Movie updates:

“Marshall” is a sort of biopic. That is, it is based on a single incident in the life of Thurgood Marshall, from his days as an NAACP lawyer. It is very well done, and we enjoyed it a great deal.

“Thank You For Your Service” is a movie about PTSD. It follows four men who have recently returned from sharp edge duty in Iraq. All are damaged in one way or another. It is a well done film, and I am glad that I saw it, but it is not intended in any way to be enjoyable.

“Thor: Ragnarok” is one of the sillier offerings from the Marvel movie machine, in spite of having an extremely strong villain in Cate Blanchett’s Hela. Marvel’s cinematic Thor seems to be migrating somewhat toward the character of the sagas, as least as far as his intelligence goes. It is a pleasant enough movie, but a bit strange at points. Most tellingly, if you have established a background of Norse saga, and have a major character lose an eye, is should MEAN something.

“Murder on the Orient Express” approaches its subject matter as if it were repertory theater. That is, the audience is expected to KNOW the story, and is in the theater for the sake of nuances of design and performance rather than for the plot. The result is a film that is beautiful, and that draws excellent performances from a stellar cast, but that feels disjointed and a bit shapeless. We liked it well enough, but I came away feeling that there had been an even better film in the material that just barely failed to materialize.

Uncle Hyena