Amy Wren watched what?

Every week I'm going to talk a bit about some of the things I've watched recently. Why? Because frankly it's an easy thing to write and a newsletter needs posts to be worth a damn. Not everything is going to be a whole stylistic exercise dealing with how I feel about a horrible thing happening baked into a film review, okay?

Now, this isn't every film I watched over the last, just a nice flight of them. If you want to see reviews of every film I watched over the past week, month, year, or since 2020, check out my Letterboxd!

Conclave (Edgar Berger, 2024)

"CONCLAVE", I say, as this film is a film that deserves its name to be yelled out loud every time one refers to it. Settings where characters are sequestered away from the rest of the world are fertile grounds for stories of so many types. Think Twelve Angry Men or The Thing, two examples that come to mind right away. In this case, it's the ancient ritual of the Catholic Church in selecting the next Pope. By setting it in closed off world of ceremony and politicking, it makes for a wide open world of contentious conversations in quiet corners and a whole lot of court intrigue. But best of all is that its just a bunch of old actors you know in fancy robes being catty to each other. Which means it's a hell of a lot of fun. And oh, there's a queer twist as well. It's a great film, and highly recommend checking it out.

Twisters (Lee Isaac Chung, 2024)

It's unfair to compare this film to its predecessor Twister. I don't think the older film is all in all that much better than this, even though it is far more important to me. Okay, this film doesn't have that killer theme by Mark Mancini like the original, but both films have their strengths and weaknesses. I feel like this one works much better when its Glen Powell and Daisy-Edgar Jones together, than it does as some sort of spectacle of nature's fury or about the convoluted plot about real estate and storm chasing. Not that some of the tornado scenes don't look good, but too often they try to say "hey, remember this thing from the original?" and it just fell flat for me. It doesn't help that there are far fewer character actor ringers helping this one along. The film could have used a Zach Grenier or two getting hit by towers going through the windshield. Sadly, I don't think this film will be replacing the Jimmy Fallon ride at Universal Studios.

The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)

It’s easy to look at this and say it’s an outlier in David Lynch’s career. It’s not weird as hell and there's no horrors climbing over couches or standing by dumpsters back of a diner. But watching this, it's clear that this is a Lynch film, through and through. Firs off, there is the impeccable sound work, the editing by Mary Sweeney, and the beautiful score by Angelo Badalamenti, all adding so much to the film. The story is told in a matter of fact way that doesn’t patronize or overly sentimentalize the characters. And Lynch filming this along the real route was a great choice, giving the film verisimilitude that shows on the screen.

All of that being said, it would have fallen apart without the magnificent performance by Richard Farnsworth. He’s so powerful throughout the film, saying so much despite not saying much at all. And the final scene, as he sits with his somehow less verbose brother Lyle (a perfectly cast Harry Dean Stanton) is just so dang emotional without either of them saying a word.

Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939)

I've never read the book this film is based upon, so I can't comment one way or another if this captures its essence very well. As such, I don't know if the novel is as boring as this was to watch. Is it competently made, well acted, and only slightly gives off it was filmed in Southern California instead of England? Sure. But just because a film is put together well doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy it, and I didn't get a whole lot out of this one. Which is too bad, because the whole idea of a tragic love centered around a haunted ridge with name that makes 12 year old and all of us 12 year olds at heart giggle is kind of a fun idea.