Love and Death (1975): A whimsical Woody Allen partakes in philosophy, Russian lit and Bergman references in this much appreciated satire. Starring alongside the ever-excellent Diane Keaton, both playing their characters with childlike foolishness and enthusiasm, Love and Death scores highly on the quotability scale, even if one needs to be decent at remembering gushes of text. It’s not a very narrative-driven movie, but rather a series of set-ups that are sometimes very funny, sometimes mildly amusing. I’m not sure I loved it to death, but I deathed it to love, you know? 7
Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022): Think Red Rocket, just without the personality. PTaPL tells a dry story of an mid-thirties guy grooming a late teenager and it’s so by the book that it inevitably feels lifeless. Then again, too much emotion could have made it veer into melodrama or misery cinema, so the fairly meticulous focus on a run-of-the-mill girl falling for this attention trap works respectably well. The movie looks good too and relies on restrained and focused performances from its leads Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker, but because its so devoid of emotion, it feels long at almost two hours. 6
The 7.39 (2014): A nicely cast British affair-drama with some identity wobbles, The 7.39 seems to have come out as a two-episode mini-series in 2014 and I’ve watched a somewhat shorter cut of the thing as a movie. David Morrissey, Olivia Coleman and Sheridan Smith bring in performances that elevate the otherwise mundane story – and to be fair, the mundanity is sewed into this sort of situation, something that’s well acknowledged by the script. I wondered how brave the creators of this will be, because there’s a general distaste towards taking illicit romances into something permanent and without giving away the ending, I think they only dare to go half-way. Can’t say it’s wrapped up satisfyingly, but the movie is overall decent enough. 6
Bingo Hell (2021): I’ll declare Gigi Saul Guerrero an interesting (young) name in the horror genre, somewhat satisfied by her stylish debut here. I’m not sure why the movie has taken so much flack, because this story of gentrification and the corrupting force of money might not be subtle, but it looks good and delivers on the genre thrills. Seeing Adriana Barraza again after her memorable turn in Drag Me to Hell (2009) was a plus, as her character’s imposing force pushes the movie where it’s supposed to go. I’ll concede that it’s formulaic, but still an agreeable genre flick with decent gore to me. 6
Blue Crush (2002): If you don’t treat Blue Crush too seriously, you might just get something out of it. A movie thin on plot (low-income surfer girl has to decide between competing and having a nice time with an NFL star), BC is big on the visceral energy that big, crashing waves harbor. Some of the shots are gorgeous to look at, there’s a nice 90s vibing soundtrack and the movie is, ultimately, a positive, good-energy ride. So it’s watchable distraction. 6
tributary stu 