Movies in 2026 188

 

Dune: Part 2 (Denis Villeneuve, 2024) 

Last night was movie night down at Gary and Ali's, which, of course, made me incredibly happy. A couple weeks ago we watched the first installment of Denis Villeneuve's Dune trilogy, and yesterday we moved on to Dune: Part 2. I liked the first one (generally, I like his films quite a bit) and I liked this one as well. They're so beautifully filmed. My main problem with it is that I think both films, but especially this one, overplayed an Arab fanaticism aspect and downplayed the Islamic mysticism/faith aspect. A similar accusation could be made against Herbert's original work, although I would argue that he doesn't play up the former and more richly explored the latter. I suspect this is much more a condemnation of Hollywood (and Western culture) than it is of Villeneuve himself. The Chani character is pretty far afield from the novel, but that may be more a case of plot positioning. You should give both of them a view. 

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Finding Time

 I'm finishing my latest re-read of Proust, which of course makes the cats happy because it required long stretches of not moving and close reading - and thus fulfilling my true destiny as glorified cat furniture. It helps that Janet is still out of time, and thus their options are more limited.

This should either be labelled, "Retirement" or "Why God Invented Metaphor."

Movies in 2026 187

 

Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1965)

I went ahead and finished off the three films that comprised the Criterion Channel's early James Bond movies collection. Guy Hamilton's 1965 Goldfinger is a lot like Dr. No, that is, two bracketing movies that are much, much weaker than From Russia With Love. You would think that after From Russia With Love you'd have the series figured out, but some studio executive decided that they needed more lasers and time spent in Kentucky, so here we are. There's nothing that I could say or not say that would make you watch or not watch a James Bond movie, but it's pretty forgettable - although doubtless I will watch it again sometime before I shuffle off this mortal coil. 

Movies in 2026 186

 

Where the Truth Lies (Atom Egoyan, 2005)

It seems that I've seen a few mediocre if not wretchedly bad movies lately, which is certainly not part of the plan. However, just as last year's recording of everything I read, I'm trying to be honest and not gloss over my reading/viewing habits for the year.  The other night I decided to give another chance to a movie that I had watched a few years ago and truly disliked: Atom Egoyan's 2005 dud Where the Truth Lies. It popped up on the Criterion Channel as disappearing at the end of June (it was part of an Atom Egoyan collection) so I thought I'd give it a re-watch before it disappeared into the ether. I think I may have disliked it more the second time. I think it's supposed to be a sexually charged murder mystery, but it's really just a mess. Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth play a Lewis & Martin team who are popular in the 1950s, and there's a dead woman shows up in their hotel room, and the mystery is not solved, sort of, until the 1970s. Allison Lohman, who played the reporter, received a fair amount of critical scorn for her performance, but she's far from the biggest problem with this utter misfire. I guess the thing that bothered me the most is that this is Atom Egoyan, FFS (this makes his film Chloe seem like a towering cinematic success). It's just so difficult to reconcile this effort with the Atom Egoyan who directed The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica and Calendar and Family Viewing, etc. I saw that it was based on an novel by Rupert Holmes, and I suddenly thought, "Wait, not that Rupert Holmes the guy who wrote the Pina Colada Song and Timothy (the cave-in cannibalism song, which I still passionately argue is the worst song ever written)?" Yes, that Rupert Holmes. I'm happy he's making a living, but, wow, that's a heavy weight of cultural degradation that he's forced to carry around. Anyway, do not, under any circumstances, watch Where the Truth Lies. 

My Italian Tutor

 Thank god I have some help with my Italian or I'd never learn the language.

Note to self: Don't try to learn Italian around mealtime. 

Movies in 2026 185

 

From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1964)

I'm going to plow through the three films in the Criterion Channel's James Bond collection, and so I watched From Russia with Love. As I said previously, I'm not really that big of a James Bond film, but this is definitely the film where they figured it out (and many folks, including actors who played Bond, consider it the best in the series). It's more serious and gritty than Dr. No, and definitely less silly, Bond spends his time in Istanbul and Vienna, beginning a recurring character in the films: exotic locations. It's odd to watch films like this and remember that I've been lucky enough to go to many of these locations, including Istanbul and Vienna. And, yes, if you're an Archer fan you completely see where so much of the material comes from, including his Russian girlfriend, Katya.

Movies in 2026 184

 

The Whole Town's Talking (John Ford, 1935)

Another film from a pretty vanilla Criterion Channel collection: office romances. Last night I watched John Ford's 1935 film The Whole Town's Talking. I'm a big John Ford fan, but I didn't know how long he had been making movies. Like a lot of folks I always link him to 1939's Stagecoach, and the beginning of his pairing with John Wayne, but by 1939 he had already been making films since 1917. This includes a ton of silent films, which, sadly, like most silent films, have been lost. The Whole Town's Talking stars Edward G. Robinson playing two roles, the timid company employee Arthur Ferguson Jones and the ruthless gangster "Killer" Mannion. I was impressed by Ford's ability to get both characters in the same scene considering the limitations of special effects in the mid-30s. I liked the film, although they didn't do nearly enough with Plattsburgh's own Jean Arthur (playing Wilhelmina Clark), who was such a firecracker and who routinely stole every scene in every movie she was ever in.