Last Five Films Watched, Volume I

A Naked Gun/Zone of Interest double feature, anyone?

Here’s a quick look at the last five movies I’ve watched:

Infested

I guess I’ve been on a spider kick recently, checking out William Shatner’s Kingdom of the Spiders and now this French arachnid offering. I’m an Arachnophobia freak as well, so I’ve got high standards for my spider-centric creature features. I think this one has a great concept - an apartment building completely overrun with rapidly reproducing and growing spiders - with an uneven execution, but still features plenty of moments that’ll make your skin crawl.

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear

You really can’t even call the Naked Gun movies spoofs; they exist in their own beautifully absurd universe. They are an exercise in sheer silliness and a unique sense of humor that still resonates across every possible audience nearly four decades later. How could you possibly not find these movies funny? All three of these films have some of the best comedy writing ever put on screen. We should be sending them to deep space in the hopes of this being an alien civilization’s first impression of humanity.

Rashomon

Now, Rashomon is no Naked Gun 2 1/2, but it’s still not without its merits. With camerawork and a narrative structure that feels like it was dropped in from the future, it’s plain to see how this became such a formative film for so many directors and cinephiles alike. Truly incredible work from one of the best to ever do it, if not a bit slow in its pacing at times.

The Zone of Interest

As haunting an experience as you’d expect. It loses me at times when trying to reach into its experimental sandbox, but maybe that’s because I don’t need anything other than the horrifying reality in which it occupies. Particularly effective is a scene in which we take a long stroll through the Höss’ idyllic garden, sprawling as long as their intended reich, punctuated by casual evil in the family’s conversation and the looming horrors that lie beyond the camp walls. Hell has always been here on earth, and rarely has humanity’s capacity for, acceptance of, and role in it been so effectively displayed.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

In-and-out monster mayhem at its best. As clear a through line from the wild Showa-era Godzilla movies to the present-day as there has been since the MonsterVerse started. I'm a bit more critical of this one, but at the end of day, there just isn't anything quite as satisfying as watching King Kong pummel Godzilla with a mechanized arm from something called Project Powerhouse. That's the good stuff, baby. I also feel a strange connection to Kong, as his beard and mine have become the same level of gray with each passing movie.