Meant to update that while Blue Beetle has a strong opening and good laughs, I tapped out around the half hour mark.
Nightmare Alley
In 1940s New York, down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle endears himself to a clairvoyant and her mentalist husband at a traveling carnival. Using newly acquired knowledge, Carlisle crafts a golden ticket to success by swindling the elite and wealthy. Hoping for a big score, he soon hatches a scheme to con a dangerous tycoon with help from a mysterious psychologist who might be his most formidable opponent yet.
An absolute banger neo-noir psychological thriller film co-written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. I thought the premise sounded great, but I also went in knowing del Toro is fantastic but not usually to my taste.
So I am surprised and happy to say I couldnāt look away from this one. Havenāt liked a del Toro movie this much since Panās Labyrinth. Donāt be intimidated by the runtime!
We were just talking about how short most fantasy team up movies tend to come, but this one has everyone delivering a great performance, including Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn.
This came out December 2021, so being a mid pandemic release that is in part set at a Carnival was basically the kiss of death. Iām not surprised I hadnāt heard of it, but Iām very glad to have given it a chance.
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I watched Thief. What a weird movie.
Itās a very good movie. Got nominated for Best Picture, and Iād put it in the upper half of the (admittedly weak) 2022 BP field.
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Rest assured that the Rewatchables will pay all of the weirdness off.
I can see I missed out until now. Itās really quite something.
That movie rules.
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Margot Robbieās I, Tonya performance should have beaten the Frances McDormand Three Billboards performance, and I, Tonya should have gotten a BP nomination instead of Darkest Hour.
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That movie rules.
It does. I remember following that story as an 8th grader, and actually having Tonya Hardingās back, but this was bad-faith and performative bullshit and I was honestly just doing the same thing I did as when I would defend pro wrestling heels for the fun of it. Assuming the story told here was reasonably honest and accurate, she was fairly sympathetic here despite obviously being really imperfect.
The part in the faux-documentary mode where she gets to relive one of her high points in skating, gets emotional, and says, āIām sorry; itās just nobody ever really asks about this anymoreā has long stuck with me.
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Watched Air on Prime. It was a good movie, quite funny, that exceeded expectations. Similar to but much better than the Adam Sandler as basketball scout movie.
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First of all, go fuck yourself. But second, I canāt be the only one who feels like cultural changes slowed down in the 2000s. Music sounds less different, clothes look less different, and movies look less different between the 2000s and 2020s than between the 1970s and 1990s. As much as the iPhone was a game changer, it wouldnāt look that out of place now, except for being too small.
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Yeah, I suspect thereās some post internet/smartphone cultural weirdness going on. It strikes me as something in need of explanation beyond my (and your) individual aging.
Dazed and Confused was the go to option in my 5 person college house.
Wasnāt black Friday in 2006? Maybe Trump retarded culture and weāre stuck in like 1999 or whenever the apprentice started. Maybe after Trump dies it will bring about rapid cultural advancement.
Or maybe:
I think the internet allowing for greater choice and not being confined to buying what you can find at and choosing from whatever your local store has decided to stock has a lot do with it.
I think the immediate reproducibility of anything in digital form is probably also significant. Does weird things with development of taste and fashion and may squelch micro cultures that could later become macro. It does seem like everything is both more individual but also more homogeneous over the last 20 years.
Thatās what I love about movies. I keep getting older, and they stay the same age.
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I feel like this too, but I wonder if thatās personal bias because of my ages in each of those decades.
I mean thereās just no way to get around the fact that the 70s had its own clear aesthetic, and likewise for the 80s, in a way that you just donāt see in the decades since. I really have a hard time thinking itās just our age that gives us that perception.
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