Oh, sure, everyone’s going to go see the new Marvel movie this weekend — and why not? It’s pretty great — but there’s plenty of other good stuff to see once you’ve caught that. Shall we do the tour?
Afflicted: I haven’t yet caught up to Derek Lee and Clif Prowse’s found-footage horror thingie — which may or may not be about vampires — but John was a big fan at TIFF.
Bethlehem: After several rescheduled release dates, Yuval Adler’s Israeli-Palestinian thriller — a mirror image of Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar — finally opens this weekend. It’s good. You should see it.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: “What if we slotted Cap into a ’70s conspiracy thriller that was also a direct sequel to The Avengers?” Chris Evans continues to be great, the action stuff is terrific and there’s a delightful cameo appearance by … oh, you’ll see.
Cas & Dylan: Richard Dreyfuss and Tatiana Maslany do the odd-couple road-movie thing in Jason Priestley’s feature debut, which ain’t great but sure has its moments. (Also, Maslany’s comedy face in the first three minutes is priceless.)
The Great Flood: Decasia cinema-poet Bill Morrison makes an American disaster documentary like no other, setting archival footage against an elegaic Bill Frisell score. Strange, beautiful, nifty.
Jodorowsky’s Dune: John was all over Frank Pavich’s delightful what-if documentary about the abandoned sci-fi project that might have changed the world (and sort of did) at TIFF last year. Basically, I agree with everything he says.
The Unknown Known: Errol Morris’ feature-length interview with unrepentant war criminal Donald Rumsfeld fails to fully satisfy, but that might be because no one can crack Rumsfeld’s veneer of self-satisfied smugness. It’s a fascinating misfire, though.
And there we are. Now I’m off to see a Hot Docs title over which I have been salivating for the better part of a year. It better be good, is all I’m saying.