Watch List Weekly Recap 5/26/23
Henry James in 21st-century New York, Joaquin Phoenix in day-after-tomorrow L.A., a tale of male friendship in the Italian Alps, and much, much more.
This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to cut down on in-box clutter and receive this weekly email ONLY, please go to your account page and under “Email notifications” uncheck every box except “Weekly Digest.” If you’d prefer to not receive it at all, uncheck just “Weekly Digest.”
Just to keep things simple: A new (and hopefully weekly) feature that boosts one movie and one movie only.
Good Movies 📽
One Good Film: "What Maisie Knew"
Ty Burr • May 22, 2023
I’m inaugurating a semi-regular feature today for paid subscribers – maybe a regular feature; we’ll see how it goes. I’ll start the week off with a recommendation of a reasonably under-the-radar movie from the recent or distant past, and you can go from there: Watch it that night, that week, over the weekend, never. Or keep a list on your refrigerator and cross them off as you go. I’ve been looking back over my two decades as film critic for The Boston Globe – over 3,000 reviews, give or take – and am struck once again by how much good stuff is out there on demand that didn’t get the release it deserved or was well-received but is in danger of being forgotten or that was well-received and sank without a ripple. Some of the suggestions will be entertainments, others will be tougher meat, but my job, really, is to remind you they exist. You’re on your own after that.
Read full story →
A new Watchcast! L.A.-based film critic Amy Nicholson and I go deep on the prescient 2013 human/AI romance “Her,” starring Joaquin Phoenix (below) and the voice of Scarlett Johansson.
Ty Burr's Watchcast
Classics of the New Millennium: "Her" with guest critic Amy Nicholson
Ty Burr • May 24, 2023
Listen now (51 min) | It’s interesting when movies try to predict the near future, especially when you come back ten years later to see what they got right and what they got wrong. Spike Jonze’s “Her” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐) came out in 2013 and painted a picture of a spooky brave new world right around the corner, where pant waists we…
Read full story →
The Friday round-up is chock full of farewells (Tina Turner, Kenneth Anger, “Succession”), botched arrivals (hello, streaming platform MAX), two ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2 movies (“The Eight Mountains,” below, and “You Hurt My Feelings”), a Disney remake, a Mary Tyler Moore documentary, and a rudely funny new series on Apple TV+.
Good Movies 📽
What to Watch (and Who To Mourn)
Ty Burr • May 26, 2023
Lots in the news and on my mind this week, and even some movies and TV shows to recommend. Tina Turner, R.I.P. I went to bed Wednesday night with “What’s Love Got to Do With It” ringing in my brain and woke up to “River Deep Mountain High.” I can’t add much to the obituaries in
Read full story →
Thank you for continuing to read and support the Watch List! Feel free to comment —
— or pass this newsletter along to your friends.
If you’re not a paying subscriber and want to sign up for additional postings and to join the discussions, here’s how:
