I don't remember it, but I liked it, and very much, if I recall. Then again I don't get AVC commenters hate for Eastwood. Sully, the last of his I saw, was a great movie about a man facing an existential crisis about his career, with a powerful performance by Hanks, and it was the most fluid thing I think Eastwood has…

I didn't realize David Grann was hot right now. He also wrote the Lost City of Z, book and movie being fantastic.

I'm sorry, Rocky. I lost two grandparents—one on each side—about 6 years ago. Comforting that they were in their early 90s and had led happy lives.

I've seen none of the original movies. I'd say all three of the new ones are essential, the first one setting up the world building and Caesar's origin story. But the next two, directed by Matt Reeves, take the story to the realm of tragic political character and political allegory, and they are the most gorgeously…

Surprisingly and disappointingly have not read much of James, or any, to be honest, besides Turn and Portrait of a Lady. Will get around to it. I do remember a New Yorker Shouts and Murmurs' column by Eric Idle who called him a very boring writer.
Here it is! It's actually a parody of the Shakespeare wasn't…

Some parts of Michael Giachinno's beautiful but overabundant score. Actually, you're right. I'll correct.

War For the Planet of the Apes. Technically and visually, the best of the series, but it's too long and there a few too many genres to the film that make it a bit busy and overploted, especially in the third act. I liked the smaller scale of the second film better, which contributed greatly to its surprising and…

Her mimbos' costumes are great.

Yes, I think I remember seeing the trailer in theaters and wondering why they showed everything. Ebert's review quotes a Zemeckis' interview, agreeing with it, saying that market research has found people like to know everything about the plot of a movie before they see it. He compares it to McDonald's, where people…

See above about his uncertain future. I liked the ending too when I first saw it, but last night's rewatch was the first time I ever questioned it, and in terms of how Hollywood writes female characters, who in these plots suffer unhappy marriages out of a sense of moral duty; Bridges of Madison County being an…

"Pony Sweat"? Okay. But I'd change the name—as is, it sounds creepy for some reason. And ponies don't exercise so there's not much sweating. They're pampered by their wealthy little girl owners. (No, immigrants don't have ponies.)

Physically for me. Hope you feel better.

Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away just ended on TV, and I got sucked into watching it again. It's a glorious desert island picture, but the ending irked me for the first time, which is a symptom of how ubiquitously Hollywood portrays women in a certain way that your thinking becomes complacent. If this story had really…

Robert Englund doing a British accent! The end of that story punctures macho notions, but the sorority stuff could have been cut out. I'm going to contradict myself by saying Lauren Holly has never looked better, but I was disappointed her smart, able woman (the only one in the film) fell for Ford like all the other…

Watched The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, after the mention and comments in the History of Violence series. Nicely bonkers, with some good laughs based on surreal jokes—Ed O'Neil's "Bootytime!", the koala bear, the whole character of Zuzu Petals—but the misogyny turned me off, even if it's a sendup of a clear asshole…

Always nice to see Kristin Scott Thomas, but the movie would have been more interesting if she had played Churchill.

Another story I haven't been following. Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue and give up hard news.

Douthat in today's column calls Donald Jr. Gob Bluth. Which is not bad. Googling, I guess a lot of people are making that comparison.

Dude's brain all of his life has been warped by real estate and its jargon. It's almost a tragedy, three generations of evil and stupidity, starting with his father, and causing his brother to have killed himself.

If that's from the third one, with the school bomb, Simon Gruber is way more honorable than Trump. "I'm a soldier not a monster…"