Watch List Weekly Recap 11/4/22
This week: A documentary to inspire hopeful voters, a new chat widget for subscribers, and your critic wrestling with a problematic new film.
This is the Friday recap of Ty Burr’s Watch List postings for the week. If you’d like to 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.”
If you want to put a little fire in your belly before next Tuesday’s vote — or want to light a fire in someone else’s belly — I recommend “No Time To Fail” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2), a fly-on-the-wall documentary valentine to elections workers and the increasing pressures they face from a delusional and potentially dangerous segment of the public. It’s not in theaters, but you can find information on public and virtual screenings at the film’s website.
A chat option has just been added to the Substack iOS phone app, and the Watch List board is live as of Thursday. The first question posed to my subscribers: Was there a movie that made you realize the medium wasn’t just entertainment but an actual art form? For me, it was “The Last Picture Show” in 1971 — how about you? Folks are contributing some pretty great reminiscences in the thread. Feel free to contribute.
The Reagan era coming-of-age story “Armageddon Time” (⭐ 1/2) is a filmmaker’s earnest attempt to come to terms with the moral failures of his culture and his younger self, but in this case those who remember the past seem doomed to repeat it. Many critics admire the film, and I probe my contrarian take in the Friday new movie roundup. Also reviewed: “Causeway” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐) and an early take on the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus” (⭐ ⭐ ⭐).
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