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Movie Reviews: 5/30/2022 to 6/5/2022

Movies reviewed this week: This Sporting Life and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

5/30/2022: This Sporting Life (1963): ****

Criterion Challenge 2022
Progress: 26/52
Prompt: Pick a movie from Paul Dano’s Closet Picks

I took this as a chance to dip into kitchen sink drama, which I’ve wanted to do since a Filmspotting marathon ages ago. It’s a pretty stunning movie as a picture of toxic masculinity, which is maybe not intentional. It’s also pretty stunning just as a movie about screwed up romance.

Hard to find any sympathy for Richard Harris, though. Rachel Roberts doesn’t believe she deserves love, perhaps, but if it’s his flavor of love she’s looking at, why would she? The weight of tragedy is not evenly distributed by any means.

6/4/2022: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986): ****1/2

Really hard watch, which is a good thing in this case. I feel like there’s more to say here, but I gotta chew it over a bunch first. Kind of a perfect antidote to Thomas Harris, though.

The danger and the strength of the movie is that nobody’s sympathetic.

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