What I’ve Caught Up With, January 2023 Part 1:
Film: The Darjeeling Limited (1995)
This was the one feature-length Wes Anderson film I was missing, and so until his next one releases, I’m now completely caught up to his filmography. The Darjeeling Limited is still early enough in his filmography that he hadn’t devolved completely into twee quirk, but this is clearly heading in that direction. Three brothers (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman) attempt to rebond with each other and have a spiritual experience in India, and things go badly. The characters are quirky, none more than Owen Wilson, and while it’s frustrating, it clearly has the earmarks of Anderson, it’s mildly charming. It’s not bad, but it’s definitely lesser Wes Anderson.
Film: Kick-Ass (2010)
A sort of spoof of superhero movies and kind of a superhero movie in its own right, Kick-Ass would probably come across better today with a more saturated market. High school loser Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) desperately wants to be a superhero and his first attempt goes terribly wrong. However, this gives him the equivalent of superpowers—metal-laced bones and an immunity to pain. It’s hyper violent, especially thanks to the presence of Bat-Man/Robin adjuncts Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Grace-Moretz). It’s fun, but I don’t know how well it has aged. For the non-superhero-loving crowd, it’s not close to essential viewing. That said, what we really need is a Hit Girl movie.
Film: Hitch (2005)
I like it when a film subverts genre expectations, and Hitch really goes for that. On the surface, this is a rom-com where a serial player named Alex Hitchens (Will Smith) finally falls in love with a woman (Eva Mendes) who eventually outs him and his occupation. However, in this case, we have a main character who genuinely likes women and is a sort of “life coach” teaching men not how to get laid, but how to succeed in relationships. It’s a rare film that makes Kevin James entertaining, but this one does. The downside is that this succumbs to genre expectations in the third act, which probably drops it a full star in my estimation. It’s also at least 20 minutes too long at nearly two hours.
Film: Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935)
A classic Western in the sense of good guys versus bad guys, this one features the singing talents of Gene Autry. Autry plays a character literally named Gene Autry, who is kicked out of his home for defending the “nesters,” settlers on his father’s ranch. Gene turns up with a traveling medicine show five years later, just in time to help one of his best friends, who has been framed for murder. This is pretty harmless and comes from a much more innocent time. It’s hard to dislike, but at a mere 58 minutes, it’s also hard to take very seriously. Still, it’s a good example of what passed for this kind of entertainment a good nine decades ago, which includes a bit of casual racism, naturally.
Film: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
I tried to watch the second Doctor Strange movie last year, but realized that without having seen WandaVision, I was lost at least in terms of some of the plot points. Now, having watched WandaVision, it made sense to try it again. The MCU has been really unkind to a lot of its women. As much as Black Widow and Gamora were shafted in the Infinity War series of films, no one was done dirty like Wanda Maximoff. This film doesn’t change that at all. It’s fine for what it is, but in a year where we got two movies that required a multiverse to tell the story, the MCU’s version is the one I feel like I never need to see again.
Film: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005)
My goodness, what a lovely surprise this was. A sort of platonic Harold and Maude, widow Sarah Palfrey (Joan Plowright) moves to a retirement hotel in London, where she is promptly ignored by her family. By chance, she falls outside of the apartment of a young Bohemian author with the improbable name of Ludovic Meyer (Rupert Friend). They form an unlikely friendship, with Ludo posing as her grandson. The two of them discover a great number of similarities, and their lives are inexorably changed by having met each other. It’s a quiet and small movie, but lovely, and Joan Plowright is wonderful. There are some solid performances by other elderly British actors, notably Anna Massey, whom I’ve always loved.
