January Recap

The Killing of a Sacred Deer
See post.

A Ghost Story
I felt like I was trapped inside this movie. Does that mean the movie was a success? I hated it.

The Mask of Zorro
It was an absolute blast to watch this with my kids. The only downside is that my boys keep thwacking me with swords now.

The Shape of Water
I hated this film for how safe and cozy it was. Real monsters are monstrous, not misunderstood wet dreams.

Lady Bird
It's a story of a young person acting shitty toward all of her loved ones, then learning life lessons that teach her who is really important in her life. This is the basic plot of every other 80s movie I grew up watching on HBO. It's fine, but really nothing special.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Like Lady Bird, this one also sticks in old tropes, this time the tired asshole dad one. As such, it's mostly disposable as well, but I was carried along by Sandler and Stiller having fun with it.

Daddy's Home
I guess this was me checking in on mainstream comedy. There were some genuinely funny moments, but for me it worked best when it went all-out over-the-top stupid (motorcycle through the house, electric lines), which it only did a handful of times.

Downsizing
Downsizing was mostly frustrating to me. Overall, I liked it. But it lost me completely in the end with a moment that probably didn't bother too many others. The Magical Negro (um, I mean the Virtuous Vietnamese Voman) gives our hero a bible. He says, "but I can't read the words," to which she replies, "the words don't matter, remember ME," to which I coughed bullshit and stopped caring.

Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
This documentary was mostly frustrating to me. It's too "lyrical" and "lovely" for me. There were all sorts of interesting ways to go with Berry's material. This film went none of them.

Justice League
So bad that I don't even know.

A Charlie Brown Christmas
I watched this again as a palate cleanser and a pick-me-up, I guess.

Finally, Hybrid TV/Movie Club.

Letterboxd includes each Black Mirror episode as a stand-alone movie, so I guess there's some case for that. I've long felt that the lines are blurred. I've always been chasing "motion pictures" wherever they're found and not "films," though I've also made it quite clear that the theater experience is my chief joy in this cinephilia business.  Anyhow, the series is definitely a work of an auteur, Charlie Brooker. Several obsessions recur. I want to like each episode more than I do. There's always an interesting idea, an interesting hook, but it rarely plays out in any meaningful way. I'd pick Serling over Brooker every time.
Episodes watched, ranked:
Nosedive
The Waldo Moment
White Bear
White Christmas
Be Right Back
(I had watched Season 1 last year. This is all Season 2 and into Season 3.)

That's it. No other TV viewing. I watched one episode of Hogan's Heroes, half an episode of Cheers, and some board game YouTube videos.