Movies I’ve recently seen: July 29

Here are seven films I’ve seen since mid-June, and not connected with any festival. Surprisingly, and happily, I saw more of them theatrically than at home. They’re in order from best to worst:

• Till
  
• Oppenheimer
  
• Barbie
  
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
  
• The Seven Year Itch
  
• The Daughter of Dawn
  
• Asteroid City
  

A Till (2022)

Here’s the largely true story of Mamie Till-Mobley, whose 14-year-old boy was murdered in 1955 Mississippi for flirting with a white woman. Soon after that, his body was found in the river. This film is not about the teenager, Emmett Till, but about how his mother became an activist. It’s a powerful story about a powerful woman. Danielle Deadwyler gives an exceptional performance as the mother-turned-crusader.

A- Oppenheimer (2023)

I can’t write about the film Oppenheimer without discussing how and where I saw the movie. I was in the third row of the giant IMAX theater at the AMC Metreon 16 (not my choice of seat). But most of the film is closeups of people talking; and on that screen you could count the pores on the actors’ faces. But the atom bomb test truly needed IMAX to do the job.

J. Robert Oppenheimer was the brilliant physicist who led the creation of the first atom bomb test…the one that ended World War II. Writer/director Christopher Nolan used IMAX to teach American history. A large part of the story deals with McCarthyism, when many Americans lost their jobs because of their political beliefs. Oppenheimer wasn’t a Communist, but some of his friends and relatives were, and that was enough to consider him a risk. Nolan told this story very well, but most of the film didn’t need IMAX.

A- Barbie (2023)

The movie starts with a sequence that brings a major belly laugh…if you’re a serious cinephile. It ends with a scene that popped my grade from a B+ to an A-. In between, there’s a feminist, pastel, fantasy comedy unlike any other like I’ve seen before. A few scenes sag in the middle, but not for long. It’s amazing that Mattel allowed the filmmakers – Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach – to make the movie. The stars, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, seem to be both human and molded plastic. I suspect that the film works very well with adults and children.

My wife and I saw the film at the Cerrito, and the theater was full, which made everything much more fun. The Cerrito is a theater/restaurant. I had a salad, with an excellent blood orange vinaigrette dressing.

B+ Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

The latest, and I hope the last, Indiana Jones movie has a lot of flaws, but the action and humor makes it worth watching. On the downside, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a dull female lead, and there’s no romance because she’s Indiana’s goddaughter. Best of all, there’s a horse race in the New York subway. Worst of all, director James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg – the action scenes often lack the power and humor of the early Jones flicks. Surprisingly, Harrison Ford’s digital de-aging in the early Nazi sequence actually works.

Again, I saw the movie at the Cerrito, and I had the same salad.

B+ The Seven Year Itch (1955)

Not one of Billy Wilder’s best comedies, but still funny. Tom Ewell (who always plays the loser) is a husband who must stay in the city working while his wife and son have fun for the whole summer. He’s trying to stop smoking and drinking. Most of all, he wants to flirt (or more) with the new neighbor, played by Marylyn Monroe at her funniest – she plays a dumb blonde who, as it turns out, isn’t all that dumb.

C The Daughter of Dawn (1920)

Here’s an amateur drama where the entire cast were made up of indigenous Americans (Kiowa and Comanche). Writer/Director Norbert A. Myles lived with these people for 25 years. But the story, about who will marry the princess, is pretty bad. Jumping off a cliff seems like a stupid way to show your bravery (or to find a mate. On the other hand, the film has considerable historical interest.

C- Asteroid City (2023)

I think this is the first time that Wes Anderson disappointed me. Neither of the two stories, both set in the 1950s, are interesting or compelling. This is the sort of film where Tom Hanks must tell his grandchildren that their mother is dead, and there’s no emotion. The outer story, which looks like early, black-and-white television, is about a playwright and his play. The inner story, which is about people waiting in the desert for an alien to return, is in widescreen and uses very crazy and flat colors. As usual for Anderson, it has a cast of famous faces.

I saw the movie at the Elmwood.