I caught up with a bunch of movies recently. Some drive-by comments:
Beirut: Pretty great spy-thriller although fans of "Homeland" and John le Carre adaptations and will sense familiar beats.
Eighth Grade: It's been a long time since I was in eighth grade and my kids are still years away from being a teenager but this film seems like such an authentic portrayal of what life is like for teenagers today, immersed in smart devices and social media. I knew this was something special in the very first scene -- it's the kind of scene that we've seen many time before: we are watching the footage of somebody making a self-video but this particular delivery from the protagonist seem so extemporaneous. I thought it was a miraculous scene. Elsie Fisher deserves an Oscar nomination
Isle of Dogs: Two different movies - very entertaining during the first half of the movie when the narrative had a more discursive feel to it, and then got very boring the last half when plot machinations start kicking in as Anderson tries to resolve all the loose threads
Indignation: Easily the best of all the Philip Roth adaptations I've seen, mostly because of the electrifying two-hander set-piece between Lerman and Letts (spoilered below)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer: Now added to my list of the best movies of 2017. Creepy as hell. Kidman is on some kind of incredible late-career renaissance. Hard to believe the menacing Keoghan is the same actor who played the meek George in Dunkirk
Mission: Impossible Fallout: Highly entertaining with all the great stunt sequences. My favourite of all the summer blockbusters for me.
The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling: It's a must-see for die-hard Shandling fans. Definitely too long with too much focus on Shandling's minor works (like those extras in the DVD box set for the Larry Sanders show) for casual fans (like my wife).