9/5-9/12

George Miller's THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING //

Steven Soderbergh's THE LIMEY //

I had the same reaction to this as I have to most of Soderbergh's films: nothing especially bowls me over, but everything works as it should. Here as elsewhere, Soderbergh is a reliably solid craftsman—and I truly don't intend that as faint praise—but he seems, to me, to lack the obsessions that make the best filmmakers of his generation hit (and miss!) more thrillingly. RIP Terence Stamp.

The Quay Brothers' SANATORIUM UNDER THE SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS

Alex Scharfman's DEATH OF A UNICORN //

A talented cast, but nobody is going to mistake this for the best work of anyone involved. It can't quite commit to being either a sharp capitalist critique or a bad-taste gore-fest, so it gestures in those directions (with occasionally entertaining results), but ultimately settles for being a "bad dad redemption arc"-type story which fell pretty flat for me. I also find CGI animals (and monsters) distractingly fake-looking, and that's a lot of what there is to look at here: the film could have benefitted hugely by having some practical effects wizardry up its sleeve.