Nightcap 3/23/25: Sliding into the pause and some random notes on films

Scheduling the last of the New Directors New Films reviews and I am taking that previously mentioned break. I have three features and a short to review but the time table is relatively long. What this means is that I can kind of coast until the later half of April. 

That may not sound like much but it means I can play catch up on things I missed and want to see. It also means, outside of an interview I did this past week, I don't have to do I lot of writing. I think I've run out of words.

I need to find the desire to continue. I say that because I am running into way too many bad or mediocre films of late. Its as if the flood gates have opened and a lot of wastes of time escaped. I'm keeping bad films off my worst of the year list because they aren't as bad as others.

Actually the films this year have been firmly great or okay or bad. There hasn't been a lot of degrees. I either love something, thought it was okay and wanted to move on or hated it. Usually everything is I like certain things in a film and dislike others but its an interesting mix. What I'm seeing is not a mix.

It's killing my desire to cover films because there is little room for discussion

It also doesn't help that I'm feeling a bit isolated and antisocial. The last few weeks, while I have met up with some friends,  I've been spending way too much time alone. I feel like I've been living in a basement. Part of it is work, part of it is shifts in friends' schedules, part of it is taking on too much and part of it has been some health issues (nothing serious just annoying).

Most of the next six weeks look to be one review a day.

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As part of  cutting back I've been watching more and more films and series I'm not writing up.  These are things I just didn't feel like writing up.

To that end some random notes on movies I've been seeing and not reviewing in full (I may have mentioned some these before).

  

BORDERLANDS
After a couple of tries I think this all star scifi  film that is an absolute mess. It's a hypnotic road accident of a film with some great moments, an interesting performance by Cate Blanchett and a script that doesn't know what it wants to be be.  As background during multiple viewings it wasn't bad. Honestly there is enough here I wish they had a real script and a different director.

HERETIC

I desperately wanted to see this horror film because word among my friends was it was really good. I know some people said that the film was set up too much as a polemic on religion. For whatever reason the film disappointed. I think beyond it being over sold to me there is a formalness to the set up that it felt like a film checing off things in a ticky box. Yes it has moments, but over all it was just okay....that said I need a revisit.

CROSS 
This Amazon series is very good. I've liked all the cinematic configurations of the character. And this one is not exception. Is it my favorite? No but I will watch the next season.

ELEVATION
This Anthony Mackie action film about people have to stay above a certain elevation lest monsters get them isn't bad. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but tn minutes in you're just going with it. Definitely will watch this again when I run across it on cable.

SPEAK NO EVIL (remake)

The original film is so evil I never wanted to see the remake. Matt Schulman said it wasn't the original and I should see the mess they made of it. It is a mess, they removed th bleakness that made the original so powerful and watered it way down. Destined to be forgotten.

HERE
Why? It's an interesting idea but why?

I have watched several episodes of both the JACK RYAN and BOSCH series of Amazon and I liked them both. But I only watch them fleetingly

NEXT GOAL WINS

Taika Waititi needs to stop making movies. This is way worse than I imagined or heard. Everything is a joke and it might have been fine except none of the jokes are funny. See the documentary instead

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For those playing the home game I have finished the interview I did for THE FALLING SKY and it will run just before the LA play dates.