The Holdovers – 7.9

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A throwback movie in every sense from the reliably delightful Alexander Payne, it even made me like Paul Giamatti as the curmudgeonly prep school teacher with a well hidden heart of gold. As someone who spent three snowy Decembers at a boys’ school outside Boston in the ’60s, I felt a certain distant affinity for the Barton class of ’71, but the story told was pretty universal. Beyond thinking, They don’t make movies like this anymore, you felt here is the feel-good Christmas film for 2023.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour – 7

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I had to take this in in two sittings, it was so long and so loud (as was the audience of young women). It’s hard to find fault with Taylor Swift, and I couldn’t. Some songs were better than others, but it probably helped if you knew them all by heart, as most of the adoring crowd did. What stood out, beyond her looks, her smile, her engagingly coy cuteness, were the clothes, the choreography, the dancers, backup singers and band, the overall production. Edited down from the live show, when presumably there were breaks for the costume and set changes, the 2:48 film was a nonstop powerhouse of visual and aural delight.

Anatomy of a Fall – 8

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A French psycho-drama from Justine Triet and production company “didshedoit.com,” which is the movie’s hook. The director prejudiced the question whether the husband’s fall was a suicide or a murder by making the prosecution witnesses bombastic and the prosecutor smarmy and not good-looking, as against a sympathetic defendant (a measured and marvelous Sandra Huller) and her handsome lawyer with fabulous hair. In the end, one felt the suicide unlikely and the murder impossible. We did feel that the husband’s actions were aimed at his next book, while it was more certain that what transpired would end up in his wife’s. Years of watching Spiral made us comfortable with a trial in which half the “evidence” would not be admissible in a U.S. court. And both 10-year-old Daniel and dog Snoop were used to good effect. Most of all, the film raised questions and begged for discussion afterward, reminding us how rewarding the European (French) cinema can be, without special effects, more than two sets or, presumably, much of a budget.

Flora and Son – 7

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A happy-making bauble from John Carney, previously responsible for Once and Sing Street,” with which it shares a Dublin setting and charming, sensitive songs. Eve Hewson is the whole reason to watch, and it is a good one; she is brassy but not abrasive, pretty but real, and her three relationships–with her son, her ex-husband and her online guitar teacher–all bring rewards. The music, including Joni Mitchell singing “Both Sides Now,” is delightful; my only complaint was Netflix cutting off the final number in its “we-don’t-show-credits” zeal.

Joan Baez I Am A Noise – 5

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I could have used a lot more about the music, even more about the political activism and the personalities of her world, and a lot less about the sturm und drang of her psychological state, especially since she came across as a wonderfully adjusted, successful and attractive 80-year-old. And what a terrible title!

Killers of the Flower Moon – 6

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There is surprisingly little drama in this movie, perhaps because we knew the story but just as likely because the pacing is so s-l-o-w. After three hours forty minutes with no resolution, Martin Scorsese flips to a simulated radiocast to wrap things up, leaving his characters to meet their fates offstage. My other problem is Leonardo DiCaprio, a Scorsese favorite who leaves me cold. Here he plays someone who’s dumb as mud, at which he is neither convincing nor entertaining. In fact, the only laughs in the unmodulatedly grim narrative come when the audience reacts to a line that is just too much. Robert DeNiro seems to have been time-traveled from a Goodfellas film and is evil incarnate from scene one. Lily Gladstone is wonderful as Molly, although why she falls for DiCaprio’s Ernest is a mystery. As is Ernest’s instant mastery of the Osage tongue, given his obvious limitations. All the Indians are noble, which may be politically correct but adds to the dullness of the story. Scorsese seems to be in love with his movie-making, but here he needed an editor.

The Pigeon Tunnel – 4

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This nominal documentary is little more than an interview with David Cornwall (a/k/a John Le Carre) replete with reenactments of recollections and occasional film clips. The subject, however, seems to be Cornwall’s con man father and his effect on his son’s view of betrayal. As for Le Carre’s writing or his books, there’s barely a peep. Errol Morris seems to have spun a feature-length film out of a short, non-illuminating interview, with a fancy score by Philip Glass, repeating visuals of the titular tunnel and cock-eyed camera angles. A forgettable 90 minutes.

Here – 3

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This Belgian film spelled its title with a backward “r,” but it could just as well have been called “Where,” or even “Why?” The film festival programmer previewed it as “a film about soup, moss and love.” If he had added rain, a car in a repair shop and a Chinese diner he would have covered everything. Oh, and a vacation that never happened. The camera seemed stuck, the story was implausible–especially the bit about the soup, but the love affair was not far behind. There was a nice punch line at the end, but it didn’t make up for the preceding 80 minutes I’d waited in vain for something to happen. A rave reviewer called it “miraculously weightless.” I agree.

Theater Camp – 7

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A lightweight but enjoyable piffle, with Adam Platt and Molly Gordon riffing on Woody Allen: those who can’t act, teach; those who can’t teach, teach summer camp. Not all the pokes at acting school land, at least not for outsiders, but you can’t go wrong with talented kid actors, and the let’s-put-on-a-show finale is worth the wait. Meanwhile, the explanatory and narrative on-screen texts had tears of laughter streaming down my face.

Afire – 7.7

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A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Loser. Leon is an aspiring author who is insecure and nerdy: he always wears long black pants, even to the beach. The movie is about how he navigates among four self-assured companions at a seaside retreat. Answer: not very well. The characters are well drawn and Paula Beer is a wonderful actress: when she smiles her eyes jump off the screen. This is a character study and not a major Christian Petzold, a la Barbara or Transit, but still a serious film.