What I've Caught Up With, September 2024 Part 1

I spent more than a week sitting on my daughter's couch, grading papers and watching her dog while she and her fiancé were at a destination wedding. That being the case, despite it being finals week for me, I actually watched a few more movies than normal for that part of the month. There was a lot of good in September, and while there were a couple that I ended up not being too fond of, there were several that I enjoyed quite a bit, and may well end up in the regular rotation. More tomorrow.

What I’ve Caught Up With, September 2024 Part 1:
Film: Z for Zachariah (2015)

A nuclear holocaust leaves Ann (Margot Robbie) alone on her family farm in an isolated valley. Despite the fact that the water at a nearby waterfall is irradiated, Ann has survived thanks to a natural aquifer and her work. One day, a man named John (Chiwetel Ejiofor) shows up in the valley, and the two work to manage the far, staying away from a sexual relationship, in part due to John’s drinking. When a third person, Caleb (Chris Pine) arrives, things become more tense. There’s a sense of this being a science fiction story, but there’s not a lot of that here. Instead, it’s really just a romance that happens in a world where a science fiction plot has happened. It’s slow, but interesting.

Film: Show People (1928)

A harmless silent film that is also very self-referential. Peggy Pepper (Marion Davies) comes to Hollywood to become a dramatic actor. She meets young Billy Boone (William Haines) in a studio commissary, who tells her to show up and he’ll put her to work. Little does she know that he makes slapstick, and she ends up getting sprayed with seltzer. It’s not what she wants, but she’s good at it. Eventually, though, she starts doing more serious movies, and she’s not as good at those. What’s a girl to do? This is essentially fluff, but it’s entertaining fluff, and there are plenty of old-school cameos throughout, including Charlie Chaplin as himself and not dressed as the Tramp. There’s also a solid meta joke as Peggy spots actress Marion Davies and is completely unimpressed with her.

Film: Track of the Cat (1954)

On the surface, Track of the Cat is about a ranch that is attacked by a black panther that kills their livestock over the course of a few bitter winter days. The reality is that this film is about an incredibly dysfunctional family dealing with the panther in question, but also with each other, petty jealousies, drinking, money, and more. Robert Mitchum stars as the most aggressive of three brothers hunting for the animal, with a young Tab Hunter playing his younger brother, who is often seen as less capable. There’s a lot of tension, including the presence of a young woman who all of the men appear to be attracted to. This is a much darker film than I expected for its time. It’s also far more interesting than I expected specifically because it’s not about the panther, but about the family.

Film: Hoodwinked (2005)

An animated, kid-friendly version of Rashomon, Hoodwinked tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood from the perspective of Red (Anne Hathaway), the wolf (Patrick Warburton), the woodsman (Jim Belushi), and Granny (Glenn Close), but adds in a plot about recipes being stolen from treat shops. There are some solid jokes here, and a few references that haven’t aged well over the last 20 years. The animation is staggeringly ugly, early computer-generated art that moves unnaturally and looks weird. You know there’s going to be a problem when the cover art tags a squirrel character and names it “Detective Stork,” which it clearly is not. The idea is pretty good, but boy, it’s hard to watch because of how cheap it looks.

Film: A Monster in Paris (2011)

Take a beginning filmmaker at the beginning of the previous century, tie him up with a deliveryman, a singer, and some weird science, and you get A Monster in Paris. Raoul (Adam Goldberg) inadvertently creates a weird science potion that causes things to grow huge and (conveniently for a musical), gives them a melodious singing voice. He and filmmaker friend Emile (Jay Harrington) mistakenly create a 7-foot-tall musical flea (Sean Lennon), who ends up working with Raoul’s affaire de coeur, singer Lucille (Vanessa Paradis). Bad guys, chases, and pseudo-steampunk occur, and everything naturally works out. Honestly, Emile was a better character than Raoul, and he should have been the focus here, but the songs ain’t half bad.

Film: Legally Blonde (2001)

It would be fair to say that Legally Blonde is feminist wish fulfillment, but it’s really good feminist wish fulfillment. Rich fashion queen Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is dumped by her Harvard-bound boyfriend (Matthew Davis) for being too frivolous for someone with plans for his future. Determined to win him back, Elle applies to Harvard Law and gets in, where she finds the world is far less accepting of someone who presents herself as a fashion model. But Elle is bright, and—and this is critical—she has a huge support network of women who believe in her despite the odds against her. This is cute and a lot of fun, and it’s always good to see stuffed shirts get put in their place. It’s Clueless with a brain, and all the better for it.

Film: Richard III (1995)

There are a few ways to do Shakespeare. You can play it straight, as written. You can adapt the plot but change everything else. The 1995 Richard III splits the difference. This is a straight reading of the text without much change in dialogue but set in an alternate 1930s fascist England. Richard (Ian McKellen) conspires to sit on the throne and does so by essentially murdering his entire family and marrying (and then murdering) the widows. It’s great source material, of course, and the cast is game to knock it out of the park. Anyone who thinks Billy the Shake is boring or can’t play to the modern world hasn’t watched really good adaptations like this. I mean…there are scenes with tanks.

Film: Shoot ‘Em Up (2007)

Most of the movies that I have on the big list of recommendations are films I haven’t seen before, but every now and then, there’s one I have seen but never reviewed. Shoot ‘Em Up is one such movie, and I watched it specifically to cross it off. Mystery man Smith (Clive Owen) rescues a newborn from a gang of thugs led by Hertz (Paul Giamatti). With the mother dead, he reaches out to mother fetish prostitute Donna (Monica Bellucci) to help. In this movie, we learn that bullets are magical things that can spin merry-go-rounds and carrots can be forced through the backs of people’s heads. Shoot ‘Em Up is the low end of action movies, existing only for bad one-liners, stupid action, and some terribly unfortunate fake baby action.