* Somewhere Winter was rather the lesser of some multigeneration-spanning romances I’ve seen lately, but I did appreciate that the lead’s devotion to her idol (music star) wasn’t seen as infantilizing as it might in a Western film. It was just another aspect of her worthy of love.
* I am no expert on The Shining – I’ve seen the film a few times but I haven’t read the book – but Doctor Sleep worked for me. It’s better the further it is from Kubrick, but while wrestling with the trauma from that story. Things I particularly loved: Dan working in hospice care, the metaphors for the mind, Rebecca Ferguson using all her wiles as Rose the Hat and being stymied by clever-as-hell Abra Stone (Kyleigh Curran). Plus I didn’t check my watch at all and putting Cliff Curtis in a movie gets an extra star from me every time. But way to fuck me up with an evil found family, how dare you.
* End of the Century is a lovely film about a two men who hook up in Barcelona and realize they’ve met before, 20 years ago. The film explores the past and the what-ifs if they had stayed together and for obvious reasons doesn’t make any attempt to de-age the actors. In fact, the camera almost relishes their signs of aging, giving the effect of the men walking through their own memories.
* The Good Liar should’ve been a half hour shorter and a tight noir, and that cut would be easy to make: just remove everything having to do with Berlin. Spoilers from here: the twist, such as it is, is obvious from the beginning if you’ve seen a movie ever, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be a surprise. What I had a problem with was not the twist, but the motivation for it. Why can’t she double-cross him because she’s wicked herself? No, there had to be Big Motivations like Nazis and murder and sexual assault. It’s exhausting. Just give me Helen Mirren as a wicked lady please and thank you.
* Marriage Story destroyed me. Sometimes I like to be destroyed. Let me have this, Twitter!
* Two Tigers was better than I expected, a buddy comedy about a kidnapper and his victim. The kidnapper isn’t too great at his job, the victim isn’t too bothered about being kidnapped, and together they help each other deal with elements of their pasts to get themselves unstuck.
* I’ve also spent a frankly embarrassing amount of time watching Thai BL shows lately (for which I blame Douyin, which pushed shippy videos of the leads into my feed) & it got me wondering what the appeal is for me (aside from the obvious.) Here’s what I think: they’re soap operas where men spend a lot of time talking through their feelings (non-toxic masculinity!), the characters inhabit largely queernormative settings (any homophobia I’ve seen has been internalized), and Asian men are portrayed as sexual beings and worthy of desire (this is also obvious, but still rare in Western media).
Or maybe it’s just that the world is a garbage fire and I would like to spend my few remaining days watching pretty boys kiss. Probably all of the above.
wicked jaws 