To my regret the only movie that I got out to see in theaters last month was the overwrought “The Lost City of Z.” Reviews were largely glowing for James Gray’s old Hollywood-style adventure-in-the-Amazon tale but I found it turgid and, worse, hypocritical; it pays significant lip service to treating indigenous people with respect but devotes practically zero screen time to giving them a voice. You can skip this one.
This was particularly disappointing because it was a pretty slow month for moviewatching. I only saw a dozen films, with a good number of them kids’ fare that I watched with the family. Aside from re-watching a few favorites, none of the other movies I watched really moved me very much. Oh well, there’s always next month.
- “Jennifer’s Body” It had all the elements to be a cult great but it really, really wasn’t.
- “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”
- “The Best Years of Our Lives” Affecting.
- “La La Land” Re-watched this for the third or fourth time and still find it magical.
- “Children of Men” Only seems to get better and more relevant with age.
- “How to Train Your Dragon”
- “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey”
- “The Lost City of Z”
- “Armored Car Robbery” Proto-“Heat.”
- “Café Society” Sometimes you get good Woody Allen, sometimes you get bad. This was bad.
- “Grand Piano” This is literally “Speed” at a classical music concert and somehow it pretty much works.
- “Over the Moon”
If you’re interested, here is what I watched in April, in March, in February and in January, as well as my full list of everything I watched in 2016. You can also follow along with my film diary over at letterboxd.com.
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