Russian Doll ☆☆☆☆☆ (5/5) 4/1/19

I feel like Natasha Lyonne really Gets Me, ya know?

Sweet jumping Jesus, I loved this show.

Literally anything I could say about the clever plot would be a spoiler of some sort, so I’ll just say the acting and writing are terrific. Lyonne’s performance is spellbinding – rough, raw, and hilarious, but Charlie Barnett and Elizabeth Ashley also shine. Ritesh Rajan is gorgeous. Brendan Sexton iii (Hey, remember the “I’m gonna rape you at 3 o’ clock” bully from Welcome to the Dollhouse? That’s him!) kills his role in a really special way that I predict is about to give him a solid career boost.

Check out the definition-of-cool playlist of the show’s songs, too.

One of my all time favorite TV shows.

Watch it.

Us ☆☆☆☆ (3.5/5) 3/21/19

This one’s really, Really tricky for me to review. Most of the movie is terrific fun, with frequent tonal shifts between humor and horror that are beautifully played. Lupita Nyong’o kills it in what is (somehow) her first starring role. I had a great time.

Until the ending. Which is…. I don’t want to say garbage, but I’m afraid that’s what it is. Garbage. Way too much time is spent explaining what just happened, and the explanation is stupid. It doesn’t make sense as metaphor, and it certainly doesn’t hold up as a thing that could actually physically happen.

I’m going to focus on the good times, and give this a recommendation as an entertaining fun house ride, but I’m also very disappointed.

I Want to Live!☆☆☆☆ (4/5) 2/20/19

Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her oddly compelling performance in this noir procedural.

Not going to lie – I love a title with punctuation.

And I love Susan Hayward’s awkward, jerky, brittle portrayal of Barbara Graham, a desperate woman headed for the gas chamber. She’s weird and stagey, and it works perfectly against the droll, deadpan world of the film. You don’t exactly like her, but you root for her anyways because she seems more alive than her surroundings. Virginia Vincent shines as the friend who unexpectedly stands by her.

A great movie might have more deeply questioned the role the press has not just in her vilification, but also in her would-be redemption. It seems unlikely that the newsman pressing for her release genuinely believes in her innocence.

The great final sequence is still powerful in its simple mechanics, in spite of the corny elements Robert Wise uses to generate empathy.

Underrated and worth a look.