Hey there, Movie Crammers! What’s this? Am I actually getting back to the original mission of this newsletter, to watch all the movies so you don’t have to?
Why yes, yes, I am!
Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll still post cultural/media commentary and general analysis when I have something to say about that, but I promised I would review all 146 movies that I Crammed during my Movie Cramming period of COVID-19, and dangnabit, I’m gonna do it.
Fair warning: I watched all of these movies in 2020, which, according to my internal calendar, is…approximately 6789614310 years ago. I did track the names of the movies as I watched them, and posted brief observations on almost all of them on my facebook page, but my memory of these movies is going to be fuzzy. Most of what you’ll read here is from those brief notes, and if I honestly don’t remember anything about a particular movie, I’ll let you know that so you can point and laugh! (Although considering that I keep these reviews generally spoiler-free, details are less important than overall vibes.)
In honor of my fuzzy memory, I’m adding a new component to the Movie Cramming reviews, the WWA? category — Would Watch Again? Which frankly is one of the most vital components of what makes a successful movie and I’m surprised I didn’t include it before. If a movie left a good enough impression after 6789614310 years that I’d be interested in seeing it again, that says something.
Lastly, a refresher:
(★) = favorite of the batch
(☠) = least fave, skippable
Onward to movieland!
THE MOVIES
(☠) Movie #88: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) | PG
I feel like in this movie, you can see the roots of the modern-day action comedy, with quippy wisecracking at even the most dire moments. The Marvel Cinematic Universe probably owes this movie a huge debt.
Unfortunately for this movie, though, the genre of the action comedy has so vastly expanded and improved since the 60s that this often feels sluggish and clunky by comparison. The pacing is sometimes glacial, not helped by lack of music during the action scenes. And it takes about half the movie for the story to start feeling like a narrative, rather than just a bunch of vaguely connected incidents.
So all in all, this one definitely felt like a "watch it to knock it off the list" movie, not one that I especially enjoyed or would want to watch again.
WWA? Probably not. Maybe just to see if I was overly critical upon this first viewing.
Movie #89: Trouble Man (1972) | R
I watched this because Sam Wilson recommended the soundtrack to Captain America in the opening sequence of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (everything about that scene is amazing, pls go watch it again if you haven’t seen it recently — I need more Sam Wilson: Superhero Social Worker, get on that, Marvel)
I do not have the knowledge base to evaluate this movie on its depiction of race — no idea if this was anything like what race relations were like in California in the 70s (it seemed surprisingly integrated to me), or if this is some kind of fantasy where there's a Black man who is so powerful and respectable that even the police are deferential to him, or a bit of both — but as a movie, it's well constructed and nicely paced, with good character establishment and a mystery that keeps you intrigued. The movie’s use of the word “cat” did make me laugh, though it probably shouldn’t have.
And yes, the soundtrack is used very effectively, much more effectively than, say, Butch & Sundance, which came out only a few years earlier.
WWA? Maybe. Although people have recommended movies to me that they say are similar, like Shaft (the original from 1971 and the updated ones with Samuel L. Jackson) that I’d probably watch first instead of rewatching this one.
Movie #90: The Natural (1984) | PG
Parts of this are ludicrously over the top, but it's also just so sweet and earnest and the music is amazing. Plus, baseball.
I have now seen Robert Redford movies from 4 different decades (60s, 70s, 80s, 2010s) and I feel confident that this is peak Redford attractiveness for me — like he's just so gosh darn PRETTY in this movie, it's legit distracting. Like looking at the sun.
Anyone got a 90s Redford recommendation for me? It’s the only decade I’m missing, so I gotta see one of those. For, uh, comprehensive research purposes.
WWA? Yeah, definitely. And not just because I’m a baseball fan, because like all good sports movies, this movie is not really about the sports.
It’s about Robert Redford’s face
(★) Movie #91: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) | R
The real redemption was the friends we made along the way!
LOL JK the real redemption is sticking it to the abusive prison system and the corrupt bullies who profit from it. Heck yeah.
This is one of those exceedingly rare movies where there isn't a discordant note in the whole story. Everything belongs, nothing feels gratuitous, the development is nicely paced, the characters and their interactions and longings are beautifully drawn and acted, and the way they hold onto their humanity and human connections in these utterly dehumanizing situations feels real and admirable.
People rave about this movie and I'm glad I got to see what the fuss was about.
WWA? Absolutely.
Movie #92: 21 Jump Street (2012) | R
The depiction of the overpolicing of public spaces, the poor training, and the lack of police accountability within the department is particularly appalling at the point in time that I watched this, at the peak of the George Floyd protests in 2020. That said:
CHANNING TATUM IN A TERRIBLE SHEITEL LOLOLOL
GLEE IS THE REASON HIGH SCHOOL IS PROGRESSIVE NOW LOLOLOL
(aside: high school movies always fascinate me because the depiction of the ecosystem is so different from my Yeshiva girls’ high school experience - we had none of this rigid caste system and division between the nerds and jocks and drama kids; like, in my school, if you DIDN’T do at least one sport and at least one of choir/dance/drama while being an honors student, you were underachieving. Yeshiva is a wild place, apparently.)
Also this friendship dynamic between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum is adorable. Overall, a pretty silly cute movie that probably says a lot more than it meant to about how bad American policing is.
WWA? Yeah, I would, recent Jonah Hill revelations notwithstanding. This was fun. Plus, baby Brie Larson!
Thanks for reading SM’s Movie Cramming Project, where I, SM, watch all the movies so you don’t have to. You’re welcome. Agree? Disagree? Have strong opinions on why I should never watch a Jonah Hill movie ever again? Shoot me a reply. And if you liked this batch, feel free to subscribe and/or share!
And if you’d like to see if I can write fiction any better than I can pick it apart, grab a copy of Jewish Futures to check out my recently published science fiction story, “Moon Melody.”