HAPPY SPRING!! We already hit 70 degrees earlier this week, 20 degrees warmer than what it’s supposed to be in late March in Minnesota. Of course we went back to the 30s immediately, but a 30-40 degree swing is pretty common here, but hey I’ll take even the occasional 60-70 degree early Spring day and today we almost hit 70 again, woot!!
Well, March turns out to be a pretty busy month work-wise that I managed to only watch 10 new-to-me movies! Partly because I had been invited to be one of the jury for an intercollegiate shorts film festival for a local university, Augsburg College. My short film HEARTS WANT had been shown at an Augsburg event a couple of years ago, and since it’s partnering with Twin Cities Film Fest which is near + dear to me, I just had to take part. In additional to this list below, I watched about 18 or so short films this month.
In any case, so here’s what I watched in MARCH:
NEW TO ME MOVIES
French Exit (2020)
French Exit is a 2020 surreal comedy film starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a Manhattan heiress who moves to Paris with her son (Lucas Hedges) with the little money they have left. It’s a bizarre film and at times I have no idea where the filmmaker was going w/ it, but still worth a watch for La Pfeiffer’s elegantly-quirky performance.
Where Hands Touch (2018)
A rites of passage story of a bi-racial teen struggling for survival in Nazi Germany. I had missed this back in 2018 and given I loved Amma Asante’s work (especially Belle), I decided to finally watch it. The performance of Amandla Stenberg as Leyna is terrific, but the forbidden romance story between Leyna and Lutz (George MacKay), a member of Hitler Youth, isn’t as compelling as Asante’s previous work. It does highlight the history of Afro-Germans, but I think that story deserved a better film.
The Courier (2021)
Cold War spy Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his Russian source try to put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Stay tuned for my full review coming up next week!
Sentinelle
Some people on Twitter were calling this female John Wick, but it’s nowhere near as fun. Olga Kurylenko plays a trained French soldier suffering PTSD after a combat mission and uses her lethal skills to hunt down the man who hurt her sister. Started out promising and it tries hard to be edgy, but falls flat and overall a pretty boring, predictable movie with a weak ending.
Crisis (2021)
Check out my full review AND interview with writer/director Nicholas Jarecki.
Waking Ned Devine (1998)
I watched this as part of my St. Patrick’s Day post and it’s such a delightful, funny and quirky movie!
Justice League – The Snyder Cut (2021)
I only watched this as my hubby was curious about it. I really tried to be neutral about this, though I absolutely abhorred the original Justice League. Can’t say this one is much of an improvement other than the fact that they improved Cyborg’s character development. But seriously, the darn thing is 4 hours long, if they can’t flesh out at least a single character in that time frame, then what the heck is the point?? Visually it’s just not a beautiful movie either, garish and overly morose.
Honestly I don’t see much artistic merit in this movie, I’m just mourning that $70 mil wasted to do another version of this. I mean, it could’ve made like a dozen indie films that are much more compelling story-wise.
One Night in Miami (2020)
I’m so glad I finally saw this! I’ve been too swamped to write a proper review of this but props to Regina King (in her directing debut no less) and screenwriter Kemp Powers for adapting his own play into a solid film. It tells this fictional account of one incredible night where icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered discussing their roles in the Civil Rights Movement and cultural upheaval of the 60s. All the actors portraying those historical figures did a terrific job here.
Arsène Lupin (2004)
I came across this title on Amazon Prime and given how much I enjoyed Netflix’s LUPIN series, I decided to give it a shot. Romain Duris played the charming gentleman thief, involving a love triangle between a seductive sorceress (Kristin Scott Thomas) and the lovely girl from his childhood (Eva Green). Just the cast alone is intriguing, but the movie is pretty weird and borderline bizarre at times, but the French scenery and costumes are wonderful!
AUDREY (documentary – 2021)
I grew up watching Audrey Hepburn and still am in awe of her beauty. It’s fascinating watching this documentary told by those close to her, including her own son Sean Hepburn Ferrer. The ballet scenes are beautiful, evoking her past life as a ballerina, but I think it’s a bit overused. Overall I feel like the documentary feels a bit style-over-substance, which I can see why they did it given Audrey was such a style icon. Still I think the film was made with love and I’m glad it also highlights her remarkable life off-screen as a passionate humanitarian.
TV SERIES
Ted Lasso
I just LOVE this series!! I’m going to dedicate a post for it one of these days! It’s rare to see such a defiantly positive show that actually celebrates a good guy and being good to others, there are so many shows that are way too dark + violent these days, so Ted Lasso is just so refreshing!
The Falcon & The Winter Soldier
It’s only two episodes and I’m enjoying the series thus far! I actually reviewed the premiere episode here if you care to check it out. The third episode is the best so far, with familiar faces from MCU.
REWATCHES
MI: Fallout
Greatest Showman
Moulin Rogue!
Civil War
Endgame
The African Doctor
March MOVIE OF THE MONTH
Yet another film based on a play that ends up being my favorite of the month (last month’s fave was The Father). I’m hoping a local theater would stage the play of this one, given how the commentary on Civil Rights Movement is so timely these days.
