used to be an avid movie-goer, but I basically stopped going to the cinema post-COVID. Living in Montréal from 2016-2020 also cut down on my going because Montréal cinemas were kind of gross. Most of them felt like they hadn’t been cleaned since the release of the first Die Hard movie. Walking through them felt like I was tracking through the sticky spilled-soda residue of the entire Star Wars franchise from 1977 onwards. UK cinemas weren’t great but Montréal’s English language ones were worse.
So far:
- Barbie. A lot of fun. Pulled together by a really solid ending.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once. Everything about it is a joy.
- Monkey Man. I’m ambivalent about the whole “violent revenge” genre, but this one is quite well made. Dev Patel is captivating in this. At some point I need to write up a note on the reactionary nature of the “violently murder large groups of people who the protagonist and the viewer dislike” genre of movies. It’s not a healthy genre to enjoy, but if you do then this is a good one.
- Love Lies Bleeding. Another instant fav, TBH. A complete mess. Characters are a mess. Plot is a mess. The aesthetics are a glorious mess. The ending is a bonkers mess. But it all manages to hang together in an interesting way. Horrible people doing horrible things but in an oddly relatable way.
- Midsommar. Basically as good as people said. Really well thought through. This is the movie both Wicker Man movies wish they were. We can stop making these now. It’s done.
- John Woo’s own remake of The Killer. This is Blackjack Woo, not Hardboiled Woo. The absolute worst take possible on what should have been a simple atmospheric story.
- Dungeons & Dragons. A solid B+ effort that leaves nothing behind. Would have been a smash hit had it been released ten years ago. I kind of prefer the messed up shit version they made back in the day with Jeremy Irons hamming it up.
- Kinds of Kindness. Honestly a did not finish, largely due to boredom. Might try again some other time. It’s probably a great movie, but it has all the hallmarks of a movie loved by the people you try to avoid at parties. And if you’re at a party where everybody else is the type who loves this kind of thing, you just know you only got invited there to wake up in a field, groggy from being drugged, as you become the prey in a Most Dangerous Game with these assholes hunting you down for sport. Strong Lars Von Trier vibes (derogatory).
- I Saw the TV Glow. A remarkably unsubtle but cohesive piece of queer surrealism. And I mean that as high praise. Whether you’d like it is going to depend on whether “remarkably unsubtle but cohesive piece of queer surrealism” sounds like a good thing to you or not. Between this and Love Lies Bleeding it’s looking like David Lynch has inspired a new generation of film surrealists except without the thread of misogyny and sexual violence that is a constant throughout most of his work.
- Atomic Blonde. Not remotely newish, but finally got around to watching. Charlize Theron is always a joy. I kind of like the fact that they haven’t made a sequel as it doesn’t need one. But I’m sure that’ll change eventually. Basically John Wick except with an actual plot, none of the “kill foreigners for revenge” vibes, and a decent lead actor. And I say that as somebody who really enjoys Keanu Reeves.
- Bill & Ted Face the Music. Turns out Bill & Ted was a trilogy that needed a third act that matched the tone and style of the original two and delivered on the promise they set up. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. This is a remarkably consistent trilogy in terms of quality and depth. If you hated the first two, you’ll hate this one. If you enjoyed their nonsense, however, this one should work for you. It did for me.
- Hundreds of Beavers. Absolutely bonkers. Looney Tunes mixed with Charlie Chaplin except more crass. Even that doesn’t properly describe it. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was funny, but I still don’t quite understand what it was that I watched.
All in all, a lot of interesting and well-made movies. U.S. film-makers still know how to make decent movies. The problem looks to be entirely the studios’ inability to reach a mass audience.