I found this on the usual critics’ lists and knew it that it starred Ethan Hawke playing a priest. I did not realize that it was directed by Paul Schrader who seems to have been desperately trying for the past several years to revive his career and make money through a succession of awful films. I don’t understand how he convinced Hawke to appear in this one. Indeed while it starts out as a fairly conventional story about a priest wrestling with internal demons, it soon goes off in a dark direction that is not at all convincing.

Here’s yet another film by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev and it pretty much completes his entire filmography until he comes out with something newer. This one is even slower paced and more languorous than any of his other films. The cinematography is exquisite and credit for that should be due to Mikhail Krichman. Unfortunately the film’s poor characterization and weak grasp of its themes make it unworthy of its beautiful imagery.

We don’t usually watch reality shows but Tyler Cowen mentioned this in his blog and I was curious enough to give it a try. The series follows a businessman Marcus Lemonis as he meets with owners of various businesses which under some form of distress or another. He then makes an offer of money in exchange for a stake in the company or a share of the profits. The series appears to be very successful as it now has six seasons but watching just this first season is enough to satisfy my curiosity.

This would be the first film I’ve watched by director Masaharu Take and it’s pretty hard to decide what genre it belongs in. Its Wikipedia page describes it as a sports drama but while it has boxing, it’s not really about boxing. My wife suggests that it’s a love story but that’s not entirely right. In the end, I think that this is a film about people just don’t quite fit right in society and so this film too doesn’t feel like a perfect fit in any genre.

Like many other children I thought that The Pink Panther was a cartoon due to the popularity of its mascot and was left disappointed and confused when I saw that this was not the case. Much later I learned that there is an entire series of these films about the bumbling Jacques Clouseau but I still remembered my early irritation and never watched any of them. Since I’ve been working through all of the classics of cinema, it’s only fair to give what is considered one of the greatest comedies of all time a shot.

So I only just wrote that we’re probably done with the oeuvre of Stanley Kubrick and immediately upon watching this, I realized that we’ve never watched Barry Lyndon. This is a documentary about Leon Vitali, the man who would become Kubrick’s primary assistant. I originally thought that he must have been his cameraman or something but, no, he really was his assistant for about 25 years.

I usually don’t write about television shows here but I think I might have to start doing so as they are becoming increasingly sophisticated and have more artistic merit than many films. The Expanse is a great example, being an impressively well produced adaptation of the novels James S.A. Corey. So far we’ve watched the first two seasons and while they are very far from being perfect, I found it surprising that something this good exists for television.