Saturday, July 6, 2024

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

If there's a theme to the bonus movies I watched in June, it's that most of them have a longer-than-average name for some reason. I don't know why it worked out this way (and it's not all of them, as will be evident tomorrow), but once I started, it just became sort of the thing that was happening. Some good stuff this month. While there were a few that I didn't love, there were plenty that I enjoyed a great deal. More coming tomorrow.

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.

6 comments:

  1. I still want to see I Think We're Alone Now and Dolemite is My Name. I haven't seen the 2nd Venom film except in a few bits though I'm disappointed that there's not enough Michelle Williams as She-Venom... She Venom... honestly... I'd let her eat me.

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    1. I Think We're Alone Now is pretty missable, but Dolemite is My Name is absolutely worth your time.

      I tend to like Michelle Williams more than I think I'm going to. I'm not entirely sure why I tend to have lower expectations for her.

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  2. Dolomite Is My Name was ROBBED of so many Oscar nominations. I didn't mind I Think We're Alone Now either. It was fine.

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    1. I completely agree on Dolemite. It's surprisingly good.

      I Think We're Alone Now might be the tamest, most milquetoast apocalypse film I've ever seen.

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  3. “The Marrying Kind” isn’t my favorite Judy Holliday movie (that’s “The Solid Gold Cadillac”) but it is right behind it alongside “It Should Happen to You” and “Bells Are Ringing” and the film that I think contains her best performance. To me this is where her Oscar should have come from rather than “Born Yesterday.” Incredible as it seems Judy told Garson Kanin she was doubting her abilities and thinking of retiring from acting so wife Ruth Gordon and he wrote this screenplay expressly for her to display the scope of her talent. Happily, it worked and restored her faith in herself. The film certainly allows her more of a range of emotions and she is devastatingly great in it. The sequence where they lose their son packs a wallop, but I think equally impactful is the radio quiz show scene where she knows the answer and his doubt of her costs them the prize. You see something die between them in small gestures. I like how you refer to Aldo Ray as the right level of lunk for his role. He’s a rough diamond to be sure but under his boorishness is a well of sensitivity that is what draws Florence to him making their relationship, which on the surface appears to be mismatched, easier to understand and Ray balances it exactly right. The film’s story is timeless, I’m surprised with all the remake mania in Hollywood the film has never been snatched up by one big female star or another since it offers such a showcase role front and center. One more bit of trivia, the actress who does such an excellent job as the judge was silent star Madge Kennedy in her first film role since 1926. She had quit films and returned to the stage before sound came in and was a good friend of Ruth Gordon’s who suggested her for the role. Afterwards she resumed her screen career as a character actress for several decades.

    Dandy is a good word for “Carve Her Name with Pride.” I started watching it because I knew Virginia McKenna from “Born Free” and was interested in seeing more of her work but knew little of the film itself. I was glad it didn’t jump right into the action but gave the audience time to know who Violette Szabo was and why she did what she did, it made her story more compelling, and I agree Virginia was a standout though the cast surrounding her was very strong as well.

    I have pretty much burnt out on superheroes movies, but I like Tom Hardy, so I gave the first Venom a try and much to my surprise I enjoyed it far more than I expected to, but I have never gotten around to the sequel. Thanks for the tip on the proper frame of mind to approach it with!

    “I Think We’re Alone Now” does sound like an intriguing concept, a bit disappointing to read that it is less than a sum of its parts considering the cast assembled. Still if I run across it somewhere I might check it out.

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    1. There are a few films that I'm surprised haven't been remade in the last dcade or so. The one that perhaps surprises me the most is Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, which seems like it would be an attractive fantasy romance vehicle for the right person. Putting The Marrying Kind in that same category makes sense.

      I think Carve Her Name with Pride only works because of how much time we spend with Violette before she goes to the Continent. We have to be invested in her for any of this to work, and it really does. McKenna is the best of a strong cast.

      The second Venom movie is fluff, and kind of stupid fluff, but it's fun, and sometimes that's enough. As for I Think We're Alone Now, it's fine. It's unlikely you'll hate it but it certainly isn't going to change your life.

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