Between late April and the third week of May I watched seven films in a theater, including a 4K restoration of The Third Man: the highest numbers since 2018. Those who worry about COVID protocols, rest assured: you can safely watch films in the middle of the morning and well into the afternoon without fear of crowds (or people: I watched Evil Does Not Exist at 2:15 p.m. in an empty theater). Most of the films, to my surprise, were good to one degree or another. I liked the homoerotic power games in Challengers, chewed over the surprise ending of Evil Does Not Exist, enjoyed the rigor and concision of Civil War, and was haunted by I Saw the TV Glow, the best film I’ve seen to date.
I recommend two films for subscribers to specialized streaming services. Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much From This World, a hit at last year’s New York Film Festival, follows a Romanian production assistant entertaining herself as she drives out to interview accident victims. Crude, sometimes ersatz in its outrage, but compelling and often scabrously funny. I’m always up for films about the history of white exploitation of the Americas, and The Settlers dwells on a few decades in Chile’s grim 19th century history.
As ever judge not the film by its placing:
1. I Saw the TV Glow
2. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
3. Love Lies Bleeding
4. Evil Does Not Exist
5. A Prince
6. Furiosa
7. The Settlers
8. Challengers
9. Civil War
10. Drive-Away Dolls
11. Kinds of Kindness
12. The Old Oak
Humanizing The Vacuum 