What I’ve Caught Up With, June 2024 Part 1:
Film: I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)
I tend to find Peter Dinklage a compelling actor when he has good material to work with. I Think We’re Alone Now is one of those movies that is far better as a premise than it is as a reality. A plague—it’s never really discussed what happened—wipes out most of humanity, leaving librarian Del (Dinklage) alone in his small town. He works to bury the dead and return everything to the library, when suddenly a young woman named Grace (Elle Fanning) shows up on his doorstep. There’s an adjustment between them, and then another when he discovers there is a survivor community on the West Coast. It’s a great premise and has a solid cast (Paul Giamatti and Charlotte Gainsbourg show up as well), but it feels like it doesn’t have the guts to really go where it wants to.
Film: Red Dwarf: The Promised Land (2020)
I was watching Red Dwarf on Tubi at the rate of a couple of shows per day when suddenly it was about to be pulled from streaming. I bulled my way through the last three and a half seasons, the last of which (season 13) is this movie, three times the length of a normal episode. For fans, The Promised Land is a nice conclusion to the series. Dave Lister (Craig Charles) discovers he is a god, worshipped by humanoid cat people who descended from his pet. Accompanied by Cat (Danny John-Jules), another cat descendant, service robot Kryten (Robert Llewellyn), and hologram Rimmer (Chris Barrie), the Red Dwarf team finds itself in the middle of a holy war. Lots of fan service, including an appearance from Normal Lovett as Holly, the Red Dwarf’s hologrammatic, insane computer program. If you don’t know the show, don’t bother.
Film: Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)
A dandy World War II picture, Carve Her Name with Pride is an espionage movie more than a combat movie, although there will certainly be some combat. Violette Bushell (Virginia McKenna), daughter of a French national, falls for Etienne Szabo (Alain Saury) post-Dunkirk. Etienne is killed in North Africa, and Violette joins up, hoping to be useful as a fluent French speaker. Her usefulness turns out to be in France working with the resistance, and new potential love interest, Tony Fraser (Paul Scofield). It’s a ripping yarn made all the more impressive by being based on the true story of Violette Szabo. Some of it is certainly sanitized, but it’s still gripping, and McKenna is a stand out.
Dolemite is My Name (2019)
Eddie Murphy has always been good when he’s been given good material to work with. Dolemite is My Name is good material, and Murphy is in the middle of his element here telling the story of Rudy Ray Moore, one of the stand-out personalities in the heart of the 1970s Blaxploitation film industry. Murphy is ably assisted by a tremendous cast including Wesley Snipes, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Chris Rock, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, and Snoop Dogg, who continues to prove that he’s won life and is now just playing the side quests. It’s funny, but there’s depth here, and it’s told in a way that needed comedians to do it. Murphy needs to find more roles like this and stop doing everything that gets handed to him.
Film: The Marrying Kind (1958)
I’m one movie closer to seeing everything relevant in Judy Holliday’s oeuvre. The Marrying Kind is a lot rougher in terms of subject matter than what seems to be her normal. Florence (Holliday) and Chet Keefer (Aldo Ray, in his major debut) are in divorce court, telling the judge (Madge Kennedy) about why they don’t belong together. Where we’re going to end up is not a surprise for this, but it’s not necessarily an easy ride getting there, especially when we learn that part of their issue is the death of their young son. Still, Holliday is always a joy, and Ray is exactly the right level of lunk needed for the role.
Film: Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
Venom was the cannibalistic symbiote gay rom-com that we didn’t know we needed. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is more of the same. This one involves a serial killer named Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) and his mutant girlfriend Shriek (Naomie Harris), who has sound-based powers. Kasady, thanks to Venom acting out, gets his own symbiote named Carnage, who is naturally more powerful than Venom. Chaos ensues, and of course Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and Venom (voiced by Hardy) are going to have relationship issues. If you view this as a lovers’ quarrel between Brock and Venom while fighting the bad guys, it’s a lot funnier. I always forget that Michelle Williams is in these movies. Honestly, she’s better than this, but this is a lot of fun.