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
I just finished watching Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League which I think is a major improvement over what Joss Whedon did. Yes, it’s got flaws and an overwritten epilogue that I think could’ve been trimmed. Still, I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought.
I so want to see One Night in Miami as I’ve heard great things about it. I am loving The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
I loved the fact that it is willing to explore the idea of symbols, legacy, and all sorts of political issues as well as racism. I love seeing Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan together while the last episode was awesome. Fuck, Zemo is cool. I can’t hate him. I know he’s a villain but he’s just cool as fuck and next to Thanos, he’s the Avengers’ biggest threat w/o any powers. Just his wit and dance moves. Sharon Carter… she’s definitely got her aunt’s vicious streak.
I HATE NEW CAP. Never since Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter books/films did I ever hate a character more than anything as I really fucking hate John Walker. He is not my Cap. He’s Captain Dookie. He doesn’t even have the ass to be Captain America. He’s just an asshole and I hate the fact that referred to both Sam and Bucky as Steve’s wingmen. Sam and Bucky weren’t wingmen. They were the star players in a team full of star players. I really hope Sam and Bucky get everyone that knew Steve Rogers or had people who were associated with Steve Rogers come in and just kick the shit out of him. Then, Nick Fury, Rhodey, Monica Rambeau, all of the Wakandans, Sam’s sister, her kids, Elijah Bradley (Isaiah Bradley’s grandson/Patriot), and every black MCU character come in and beat up Walker’s token sidekick Battlestar for just being a token bitch.
Hey Steven, I wish I liked the Snyder Cut as much as you, I tried… but I just can’t get into it.
One Night in Miami is excellent, I hope to write a proper review of it soon.
I’m loving The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and it ends up being deeper than I expected, which is cool. Yes that legacy and symbol commentary is spot on, I read that both characters represent the different sides of Steve Rogers, which I totally agree.
I LOVE Zemo and I can’t stand the new Cap so we’re in agreement there. He’s not my Cap and I don’t think he’s supposed to be someone remotely as lovable as Steve was. I’m not feeling the dynamic between him and his sidekick, forgot his name. In any case, I hope you’re gonna do a review of the series, you obviously have such strong opinions about this series!
I doubt I’ll do a full review of the show but maybe sometime in the future. Sorry you didn’t like Snyder’s cut of Justice League though I am aware of its flaws. At least it did more than the theatrical version in terms of characters.
Good to hear that you’re part of the jury of the Augsburg’s college film fest. I’ve been busy at work too, with things getting back to normal, we’re doing a lot of projects to help our clients. Hopefully, I can travel to do video shoots again, I miss it so much! I’m getting my first dose of the vaccine next week, so I’ll feel more comfortable traveling. Then I can finally go see movies at a theater again, my first film I’m gonna see in Dolby Cinema is the reboot of Mortal Kombat, it comes out after my vaccine shot.
I didn’t see any new movies last month. The “new” movie I saw was Snyder’s Justice League and you and I have the same opinion about it. Warner Bros. could’ve spent that $70mil on other projects instead of stroking Snyder’s ego and caved into the toxic fanboys culture.
Heard so many good things about Ted Lasso, it’s on my to watch list. I’ve been watching the new season of Snowfall and of course The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
Hey Ted! Good that you’ll be getting your first dose of the vaccine next week. Hope you enjoy Mortal Kombat in the theater, I actually haven’t been to the cinema since last January!
Yeah, I think we’re in agreement about Snyder Cut, but we might be in the minority as many people seem to love it, ahah.
Ted Lasso is sooo good! I really think it’s worth checking out. I’m kinda sad there’s only 3 more eps of Falcon and the Winter Soldier! Man it’s such a great miniseries, but hey at least we’ll have LOKI coming soon enough.
Quite a mix of films you watched, Ruth! I really need to watch One Night in Miami. It’s on Amazon Prime here so I’m not sure what’s holding me back.
One Night in Miami is really good! Took me forever to finally get to it, too. I still haven’t seen so many Oscar-nominated films, i.e. Judas and the Black Messiah, The Assistant, Minari, etc.
5 second reviews for people that don’t like sentences or reasons why something is not *artistic. I bet you 50$ weather u watched a movie or a trailer you criticism wouldn’t change. But yeah lets point out how 70 million was wasted lol. Also please link some of the story board youd make w/ that 70 million dollars
Interesting list of films – I’ve not even heard of some of them! French Exit sounds odd but I love Pfeiffer so would maybe check it out. Saw a lot mention Waking Ned Devine for St. Pat’s so I should check that out too. And I’ll probably watch the Snyder cut when hubby makes me but I’m so not bothered! Agree it’s an absolute waste. Also agree on Ted Lasso – that was just a pure joy to watch. I hate how TV shows are so dreary & depressing these days & Ted Lasso was a breath of fresh air. I didn’t love most of what I saw in March but did really enjoy Moxie. 🙂
Hello! I’ve got French Exit review coming up shortly. It’s really only worth a watch for Pfeiffer, which is the reason I watched it.
Ahah I’m the same way about Snyder Cut… I actually had my laptop the entire time I was watching it as it’s really quite awful, ahah.
Yay! Glad to know another Ted Lasso fan!! I’m hoping to do a top 10 list tribute for that show, it’s so much fun!