We’ve officially reached the end of summer, folks. That means no more movies until It comes out next week (will I see it? We’ll see, because I really don’t f*cking want to). However, that doesn’t mean movie watching has to stop altogether, and I even managed to head out to the theater to see Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s 3D rerelease. In case you were unaware, that film is still the high water mark for action.
I started my week by finally watching the small-time documentary Light Weights by Ben Kaplan and Laremy Legel. For the most part, I enjoyed it, but I found it a little slight and more intended for their friends and fans than their former effort, Whoop Dreams. I followed this up with a Coen Brother double feature, thanks to Blood Simple and Raising Arizona. Simple has a stellar start before falling apart a bit near the ending, but Raising Arizona is thrilling filmmaking, serving as one of the best comedies of all time. I also watched the 2010 surrealist dramedy Dogtooth, which is objectively a film. I enjoyed it, I guess, but it is certainly weird and definitely not for everyone. Much more lighthearted was Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites. Winona Ryder is remarkable in that film, and it really captures the universal feeling of being straight out of college. After that, I started watching more 2017 films to flesh out my list, one way or the other. I started with the documentary Get Me Roger Stone, which was a little simplistic, but overall eye-opening and kind of painful to watch in its portrayal of a self-proclaimed terrible person. However, I’d rather watch that ten times than sit through the unbearable Baywatch or Going in Style again. Both films had their moments, and the leads were all trying their best, but God, the material they were working with was near-unwatchable. They depressed me so much, I resorted to classic animated shorts to lift my spirits. This meant Steamboat Willie, The Rabbit of Seville, What’s Opera, Doc? and Duck Amuck. All four are wonders in storytelling and animation, and I don’t know what we would do without Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, or Chuck Jones.
Television-wise, like the rest of America, I watched the Game of Thrones finale, which was the perfect mix of giving fans everything they’ve wanted and resorting to terrible fan fiction payoffs (Aiden Gillen’s send-off as Littlefinger was remarkable, but God, that Zombie Dragon scene…) Meanwhile, Rick and Morty was changing the game with their dark, insane “vacation” episode. That show started off a little slow, but once they hit their groove with Episode 4, they became arguably the best of the year. Oh, and let’s not forget the fun of football season returning. I watched two games, and found both incredibly satisfactory: University of Michigan vs. University of Florida, and Alabama vs. Florida State.
What about you? Did you watch anything this week, new or old, good or bad? What about football? Let me know in the comments!
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