What movie did YOU just FINISH watching?

The Apartment (1960).  Good film to watch on New Year’s Eve.  Jack Lemmon superb as the downtrodden office worker renting out his apartment to married executives, and Shirley MacLaine charming as the lift girl he falls for.

7 donne e un mistero, 2021, dir. Alessandro Genovesi.



This Christmas-set (but not very Christmassy) mystery comedy with an all-female cast is an Italian remake of 8 femmes (2002), which I haven’t seen and probably should. Unlike 8 femmes, this is not a musical—indeed, love musicals though I do, I have trouble imagining these characters breaking into song.

Anyway, 7 donne. It’s good—funny and quickly paced, with bright colors and some nice snowy atmosphere. Some elements reminded me of Smiles of a Summer Night, of all things: quick-witted grandmother in a wheelchair, fights between a man’s wife and mistress, worldly maid. I thought the movie was more consistently funny than any of the three Anglophone comic mysteries released this year (Death on the Nile, See How They Run, and Glass Onion). Most of the performances are good, particularly Margherita Buy’s as the Desirée Armfeldt-like matriarch trying to keep the family together. I was amused and entertained by the garish costumes and sets.

But it all feels rather slight. I ended the movie thinking, That’s it? Really?. The problem is less that the movie doesn’t care about its mystery plot and more that it never follows through on its character arcs. Ultimately, I felt like nothing had happened in the movie: The characters never learn anything, the plot never builds to anything, and I was left wondering what was the point of all this. (The movie could be trying for irony in how the characters learn nothing, I guess, but I never felt like that’s what the filmmakers were going for—unlike, ahem, The Last of Sheila.)

I wish this were better: These actresses are so much fun that they deserve more of a story around them and (even if slightly) deeper characterizations to play.

That's exactly the issue I had with the original 8 Femmes. I thought given the talent involved the movie should've been more meaningful than it actually turned out to be. It's a passable piece of entertainment, but sadly nothing more.

The Gentlemen (2019).

Never been a huge fan of Warren Beatty, so three-plus hours of seeing him play the author of Ten Days that Shook the World as another good-looking, well-meaning dope who stumbles along being lucky with ladies promised to be a bit of a slog… especially as anyone who knows history knows that the Soviet Union didn’t quite pan out as the worker’s paradise John Reed dreamed of. Nonetheless I found myself getting engrossed, and moved at the end. Everything moves along at a great clip, every shot looks beautiful, all the dialogue crackles and (possibly because of the uncredited script input of Elaine May) I was surprised by how many moments made me laugh out loud. Beatty was so grateful for the rewrite job May did that he used all his clout in Hollywood to help her make Ishtar, but that’s another story.

He Walked by Night (1948) L.A.P.D. looking for a clever cop killer. Narrated in semi-documentary style. Jack Webb has a supporting role, where it's said he got the idea for Dragnet. 6/10.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).