Yep, We Did Good

It’s August. Yay? I can’t believe I only have a week of vacay left. We didn’t do much this year, because money, plus it was really hot this summer, but we did fit in some fun stuff. If anyone is reading on August first, especially if you’re on Pacific Daylight Savings Time, I’m on a day trip to Micke Grove as we speak, and it’s only going to get busier after today.

Next week I’ll take my CPR and first aid recert class, plus I’ll see Harold And the Purple Crayon, plus I’ll be cooking Bolognese to freeze for later and my next Julia Child recipe after that (No, I won’t be giving any hints as to what the latter will be). Thursday is the first day of school. So yeah, things are crazy.

July’s movies, at least the ones I saw, were pretty sedate for the most part because there just weren’t a lot of blockbusters this year. Quality-wise, though, it started out OK and ended up plenty respectable. I liked two of the theatrical releases so much that it was hard to pick a Number One. So yeah, all in all, the month was pretty good, but to fill in an otherwise thin calendar, I found some pretty interesting documentaries, plus a bevy of shark movies.

All right, here we go (click the images for the reviews)…

Condition of Return

Devout Catholic Eve is on trial for a mass shooting, and her excuse is that the devil made her do it, so Dr. Donald Thomas, or “Doc” is there to give her a psych evaluation to see if she’s fit to stand trial. The movie consists of Eve telling her story and Doc asking her questions. It’s anyone’s guess how the movie ends up.

As a movie, Condition of Return is just OK. The story is good, the acting is passable, for the most part, and it does its hardest to throw in some twists. The problem is the execution is pretty sloppy. The lighting scheme is all over the place (in one part Eve looks completely normal while the rest of the scene has a blue filter), and the story pacing could be better. It’s also a bit depressing.

At least it’s better than Space Cadet.

Despicable Me 4

Another movie that was just OK, Despicable Me 4 takes what made the other movies work and basically blows it all to pieces. Except for his baby son, Gru, Jr., Gru is rarely with his family; the bulk of the movie involves him going on a heist at his old boarding school with his neighbor’s daughter, Gru, Jr., and three Minions.

The rest of the movie seems to be a takeoff of Cape Fear with a heavy dash of Kafka, as Gru and his family hide out in a safe house because there’s a guy out to get Gru. He’s got a cockroach fetish. Meanwhile, the rest of the Minions are at Anti-Villain League Headquarters and don’t come to see the three principal Minions very much. Basically, it’s too much schtick and not a lot of story.

Fly Me To the Moon

I got to see Fly Me To the Moon two weeks early as part of CineMark’s Secret Movie Series, and it was completely worth it. The movie is kinda-sorta in tribute to the Apollo 11 astronauts and more of a satire that plays off the belief a few people have that we faked the moon landing. It’s really implausible and inaccurate in a lot of ways, but it’s also really fun.

It also helps that Scarlett Johannson and Channing Tatum have great chemistry, although the romance part of it seems a little tacked-on. Still, it flies by (no pun intended) and feels really good.

Twisters

Speaking of flying by, Twisters is a really enjoyable movie. It strikes a nice balance between recapturing some of what made the original 1996 movie fun and doing its own thing. Glen Powell plies his trademark grin and has a great time being his usual cocky self. Daisy Edgar-Jones is a good foil for him, and has her own side story about the trauma she’s carried with her for years after her most of her college stormchasing team got sucked up one by one in an especially bad twister.

The only thing I really missed was the cameraderie between the team members, because they came together as strangers, whereas the rapport between the team members in the 1996 version was solid. It’s no biggy, though–the movie looks great and is just what we want in a summer blockbuster.

Touch

An Icelandic movie about second chances and going down Memory Lane, this graceful story follows Kristoffer, an older man who knows his time left is short because he’s suffering from an unnamed condition. He goes searching for Miko, his old girlfriend from when he was a student at the London School of Economics in 1969. Back then he worked in a Japanese restaurant called Nippon and got immersed in Japanese culture.

The movie is set during COVID, and in between all the strangeness of that time we see Kristoffer and Miko’s story told in flashback. There’s a lot of gentle humor, such as when Kristoffer goes back to where the Nippon restaurant used to be, only to find it’s now a tattoo parlor. He doesn’t bat an eye but sits down to get a tattoo.

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What movies did you watch in July? Leave a comment below! Another post is coming out a week from today, and it also happens to be the first day of school, so it’s a red-letter day. Have a good one, all, and I hope to see you then…

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