I figure I have enough to do this one this week. I’m going to list 13 movies we’ve seen lately, with a brief review. Probably very brief. I am going backwards from most recent to older, because my memory is kinda trash.

1. Saltburn. This movie is WEIRD! I had no idea the premise prior to watching it so when it’s about this guy who befriends a rich kid at Oxford then goes to his home during the summer, it was surprisingly odd. I don’t know if I’d say it was “good”, objectively, but it was certainly a wild ride.
2. The Iron Claw. Having been a long-time wrestling fan, I knew this movie would be painful. I knew of the struggles that befell the Von Erichs but I set that aside and let the movie wash over me. Two assessments: Zac Efron was really good and this would have been better as a straight documentary and not a biopic.
3. Migration. Very cute kid movie with a lot of wonderfully touching family moments.
4. Malone. As mentioned in a previous post this week, we took a detour from watching this year’s Oscar noms (probably anyway) to indulge in some cheesy old movies. This was not Burt Reynold’s best but it was…fine. We made fun of the tag line throughout the movie: “Ex-CIA, Ex-FBI, Ex-plosive.” OMG, cheesy.
5. Class of ’84. This was a weird one where out of control high-schoolers in an inner city have basically full-run of said school but a teacher comes in and tries to turn things around. It gets weird and violent. It was…ok.
6. Hot Pursuit. This was like a B-league Captain Ron. John Cusack’s character is supposed to vacation with his girlfriend’s family but misses them and has to chase them to the Caribbean and then it gets wacky from there.
7. Silent Night. This John Woo film was ok; it begins with a dad whose kid is either dead or injured (we don’t know right away) and he (dad) is shot in the throat and lives. Hence, silent. There’s literally no dialogue in this film and while I appreciate the idea, it didn’t hit the mark for me.
8. May/December. I had no interest in this one but it turned out to be pretty good. At first, I didn’t like the guy (who the main woman character had seduced when he was just 13) but in the end, he played it very well. It was realistic. I kind of wanted there to be a little more story unraveling but we never got it.
9. Killers of the Flower Moon. I wanted to like this more but eh. Good acting, set believable as the 1920s. But the overall story didn’t endear me to their plight so I walked away a little disappointed.
10. Leave The World Behind. In all complete honesty, I didn’t want to watch this. I don’t like that it was produced by the Obamas and there was a scene where a black character is talking about going into a post-apocalyptic world and basically saying “no white people.” In a time when everyone is crying racism, why is this ok? But I did end up liking a lot of it and even though the final scene was disturbing because it’s true, I enjoyed it.
11. Landscape with Invisible Hand. This was probably my favorite movie we’ve seen recently, just because it’s so different. The story is one of five years into alien occupation and who people are handling it. This movie had a lot of social commentary on social media and the way we live in a bubble. Really interesting movie. I will also say, I can’t stand Tiffany Haddish but she was really good in this.
12. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret. I’ve read the book – of course – so it was kind of refreshing to see a movie go back to another time but deal with the same ideas kids still deal with. At least, I think they do. It was well-done for sure.
13. The Holdovers. This is probably going to be most peoples’ top movie, other than Oppenheimer, which I haven’t watched yet. This movie was genuine and the characters so endearing, I’d watch them just live for a day. I highly recommend this one!