Dear friend,

thanks to my brief escapade to London I was finally able to access a few films that aren’t accessible at home. including one that would have most probably be included in my 2024 top-ten. Here we go!

Thelma, written and directed by Josh Margolin, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐½

A clever little film that adapts the tropes of an action movie to the quest of a nonagenarian woman who gets scammed out of her savings and, inspired by Mission Impossible, is very determined to get them back.
The nicest part of it is the sweet relationship between the titular Thelma and her grandson (Fred Hechinger), which, as I understand, portrays the director’s affection for his grandmother (whom we see in a mid-credits scene).
I hear June Squibb did all her stunts.

Runaway Jury, directed by Gary Fleder, written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien, Rick Cleveland, Matthew Chapman, based on John Grisham’s novel, US, 2003 - ⭐⭐⭐

Being the world’s favourite way of remembering Gene Hackman (because it’s internationally on Netflix), I decided to join in and rewatch this film as well. It has a clever premise, but suspension of disbelief has to kick in quite early, otherwise the film would completely lose its audience.
It’s apparently the only film featuring both Hackman and Dustin Hoffman, but still their characters are so distant that it has to find a pretext to have a (lacklustre) direct confrontation between the two.
Rachel Weisz is always delightful, and John Cusack was in his hey-decade.
Unfortunately, a film against the weapons industry might have looked brave twenty years ago; today… nothing has changed, so it’s just sad.
And naming your goth girl character ‘Lydia Deets’ is very distracting.

Urban Legend, directed by Jamie Blanks, written by Silvio Horta, US, 1998 - ⭐⭐½

After re-watching, lately, Final Destination and I Know What You Did Last Summer - a film that stayed with me so much that I even forgot to log it on Letterboxd and include it in my roundup post for that week -, I managed to give another look at the other Scream wannabe. When I saw it first - more than twenty years ago - I was quite into urban legends (do you remember when Snopes was all about non-political scary stories?), and still didn’t appreciate the film too much. This time, I got actively annoyed at all the mentions of modern folklore tales. I know that was the whole point of the movie, but it wouldn’t have hurt to put some plot here and there.
The overexcited acting after the killer reveal has become so legendary in itself that there was no whodunnit component even after not seeing the film for so long.
Still, what a cast: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Joshua Jackson, Rebecca Gayheart and Robert Englund!

Pig, directed by Michael Sarnoski, co-written with Vanessa Block, US, 2021 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I finally got around to watching one of the most celebrated Nicolas Cage films of this decade, also described as truffle-pig-Taken. It has, I believe, no action at all, which made it refreshing and fascinating. I didn’t really watch it with full attention though (on my iPad, on a train), so I’m wondering whether, in a more focused setting, I would have found it as uneventful and pretentious as some of the reviews in my Letterboxd network describe it.
In truth, the ‘father’ character was in my opinion quite thin, depicted as a very powerful and fearsome man without ever explaining why. I smiled when I realised he’s played by Adam Arkin, who basically played the same role Cage is playing here, in Northern Exposure.

Five Nights at Freddy’s, directed by Emma Tammi, co-written with Scott Cawthon, Seth Cuddeback, Chris Lee Hill and Tyler MacIntyre, US, 2023 - ⭐½

In a moment of weakness, I caved into Netflix’s warnings that this film was ’leaving the platform soon’, and - combined with a positive recommendation from a dear friend - I decided to watch it.
Well, it’s a bad film. Maybe it makes perfect sense for someone who has played the videogames this originates from, but, for me, it was an uninteresting mess, not saved by the appearance of Matthew Lillard.

Oddity, written and directed by Damian Mc Carthy, Ireland, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

I finally managed to watch Mc Carthy’s second film. I wasn’t as enamoured with Caveat as most people, but this one totally worked for me: a modern ghost story where things actually make sense as the film unfolds, jump scares are really scary, and violence is mostly off-screen. A beautiful house and setting, a great performance by lead actress Carolyn Bracken, creepy props (including a cameo by the cymbalist brother of Mr. Tambourine Rabbit), bad people and effective ghosts.