Movies I Watched This Week (7/14/25 - 7/27/25)

Ben Kaye

Ben Kaye

— 4 min read

PRE-ROLL

  • I have returned from vacation! apologies for the delay, but now let's get this thing back on track!
  • welcome to our new site here on Ghost! all paid subscribers have had their Substack subscriptions cancelled. if you have any issues, please reach out!
  • the Emmy nominations were announced a few weeks back! i'm thrilled that Nathan Fielder got writing/direction nominations for the "Sully" episode of "The Rehearsal." I can take or leave pretty much everything else.
  • general remark; IT'S TOO HOT. here's to some cooler weather here in Illinois!

THE MOVIES

  • PIERROT LE FOU (1965, dir. Jean-Luc Godard). watched at Music Box Theatre.
    • programmed by the lovely folks at the Chicago Film Society on a stunning 35mm print, preceded by - what else - Chuck Jones' DUCK AMUCK, the greatest Looney Tune ever made. there are a ton of Godard films I need to catch up on, but this is my current favorite of his, its reckless abandon and thumbed-nose approach to the "runaway gangster" an absolute riot. totally forgot that one of the characters does a scene in yellowface. yikes!
  • AJ GOES TO THE DOG PARK (2025, dir. Toby Jones). watched on screener.
    • wrote about this for Cine-File. a really charming work of live-action cartoonery. about 85% of the gags work here, and the low-fi ingenuity and craft on display is infectious. I was honestly ready to give this five stars over on the ole' Letterboxd until its big "lmao so random" ending emerging as the big whiff of the feature, which really stinks for such a delightful work to end on such a bummer swing-and-a-miss of a joke. ah, well. it's wonderful otherwise, highly recommended from me!
  • STAGECOACH (1938, dir. John Ford). streamed on Criterion Channel.
    • I had the night in and felt like going into full Dad Mode. i'm certainly a novice when it comes to the Western genre, but this one really did it for me. Ford's imagery is stunning, capturing gorgeously romanticized imagery in stunning wide shots, capturing deserts and mountains with painterly aspirations. the use of shadows in this thing kills me. the chase scene near the end rules. also, Uncle Billy from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is in it. a good time!
  • THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE (1977, dir. Sam Peckinpah). watched at Father-in-Law's.
    • my father-in-law said this was one of his favorite Westerns, so we watched it! certainly more introspective and suspect of the Western genre as a whole (far from the idealized world of Ford's STAGECOACH), though that understated nature left me with a film more interesting than entertaining. Jason Robards in the title role is magnificent though. ultimately, just a damn sad movie.
  • MATERIALISTS (2025, dir. Celine Song). watched at Father-in-Law's.
    • my wife wanted to give this a watch and so we did. just as bewildering as the first time, maybe even more so! I cannot get over Pedro Pascal's character's "reveal." maniacal stuff. everything with Zoë Winters' character arc is abhorrent. just a wild movie whose tone and aesthetics are completely at odds with its performances and narrative structure. good riddance!
  • THE NAKED GUN: FROM THE FILES OF POLICE SQUAD (1988, dir. David Zucker). watched at Father-in-Law's.
    • I'll be checking out the new NAKED GUN this weekend, so it seemed right to revisit the original film, a knockout of gag humor. fun fact about me; I love gags. give me gags. gags gags gags. the ZAZ school of humor (AIRPLANCE!, TOP SECRET, This Movie) is such a delight of sequitur nonsense , and it was a thrill to revisit it here (even seeing OJ Simpson here was fine, since his character's whole bit is getting repeatedly injured throughout the movie). Leslie Nielsen bumbles like the best of them. early word is that the reboot is good. fingers crossed!
  • CASABLANCA (1942, dir. Michael Curtiz). watched at Father-in-Law's.
    • y'all heard of this one???? yes, I had never seen this before. yes, I Get It now. you hear about these films that have been exalted as Classics of the medium, and you don't know how much validity there is to their position in the Canon, and then you watch them and it's like "oh right, that's why." better writers than I have already noted what makes this film work, but to put it simply, it's the medium firing on all cylinders; performance, imagery, writing, rOmAnCe, this flick has got it all! Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman have the best chemistry, every scene is tightly constructed within an inch of its life, and even the politics of the film (Centrism is BAD!!!) are right up my alley. if, like me, you haven't gotten around to this one because its seemed overhyped, unfortunately I must decree that the hype is real.

thanks for tuning in! watch anything good this week? what's a classic of cinema you still haven't gotten around to yet? what Western should I watch next? have a great week!

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