By: Henry J. Fromage –
Another overfull work week yields another batch of older and streaming films to catch up on while looking forward to the theater.
264. The Firm
Our 90s kick from the last few weeks continued with this Tom Cruise-starrer from the John Grisham heyday of well-cast mid-budget lawyer dramas. There’s some good twists and great small roles (Gary Busey!) here in the story of a law school hotshot who takes the perhaps suspiciously generous offer from a Memphis firm whose lawyers keep getting in boating accidents. Quality entertainment of the type they just don’t really make anymore. Three Beers.
265. The Cotton Club
Francis Ford Coppola may have taken a swing here that didn’t fully connect critically or commercially in this story of organized crime and the famous Harlem nightclub of the same name, but it feels like a reappreciation of its merits is underway. Sure, it’s no Godfather, but it does hit some of the same thematic pleasure centers while recreating a time and place buzzing with creativity. Three Beers.
266. Our Father
This Netflix documentary is about Donald Cline, an Indianapolis fertility doctor who was found to have used his own sperm to inseminate his patients and produce an ungodly (the right adjective to a T) amount of children. The fact I thought I’d watched this already at a festival before underscores the numbers at the end of the film- this is an all-too-common occurrence, that isn’t even illegal most places. High time it was- these sick fucks make a joke of the Hippocratic Oath. Three Beers.
267. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
So, I know that not at few of my friends are more or less out on Marvel, but I think the parallels to comic books have really started to become pronounced now that the Multiverse is in full thematic swing. This one introduces a powerful new character in America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez in a star-making turn), but it’s very much the Benedict Cumberbatch show here, and this has to be the gnarliest Marvel film yet courtesy of Sam Raimi, whose fingerprints are all over this thing despite the typical Feige polish. Three Beers.
268. Against the Ice
Netflix again, this time in a sweeping dramatization of the plight of a couple of Danish explorers trapped in the unforgiving Greenland landscape when they have to be abandoned by the expedition they broke from in a bid to prove America’s claim on northern Greenland was invalid. Nicholaj Coster-Waldau and Joe Cole do well with what they’re given and the nature photography is well done, although the drama never rises above what you’d expect from this type of film. Three Beers.
269. Burning
The peril of nature is all over this documentary as well, which examines the rise in intensity of wildfires due to climate change, particularly in Australia where a conservative government with no qualms about its support for the fossil fuel industry, particularly coal, rules. Here’s an idea- why don’t we just listen to the firefighters? Three Beers.
270. You Never Had It: An Evening with Bukowski
This short documentary is simply footage from Italian journalist Silvia Bizio of an evening she spent at Charles Bukowski’s home, getting drunk and discussing literature, sex, love, and many other topics- exactly as promised by the title, basically. Anyone who’s gone through a Bukowski phase (any reader, no?) will find this fascinating. Three Beers.
