It was amusing to watch the discourse around Deep Water break down from December, when its theatrical release was canceled and held up as an example of the death of 'films for grown-ups' getting played in theaters, to March, when the movie came out on Hulu and was mostly panned. I kind of liked seeing Lyne's first movie in 20 years, though, I enjoy the weird dreamlike feel of his movies, it seems like kind of an accident that he's the director that really made erotic thrillers into a blockbuster phenomenon. But sometimes that slippery unreal texture can get irritating when the plot gets going, and it kind of feels like Deep Water does away with a lot of normal exposition and world-building and just gives you this weird group of people who have no jobs as far as you can tell and are constantly throwing parties. But I think Ben Affleck's weird inert performance was what really dragged the movie down, on paper this movie could kind of play off his image like Gone Girl but it felt like he didn't know how to play the character. 

This also got pretty bad reviews, although I thought it was pretty funny, at least the first half, and kind of a refreshingly silly change of pace from most movies directed by Judd Apatow that are these morose character studies of different comedians playing non-famous versions of themselves. At its best, it's a fun mean sendup of action movies like Tropic Thunder, but then it kind of fell apart when they actually gave it the exact same ending as Tropic Thunder. And at its worst, it resembled The TV Set, another showbiz satire starring David Duchovny that was produced by Apatow. Karen Gillan and Pedro Pascal were pretty good in it, though. 

This one I really liked much more than the middling reviews it got, I thought Charlie McDowell's direction was full of clever framing and angles that helped tell the story visually. And the score by Danny Bensi and Sander Jurriaans built the tension really well, had kind of a Hitchcockian vibe. And for a movie that was almost entirely three actors in a house, a billionaire and his wife and a guy robbing them, the cast was really strong. Jesse Plemons got to play kind of a thorny, argumentative character that I've never seen him done before, Jason Segel kind of shrugged off all of his vulnerable comedic roles and played a scary, paranoid antagonist, and Lily Collins's performance kind of sneaks up on you as you slowly realize that the story turns on what's going through her head. Maybe people disliked the stretches where the movie depicted the inevitable boredom of people spending two long days together doing nothing, but I thought those scenes were full of good character moments. 

This got far better reviews than the three above films but I thought it was a real letdown, personally -- I'm really unhappy with the critical consensus this week! Basically, a woman goes on a few bad dates and then meets a nice guy at the grocery store and starts falling for him...and then he drugs her and chains her to the floor and reveals that he kills women and serves their flesh in gourmet meals for wealthy cannibals. But Sebastian Stan is the bad guy and, like in "Pam & Tommy," I just don't think he has the presence or acting chops to pull off this role, the movie automatically would have been twice as good with someone really charismatic and terrifying playing that character. Daisy Edgar-Jones from "Normal People" and Jonica T. Gibbs from "Twenties" are good in it, though. Also, the opening titles for Fresh didn't start until 33 minutes in, and Drive My Car's opening titles were about 40 minutes in. What a weird disorienting decision that is! 

I barely paid attention to Murder On The Orient Express when I watched it, so I put this on and kind of kept up the tradition, occasionally catching some inexplicably terrible acting moment. 

I enjoyed The Hitman's Bodyguard far more than would be considered respectable, and I thought the sequel was equally entertaining. Giving Salma Hayek a bigger role was definitely the right call, she's kind of underrated as a comedic actress and she's so funny with Samuel L. Jackson, this movie gave her some of her best lines since "30 Rock." 

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