Movie Diary
a) Spiderhead
A sci-fi movie starring Chris Hemsworth and Miles Teller has the makings of a typical Netflix movie that kind of passes through you without leaving any kind of impression whatsoever. And when Spiderhead reached its climax, I couldn't stop thinking about some similar-looking scenes in Michael Bay's The Island, perhaps the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater. But all in all Spiderhead is pretty damn good, based on a George Saunders story with maybe Hemsworth's best performance and a dystopian prison experiment scenario that gets cleverly unfurls with a good satisfying twist.
b) Hustle
I think Adam Sandler has made some of the worst mainstream comedies of all time, and a few good ones, and I generally think the movies were he tested his dramatic range (Uncut Gems, Punch Drunk Love, Funny People, etc.) were fine but overrated. I liked Hustle, though, he was very charming and Adam Sandler and Queen Latifah are a cute old married couple. The basketball action was exciting and well shot, I loved the Philadelphia setting and the Beanie Sigel/Eve/Freeway-heavy soundtrack, and Ben Foster was a good villain, definitely recommend the whole thing, best Anthony Edwards movie since Zodiac!
c) Elvis
I already wrote two pieces about this movie, so I don't necessarily have much more to say about it. But I will say, there is a lot of the usual biopic shorthand here. For instance, Elvis tells his mother Gladys, "I wish you would not drink so goddamn much, it's not good for you," and very soon it's 2 years later and Gladys is dead, that's the extent of that subplot.
I wrote about this for a recent piece about music documentaries, what a great movie. Sparks was a name I'd heard for years and had been very intrigued and they were kind of on my perennial to-do list of dozens of revered bands that I wanted to check out. And Edgar Wright's movie just made me feel like I've been missing out on years of enjoying Sparks records that I'm finally starting to listen to the first time now, I wish I'd listened sooner.
Another one I wrote about in my music doc piece, pretty charming little thing about a small Italian town putting together a viral video to convince Foo Fighters to play a show there. My favorite part was one of the 250 drummers in the thousand-piece band was this woman who'd just had things fall apart with her last 2 bands, and when everyone gets back together a year later to learn new songs, the whole thing had reignited her passion and she was playing with a new band.
f) Count Me In
This was another music doc that I watched while I was looking for movies to write about, and this didn't make it into the piece but I really loved it. It's basically just a love letter to rock drumming, with great interviews with Stewart Copeland and Taylor Hawkins and Nicko McBrain, and segments where various drummers opine on what was special about Ringo Starr or Charlie Watts or Keith Moon or John Bonham, and it ends with a nice little jam session with Stephen Perkins, Cindy Blackman, and Chad Smith. There's nothing super groundbreaking here but it was very satisfying to watch for me as a devoted rock drummer.
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