Conclave – 6.5

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Visually sumptuous–those cardinals’ robes plus the Sistine Chapel!–but the story and characters never grabbed me. Ralph Fiennes was all anguish and emotion, making me long for Anthony Hopkins. John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and comparable Italian and African(?) stars just made me wonder what they were doing at the Vatican. The plot, too, was cardboard thin, drama I couldn’t care about and an ending that was fun, but not particularly deserved. The idea that the cardinals were “sequestered” seemed to mean that Fiennes could look for the outside information he wanted, but not the rest.

Didi – 5.5

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A well made movie about the awkward moments of ninth grade from the perspective of a first-generation Chinese immigrant. Unfortunately, the ninth grader at the center of everything, a surrogate for the director Sean Wang, is neither charming nor interesting, so the viewer emotional involvement is missing. And ninth grade, after all, holds only so much interest.

Hit Man – 6.5

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Unfortunately, I’m a little Glen Powelled out after Anyone But You, hot on the heels of his flyboy roles in Top Gun: Maverick and Devotion. The various disguises he put on for his hit man job didn’t hide the pretty-boy charm that seemed his main contribution. Adria Arjona was new and good, and the supporting cast was fine. The truth-is-stranger-than-fiction plot was a stretch: even if there were that many losers in one city looking for a hit man to solve their problems, what are the odds they’d all find the cops? And missing the film’s first five minutes, I never understood how Gary Johnson, an intellectual college professor, wound up with this side job.
And one more thing: the plot didn’t lead to a happy ending, but the filmmakers tacked one on, knowing that people aren’t watching movies to get more depressed. This is even truer for The Idea of You, which tacked on an unlikely and gratuitous “five years later” coda to warm our hearts.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – 4

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Huh? Expecting some sly sociopolitical comment, all I got was a cliched shoot-’em-up, battle scenes galore and nothing that made much sense. The super-achieving, premise-defying girl was great, but I had trouble telling one ape from another. The movie moved quickly, though.

Anyone But You/ Blinded by the Light

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Two good in-flight movies, following basic formulas: boy-meets-girl for Anyone But You and coming of age for Blinded By the Light. There are no surprises, but attractive leads make the predictable stories fun to watch. Blinded, of course, benefits from a soundtrack of great Bruce Springsteen songs. Anyone left me with the question of what makes a relationship? He and she had nothing in common, except their suppressed lust, which arose on first sight. Fine for the movies, but what about life?

Dune 2 – 5

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As good as Timothee Chalamet was in Wonka, he’s that bad in Dune. His thin frame and wispy good looks do not an action hero make. I suppose there is a story, as the film is based on a famous book, but I couldn’t discern it. The ‘2’ in the title might have tipped me off to the movie’s ending, which was less  resolution than warning that ‘3’ is still to come. The shots of the dunes and flying machines may be spectacular, but the effects weren’t special. Star Wars made more sense and was better in every way.

American Symphony – 4

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Maybe if you’re a big fan of Jon Batiste or a personal friend of his wife…

One Love – 7.5

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The charisma and warmth of Kingsley Ben-Adir’s face and Bob Marley’s reggae music make this film a joyful experience, even if the dialogue is hard to decipher and the plot rarely goes beyond this-happened-then-that-happened. The supporting characters are colorful and convincing, but it is the songwriting and performing that carry the day.

Perfect Day – 6.5

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Even a mundane, uneventful life can contain mini-dramas seemed to be one takeaway from Wim Wenders’s portrait of a veteran Tokyo Toilet employee. Then there’s also a reflection of the Japanese ethic: even the humblest job can be performed with diligence, as an art. And maybe the lack of greed and ambition that keeps Japanese society running smoothly, although the younger generation is primed to upset that. Unfortunately, mundane, uneventful and lack of ambition don’t make for an exciting movie, and when each new day arrives, we greet it more with, “Really, this again?” than with excitement. The catalogue of Tokyo’s public toilets, which was Wenders’s original commission, is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the resulting feature film.

Zone of Interest – 9

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Disquieting, thought-provoking, beautifully filmed and acted. “Is this what it was really like?,” is only the first of many questions. How would the revelation that this was Auschwitz have hit us if we hadn’t known ahead of time, from the reviews? How did German actors feel about portraying their history as told by a British director? Why was there a black dog running through so many of the scenes? Why was the commandant vomiting at movie’s end? I don’t know how to describe, technically, the square, straight-on long shots that director Jonathan Glazer used throughout the film, but it provided visual consistency and power: you are looking at this in full, without editorial comments. (The leads’ ugly hairstyles may have prejudiced the viewer, but I think they were props to help us identify the characters.) And as with many great films of ideas, I can’t remember whether it was shot in color or black-and-white.