Movies I saw in July: Obsession, The Odyssey, Dead Man Down

Both movies I saw in the theater last month featured one-track minds: The first being chosen by a man determined to get home against all odds, Gods and enemies; the second being forced upon a woman against her will and knowledge:

Obsession. Grade: A.

This movie was better than I expected, a feat that was nearly impossible given all the hype it received, and one that was achieved nearly entirely because of the acting by Inde Navarette.

Her perfect casting proves that you can take even the most familiar and predictable story, say someone being granted a wish they soon deeply regret, and make it seem fresh and cool because you have the right people telling it.

Because this movie’s punch could only land if delivered by a woman we believed was possessed, an affliction Navarette embodied by not only melting her face from happy to sad to angry and back again in seconds, but by often swirling all three emotions together in one bubbling cauldron to create one of the most impressive, and truly unsettling, performances I have ever seen. 

As for the movie’s message, I saw it is as a lesson in the dangers of infatuation, particularly the ones we unleash when trying to control it. Because the only thing more impossible than trying to choose who we fall in love with is trying to control who else falls in love with us.

But I certainly don’t blame the young man who tries to have Navarette’s Nikki return his crush, because haven’t we all ached for someone who doesn’t love us back, wishing there was a way to make the person we crave feel the same about us?

I certainly have, and am incredibly grateful no one can buy a One Wish Willow that actually works. Though if you know of a store that carries them, I do need one for the next time I have to watch a smart woman lose all sense over a guy that everyone else can see is a total dirtbag. 

Hey, maybe that can be Navarette’s next movie: Cloak & Dirtbag: A woman suddenly discovers that the man she loves is really a dirtbag hiding all his bad qualities under a magic cloak. So she enlists her friends to find the source of the magic and disarm it, saving the world from Dirtbag Blindness forevermore.

The Odyssey, Grade: A+.

These days I groan if a movie is even over 90 minutes, let alone almost three hours. But I eagerly went to this opus because it was made by Christopher Nolan, since the last film of his I saw, Oppenheimer, was even longer, but I was so happily absorbed I never checked the time once.

And while I will admit the beginning of Odyssey did drag a bit for me, once we get to the Cyclops I was all in, loving my time with Samantha Morton, John Leguzamo and even Robert Pattison, who I sincerely hope loves playing sleazeballs as much as we loving watching him portray them.

But by far the highlight for me was Nolan's realistic version of the Trojan horse, showing how it would really go down with dozens of men crammed into a horse statue for days, pissing and pooping all over each other, then barely able to walk once they finally were freed from it.

The only changes I would make are to swap the characters played by Anne Hathaway and Charlize Theron, because I think Theron would have made a much more compelling queen; and, more importantly, to switch out Tom Holland for someone able to exude a bit more anger and desperation as the son left behind by father he never met. Heck, even Pattison could have done the tortured son almost as well as his delicious dirtbag. Holland might be great as Peter Parker, but he was a bit too bland for that role.

Movies I didn't watch in July:

Dead Man Down: A DVD rented from the library, stopped after only 9 minutes and 40 seconds. Maybe we would have liked it better if we stuck around until Noomi Rapace showed up, but, alas, we didn't.

Movies I saw in June: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Death of Robin Hood, Disclosure Day.