In-Review: September 2024
A review of The Wild Robot, Home Video Releases, and more
October promises some “prestige” movies and is also a perfect time to sit back and enjoy a horror movie.
The Palme d’Or winner, Anora, will start theatrical engagements later this month. I went up to Boston recently and caught a screening of the film and while the first half was exactly what I expected, I was pleasantly surprised by the second half. For those unfamiliar with Anora, the movie stars Mikey Madison as Anora, a sex worker who gets mixed up with the son of a Russian oligarch. A friend of the podcast, Eric Marchen, and I were talking about Anora and how it feels a lot like a Coen brothers movie, a cross between Fargo and Preston Sturges. I can see why audiences and critics have fallen in love with it.
Outside of Anora, the other October release I’m looking forward to is Edward Berger’s Conclave. I believe I talked about it in a few newsletters now, but the film stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini, which instantly made it a top pick. Add in the fact that it’s got some good Catholic Church Pope drama and I’m down.
In the last newsletter, I shared some excerpts from a recent interview that might help inspire you to watch a horror movie or two this October. As for myself, I’ve already started watching a few Japanese Horror selections on the Criterion Channel and a new 4K disc of The Hitcher from Second Sight.
After the paywall, you’ll find a mini-review of The Wild Robot and some links I’ve found interesting this week. Remember that this newsletter exists because of your support and if you’d like to subscribe that’d go a long way to supporting this newsletter.
Here are the movies I caught up with in September:
If you’d like to follow what I’ve been watching, you are welcome to follow me on Letterboxd.
Home Video
New to 4K UHD from Paramount is A Quiet Place: Day One and back catalog release Bringing Out the Dead.
A Quiet Place: Day One is the newest entry in the A Quiet Place franchise, this time leaving the story of Emily Blunt and company behind. Instead, the drama of this feature takes place in New York where hospice patient Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) just wants some damn pizza, but aliens had to invade. While desperately trying to survive, she comes across numerous potential survivors including Eric (Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn). As far as spin-offs go, Day One is a really solid feature. It requires no knowledge of the previous entries in the series and despite the ultimately low-stakes plotline, Nyong’o is absolutely equipped to drive this often wordless adventure forward.
Make no mistake though, A Quite Place isn’t devoid of sound. Its reliance on sound frequently makes it one of the most exciting franchises around and that helps this release stand out as a tech demo for the format. When you have a quality movie, mixed with top-class sound and video, A Quiet Place: Day One comes with my wholehearted recommendation for home video.
Bringing Out the Dead has long been an anticipated catalog release. Released in 1999, the Martin Scorsese-directed film hasn’t seen a home video release since the DVD days. The Nicolas Cage drama isn’t among Scorsese’s best works, but completists have been begging for an updated restoration of the title. Now they’ve got it as part of Paramount’s “Paramount Presents” line. While not every title in the line has been a slam dunk, more often than not, Paramount has delivered exciting catalog titles. If you’re a fan of Bringing Out the Dead, this is easily the best it has ever looked for home video.
The other new home video release that I had an opportunity to review was Criterion’s new 4K of The Long Good Friday. I knew the reputation of this movie was quite strong—I just didn’t realize how much I’d love it. Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, The Long Good Friday is about a gangster looking to make a real change, but one by one his closest allies are being killed off. I thought I’d seen a good amount of gangster movies, but this was certainly one that I had missed out on previously. If you’ve never seen it either, this new Criterion edition comes recommended.
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