I watched a lot of different things last month outside of the catalog rewatches, so there's not a lot to cover here except some movies that were well worth revisiting:
Solaris (2002) This is one of those movies I never understood how it got such a lousy reputation. As near as I can tell, this only happened because critics and/or viewers were bizarrely protective of a book that has disappeared from the popular consciousness and a prior adaptation that was never in it. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring George Clooney, credits that in a previous era would have guaranteed acclaim rather than prevented it, this is the kind of movie that challenges and rewards viewer patience. Jeremy Davies and Viola Davis are ample supporting actors in this Clooney spotlight. I never understood why it always seemed so hard to just admit how magnetic Clooney is. This was before critics finally agreed, for a couple movies at least (Michael Clayton, Up in the Air), that he was indeed a movie star, and so they were still supposed to resent his existence, regardless of the quality of the material he was appearing in. This is a story about the toxic allure of believing a lie, even when you know a trap has been set. It is another classic piece of work from both Soderbergh and Clooney.
Source Code (2011) This is a movie I loved on first viewing. It's the second directorial effort from Duncan Jones (another inexplicable victim of a system that often seems to reject talent regardless of actual talent), a repeating day story about a terrorist attack a powerful new policing tool can help prevent, if only Jake Gyllenhaal can stop worrying about his real world problems long enough to figure out how. Of course, his real problems are very real, and revealed gradually enough that they're themselves a compelling feature of the movie, but his repeating eight minutes on a train are great drama, and if you're not happy that he manages to be happy he spends most of them with Michelle Monaghan, there's something wrong with you. Jeffrey Wright has one of his great supporting roles, but the real star is Vera Farmiga, who initially seems too dismissive of Gyllenhaal's plight, but finally becomes his savior, in an ending that elevates the whole movie and places it far beyond its reputation and very close to a classic. I hadn't watched it basically in ten years, and it was as good this time as it was the last time.
Unoffically, Starman (1984) was part of this, but I was watching it for the first time. When Jeff Bridges later costarred in K-PAX, that was a movie that wasn't supposed to be enjoyed because it was "too much like Starman." The two movies are nothing at all alike, as it turns out.
Stick It (2006) This will always be one of my favorite movies that I was probably not really intended to like at all. It's a gymnastics teen drama. Bridges costars, which was one of my early Jeff Bridges experiences, although the movie around him is so fun and lively, you don't need to watch it for him if you're worried he's the only thing you're going to like. I kind of assume this is a movie that people weren't supposed to like because Olympic gymnastics is still the thing everyone's supposed to love regardless of what we learn about the coaches, and a movie that condemns the relentless judgmental nature of it shouldn't be condoned. All the same, it's as awesome a movie today as it ever was.
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) It's very easy to assume that Will Ferrell made this movie believing it was his Truman Show, the movie Jim Carrey made almost a decade prior that thrust him in a more dramatic fashion while also trading on his goofy persona. And it really, really wants to be that, but I think no one really knew how to nail it. Ferrell is a man inadvertently living the life of an author's main character in her next book. No attempt is made to explain how this is possible, except that it's a fact that eventually everyone just accepts. Ferrell is as great as he ever is. Everyone in it is fine, in fact, but the story, which is a story about stories, just can't figure itself out. So you either accept it as is or you're left scratching your head, and settle for continuing to be a fan of Will Ferrell. Which you should be. He's been one of the best actors in Hollywood for two decades.
