Halloween 2020: Witches Be Crazy

I hope you all will forgive another quick digression before I dive back into Watch My Library. I might as well discuss my Halloween viewing while it’s still timely.

I previously mentioned that I’ve been having virtual movie dates with one of my best friends. I don’t think I delved into how they’re a huge help in preserving my sanity right now, but they are. And I can imagine them continuing even after things calm down. I suppose one of the few silver linings of the whole pandemic situation is that it encouraged me to continue connecting with my DC peeps when I might otherwise have fallen out touch with them post-move. I want to keep that going as long as I can.

We usually watch a movie together on Zoom and then chat about it for a while. Sometimes we’ll augment the headliner with additional “homework” of watching other films separately prior to getting together, book club-style.

For October, we decided on a theme of “witches,” to which we only kinda-sorta stuck. My friend adores the movie, The Craft, and I had never seen it before. So this gave her an opportunity to show it to me. We also agreed to watch Hocus Pocus separately, and since we were already watching one children’s Halloween flick, I tacked on Monster Squad as well out of a fit of nostalgia (even though it doesn’t have a witch in it). I also kind of halfway promised to watch The VVitch¹ because my friend loves it so much, but I reneged on the deal because I ran out of time and also because I suck.

My thoughts on the three films I did watch follow. Spoilers throughout.

Iron Man 3, finally!

No one who isn’t me cares that I procrastinated on this, but I still feel bad about waiting so long. Mainly because I missed the opportunity to join the conversation as it was happening just because I psyched myself out over my imagined need to come up with something completely fascinating to say about it. Lesson learned:  advertise sparingly. If I don’t promise to write about something, then I won’t feel bad if I decide to skip it.

Image from IMDb.com

So, IM3. It is completely the Iron Man I would expect from Shane Black. It has his schtick all over it.

1. It takes place at Christmas
2. It upends classic film tropes, including…
3. Unconventional voice-over narration and…
4. Hilarious one-liners from…
5. A protagonist exorcising inner demons…
6. As a noir-ish mystery unfolds

Recap: Mother’s Day Marathon

Let it be known:  My mom could probably do a much better job of producing this blog than I ever could. She is a world-champion consumer of media.* As much as I love watching stuff, I have limits. I usually don’t watch more than one movie or show in a day.  If I’m doing a “marathon session,” I might watch as many as three episodes of a television show in a row. But any more than that burns me out. But not her.

When I lived in Kansas City, I worked in a library with an outstanding video collection that included DVD boxed sets of television seasons. I would check them out for her, and she tore through them with stupefying speed. One of her favorites was 24, and at one point I swear she finished a season of that in almost real-time. Amazing.

So when she came to visit me in DC, sure, we took in some monuments and ate at some great restaurants and toured some fun neighborhoods. But we also watched a fair amount of programming. More in a few days than I would probably get through in a month on my own.

Here’s a quick rundown:

Revisiting Iron Man 2

Image from IMDb.com

I loved Iron Man. Loooooved it. Naturally I saw Iron Man 2 as soon it opened back in 2010. Unfortunately, the chief impression I carried away from the theater was of disappointment. Because the sequel didn’t live up to my expectations, the weight of my anticipation collapsed in on itself and became a disappointment that was shallow but wide. Not an intense disappointment (for I wouldn’t have characterized it as a bad movie per se), but it still rendered in me a profound indifference that managed to cloud my memory of the movie to the point that I could barely recall the plot. And note, I typically have a scary-sharp memory for movies.*