Stuff I've seen since... whenever...
All The President's Men (1976). One of the movie podcasts I listen to uses the term "blindspot" to designate a classic or wildly-popular film that a person has yet to see. But I need a term for a classic or wildly-popular film that a person just doesn't 'get.' Earlier this year, I saw
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) for the first time, and it was fine, I guess. This was the 3rd time I'd started watching
All the President's Men, and I was determined to see it through. The plot is hard to follow, there's no character arcs to speak of, the dialogue is difficult to hear, the cinematography is adequate, and it doesn't do anything to inform the viewer about the political scandal that is the centerpiece of the story. Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford and director Alan Pakula have all made many great movies, and I heard this was one of them, but I didn't see what everybody else apparently sees. I didn't hate it, but whatevs.
Zodiac (2007; rw) is a similar film to
All the President's Men - journalists (and, in this case, police officers) pursue an infamous story - and is just vastly superior in every single facet. The story is riveting; the characters are charismatic and have arcs; the direction and photography are great; the cast is simply off the charts. It even has a great soundtrack. I mean, the [flipping] movie is like 8 hours long and it's never a slog. I gave it 4½ out of 5 stars and I'm thinking that I short-changed it. I don't know what I'm hanging onto that extra ½ star for. I like Fincher well enough, I've seen only 5 of his films, but this is definitely his best, imo. I'm already thinking about watching it again.
8 Millions Ways to Die (1986) is a neo-noir based on a Lawrence Block novel that I haven't read. It stars My Guy Jeff Bridges as a washed-up ex-cop who gets into a tussle with a young Andy Garcia. Rosanna Arquette's role was a bit of a mystery to me, I didn't really understand why her character was in the movie, but I liked her, so what the heck. Oliver Stone and Robert Towne (
Chinatown;
Mission: Impossible; just passed away last month) are both listed as writers, which is weird, and it was directed by Hal Ashby (
Harold & Maude), which is even weirder. It comes together, sorta. The one thing I really didn't buy was the love story; I mean, I understood them sleeping together, they were both hot back then, but when he said he loved her, I was left scratching my head. Her whole part made me wonder if something got left on the cutting-room floor, or if she makes more sense in the novel. All in all, it was fine. If you're a Bridges completist, it's worth your time.
The Bikeriders (2023) was the 2nd-best thing I watched. Outstanding cast and direction. Not much in the way of a story, if that bugs you, it's really more of a hangout movie. I'm told that Jodie Comer's accent - which I loved - is both very authentic and grating on some people's nerves. She's definitely on my team, now. I mean, I think she was already, but now it's official. Tom Hardy is Tom Hardy - if you usually like him, you'll like him here. Having seen this and
Dune II this year, I like Austin Butler's range, and I'm not yet ready to call myself a fan. I do think he had a tough part to play. Comer was playing a real person who left audio tapes; Hardy is playing a real person who deliberately modeled himself on Marlon Brando's performance in
The Wild One, so in a sense he's playing Brando in
The Wild One. Butler is kinda-sorta playing James Dean in
Rebel Without a Cause, which was maybe the steepest hill to climb of any of them.
Absence of Malice (1981) has Sally Field as a newspaper reporter and Paul Newman as the son of a famous mobster who may or may not be following in his father's footsteps. I was pleasantly surprised to see a young Bob Balaban. Also Melinda Dillon, who I saw recently in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (she also just passed away recently, in January). This was just okay. It's hardly Field's or Newman's best, but if you're a fan of either of them, you won't be mad you watched this one.
M3GAN (2022) is fun, but that's about all. The little girl who should be the center of this movie was just annoying. Maybe I'm just a heartless android myself, but I never really felt any sympathy for her. Not every child actor can be one of the Fanning sisters, I guess, and the script didn't take enough time letting us get to know the girl and her aunt before introducing the creepy doll and getting on with the creepiness. Allison Williams is a pleasant but very forgettable actress for me, although I haven't seen
Get Out yet, which I think is generally regarded to be her best movie. Amie Donald, who played the robot, was the best part of the cast.
EDIT: I'm thinking about some kind of simple notation to indicate that I've seen a movie before. I'm trying out "rw", for "rewatch." Maybe an asterisk would be better.
I bought a copy of Fincher's original script some time ago, but I've never gotten around to reading it.
The list of movies that I haven't seen that I should've seen is a source of constant shock and torment to three older friends, all of whom have me over to share their preferred movies with me.
