Columbus is full of squares

I've been sympathizing with the deadline critics. Guys and gals who go see a movie that they don't particularly enjoy, then have to continue spending more time with the film in their heads until they get something out on the page for their editor.  Without that external threat of the deadline/editor or an external reward of a paycheck, it is nearly impossible to get myself to care about writing anything on The Square and Columbus.

It's not that either one is worthless. I do think that it'd be easier for me to interact with someone else's positive review than for me to make the effort right now to articulate my negatives.

The Square would be a better film if it were tighter, more focused. I found the first 40-50 minutes thrilling, watching a man feel more and more alive as he progresses from the feeling of saving a woman's life to the astonishment of being robbed to the odd risks of becoming a vigilante. 

The rest of the film, with its focus on the art world and on the protagonist's personal life, lets go of this focus and opens the film up, allowing it to sprawl. There's probably a second interesting film there, but I was annoyed by it. Someone else could write an interesting essay on children and generative activity, on self and selflessness. From the condom scene to the introduction of the daughters to the activity of the wrongly accused boy, it is clear that Ostlund is trying to say something. I just stopped caring.

Which is more than I can say for Columbus. I never found an "in" for Columbus. I couldn't stop caring because I never started caring. I think that my problems are mostly script problems. Every word seems heavy-handed. The scenario seems contrived. It's all so neat and tidy, just like the framing of the film. I'd actually have been happier to just watch a shorter cut of this film with just the Columbus architecture shots and some of the snippets of tour guide narration.

What else have I been watching?

Hostiles was really good.

I just wrote a paragraph, then deleted it. There are problems with Hostiles, but overall it's a richer film than almost anything else Hollywood gave us last year. I'll leave it at that.

Coco was good fun. As a movie, I thought it was great. My reservations have more to do with its glorification of real life Dia de Muertos practices, which I find dangerously demonic.

That's all of the films so far. As for TV Club, I've watched two episodes of Future Man on Hulu (I signed up for another month free trial). A friend recommended this one to me. It's raunchier than I would like and it caters too much to fanboy wish fulfillment, but it has made me laugh out loud a couple of times. I guess that's something.
[Update a day later: It's not worth it. I gave up after episode 3.]