Watch List Weekly Recap 7/15/22

A classic Surrealist romance, perfection in pop music, and a new Jane Austen adaption getting *dragged* by critics are among the topics this week.

Watch List Weekly Recap 7/15/22

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.”


We like to go spelunking into the past on the Watch List. This week’s classic movie recommendation is the otherworldly 1935 romance “Peter Ibbetson,” a film that seems to have been made in a dream state and that was — no surprise — a favorite of the French Surrealists.

Classic of the Week: "Peter Ibbetson"
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The midweek post was a rumination on that Great White Whale, the perfect pop song. I have a playlist and I bet you do, too, and we’d all like to hear what’s on it.

What Makes a Perfect Pop Song?
Is it the words or the music? The arranging of the notes or the arrangement of the instruments? Can a perfect song be objectively determined, or does it depend on the listener’s emotional response? In other words, does a perfect song belong to everybody – or to no one but you? And which ones are

For New Release Friday: “Persuasion” on Netflix, and “Where the Crawdads Sing” (above) and “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song” in theaters. Your best weekend entertainment bet may be the brutal reviews for “Persuasion.”

What to Watch This Weekend -- or Not
A weak week for new releases, with a tepid best-seller adaptation, a slightly bipolar rock documentary, and a Jane Austen movie that’s getting savaged by the critics. Maybe go hiking instead.

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