Movies:

“American Made” is a significantly fictionalized treatment of the story of Barry Seal, an extremely talented pilot who supplemented his income by smuggling cocaine and taking pictures for the CIA. It’s highly entertaining, though (predictably) it does not end well. We enjoyed it a great deal.

“Flatliners” follows the usual patterns for sequel/remakes, in that it fails to match the quality of the original. It also cheats. The original set up tension between psychological and supernatural solutions with a series of ambiguous clues; the current version provides incontrovertible clues for both solutions, some of which turn out to be unexplainably false. The result is decidedly lackluster.

“The Mountain Between Us” is a weird mutant of a survival adventure and a love story. It doesn’t work well on either path, except the stars bring so much to the material that the whole thing almost gels, anyway. It isn’t unwatchable, but you will definitely lose some brain cells along the way.

“Battle of the Sexes” is an apparently accurate and highly entertaining telling of a bizarre and surprisingly far-reaching sideshow from the early 70s. Everything about the movie is first rate, and it is fun to watch on top of that. We enjoyed it a great deal.

Uncle Hyena