Here are four films worth watching, and one worth throwing away. Two are Japanese. The others are American. And as usual, the films go from best to the worst.
- American Fiction
- Floating Weeds
- Rustin
- Godzilla Minus One
- The Divorcee
A American Fiction (2023)
As a comedy and a drama, this is one of the best films of 2023. Jeffrey Wright stars as a literary author whose works don’t sell. Because he’s black, people expect violent ghetto stories, which isn’t what he wants to write. When his mother is diagnosed with dementia, he suddenly needs a lot of money. So, he writes a new novel about a thug, and sure enough, his book turns hot. One of the best things about this film is that a great deal of the picture allows us to enter the writer’s large, loving, but problematic family.
As far as I can tell, American Fiction isn’t streaming yet. I saw the film at the Grand Lake Theater. That’s the best way to see it.
A Floating Weeds (1959)
Here’s a late masterpiece from Yasujirō Ozu. A small group of actors arrive in a small fishing town. At first, it seems like an enjoyable reunion among friends. But the audiences are shrinking, and worse, old love affairs pop up again, and the head of the troupe starts destroying friendships and relationships. The film is a remake of his earlier silent film A Story of Floating Weeds. I haven’t yet seen the original version.
A Rustin (2023)
Bayard Rustin was one of Martin Luther King’s most important lieutenants. According to the film, Rustin pretty much organized The March on Washington. But he had an extra heavy chain in the fight for freedom; Rustin was gay at a time when homosexuality was illegal and not accepted in churches. A powerful film about American history.
Rustin is playing in theaters. It’s also streaming on Netflix.
B+ Godzilla Minus One (2023)
The very idea of Godzilla is ridiculous, and yet, I had tears at the end of this movie. This version of Japan’s most famous monster franchise is set at the end of World War II. Handsome Ozuno Nakamura plays a kamikaze pilot who wiggled out of killing himself and now, in peacetime, suffers from survivor guilt. He takes dangerous jobs. He adopts a young woman with her baby to care for. And yes, it’s fun watching the giant monster destroy things.
My wife and I watched Godzilla Minus One at the Cinemark Century Hilltop 16
D-The Divorcee (1930)
I generally enjoy pre-code movies, but this one was exceptionally dull. Norma Shearer stars as a liberated woman. Her friends (and her husband) are all rich jerks, and so is she. The movie was mostly about rich people talking about marriages and divorces. Why is it so bad? Probably because it’s a very early talkie. Hollywood was just learning how to make movies with dialog.
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