As we all know, January is generally the dumping ground of the year’s mediocre and bad movies, or at least the most forgettable ones, and there were some real stinkers this year. So yeah, that means February’s got to be better, right? Right?
Well, yes and no. The bright spots were definitely brighter, and I was able to check off two of the movies from my watchlist, but it was still kind of a grab bag in terms of quality. So here we have the ugly, the not ugly, the OK, the pretty darned cool, and the soberingly sublime, and as usual, click on the images to read the reviews.
Madame Web
Yeah, Madame Web kind of stunk (Rolling Stone said it was as if Sony had pinned a “Kick Me” sign to the movie’s back), but on the bright side, the characters drink a lot of Pepsi and (spoiler alert) the villain dies after being crushed by the “P” of a giant Pepsi logo. How’s that for product placement? There are almost constant gunshot-like jumpscares that seem designed to ensure the audience hasn’t fallen asleep, and after the first five it gets pretty annoying. When the movie let out, people basically ran for the exit with all the relish of kids going on Spring Break.
Argylle
Argylle has been on my watchlist since I started seeing the trailers about six months ago, and while it’s a fun, crazy send-up of espionage flicks, it does stretch the credibility to the breaking point, mostly because physics don’t seem to play any kind of active role in this movie. Among other improbabilities Elly Conway can ice-skate on an oil slick just fine, and even spray bullets at the bad guys while spinning like a champion hockey player. Meh, no problem. Things just get weirder and more confusing as it all goes on, but in the end the thing to do is just let it happen and don’t question it too much.
Ordinary Angels
Hillary Swank’s new movie is a nice surprise. Based on the 1994 true story of Michelle Schmitt, it follows the efforts of Louisville hairdresser Sharon Stevens as she tries to help the Schmitt family pay their bills and meet their needs. While the film does take some liberties with what actually happened, and the plot is fairly predictable, the ending is pretty much true to life and is, as they say, stranger than fiction. Anyone who sees the film may want to keep a Kleenex box handy.
Bob Marley: One Love
This is another movie that I’ve been anticipating for a long time, and it did not disappoint. It covers the period between 1976 and 1978, when there was an assassination attempt on Marley’s life and he had to flee to London, where he recorded Exodus, which is now considered one of the greatest albums of the twentieth century. Kingsley Ben-Adir was hand-picked by Ziggy Marley to play his dad, Bob Marley, and he does it with gentle grit, although in some instances that’s the weed talking. Still, as I say in the review, this is one of my favorite movies of 2024 so far.
The Zone of Interest
Wow. Wow. Wow. The Zone of Interest is a Polish film about Rudolf Hoess, who was the first commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau, overseeing the camp’s transition from a concentration camp for political prisoners to a death camp for political prisoners, Jews, homosexuals, and everyone else the Nazis considered undesirable. Hoess lived with his family in a fancy villa on the other side of the camp wall, and the movie highlights the disparity between Hoess’s family life and his activities at the camp, juxtaposing beauty with anguish. I hope this film is an Oscar contender. It absolutely is a contender for the Best Foreign Film Award at the Roomies.
So yeah, welcome to March, everyone! Our first official installment of Cooking With the French Chef is coming up on Monday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…
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