Watching
My last 10 watched from Letterboxd.
-
Insomnia
A surprisingly straight adaptation of the original, which I only saw for the first time recently. This remake is arguably better, with great performances by Pacino and Williams. This could almost be a sequel to Heat. Such an odd outlier in Nolan’s filmography.
-
Memento
As a 25-year-old this felt mind-blowing. Rewatching it 26 years later it feels less exciting since Nolan has gone on to top this again and again. Pearce is great in this though. Maybe one of his best roles. And who doesn’t love a good Joey Pants picture?
-
Lorne
I grew up wanting to be on SNL so I’m always interested anything that might give me more insight about what that’s like. This doc does, to some extent, but Lorne seems to be so deeply private that none of the talking heads have much insight to share. And Lorne himself shows little interest in being the subject of a documentary. Feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
-
Aliens Expanded
I fucking LOVE Aliens. The people who made this doc clearly also love Aliens but it clocks in at almost FIVE hours. It goes deep into every aspect of Aliens, often times too deep. I had to break this up over probably a half dozen nights as it was just so long and so repetitive. If you love Aliens, you’ll probably find a lot to enjoy here, if you can endure it.
-
André Is an Idiot
I found this really relatable, facing my own various ailments and feeling like shit all the time despite my doctors insisting I’m not, in fact, dying. Like Andre I try to keep my sense of humor but some days it’s hard. This movie put things in perspective for me. There’s still time. Even when things seem dire, there’s still time.
-
Ad Astra
A bunch of amazing set pieces. This felt like Mission:Impossible in space. The movie looks and sounds great, too. But ultimately it felt kind of soulless. Everyone delivers their lines almost in monotone. Some real hand-wavey physics in the last act. Maybe it will connect with me more if ever I have to follow my own dad to Neptune.
-
Arrival
“Come back to me.” 😭
-
Project Hail Mary
Amaze. Amaze. Amaze.
-
To Kill a Mockingbird
“There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep them all away from you. That's never possible.” I found this movie kind of fascinating, if for no other reason than it’s largely told from the perspective of Atticus Finch’s children. It got me thinking about what kind of example I’m setting for my kids. Not sure why the result of the trial and its aftermath surprised me given the time period, but I felt like kind of an idiot. Peck’s screen presence is incredible but they don’t give him much dialogue or character to work with. But I guess from a child’s perspective it’s hard to really know our parents at that age and see them for who they are.
-
All You Need Is Kill
As much as I love the source material and the live-action adaptation, Edge of Tomorrow, I had a hard time staying awake for this. I must have rewound it a dozen times. The color and art style is great. For whatever reason everything just combined to give me chronic narcolepsy.