A film world in the sky

Usually, even on long overseas flights, I find it difficult to focus on inflight entertainment. But last month, on an especially long Atlantic crossing, if only to fight boredom I summoned enough concentration to watch three films going and three coming back. First, I have to tip my hat to Air Canada, whose in-flight entertainment selection has really risen a notch or two. The movie choices include not just the old standbys like drama and comedy but independent, foreign and classic films, plus several individual language categories. So, here’s what I watched:

Going: Steven Soderbergh’s 2020 Let Them All Talk. There was a time when Soderbergh was edgy (Sex, Lies and Videotape 1989, Full Frontal 2002) though he has swayed too often into the mainstream. But this flic is simply a bland TV movie that will appeal because of its gossipy premise of three old friends reuniting on the Queen Elizabeth 2 and starring Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest. Pedro Almodóvar’s The Human Voice (2020) is a one woman show starring Tilda Swinton, based loosely on a Jean Cocteau play. Swinton, as usual, is fabulous as a woman raging against her psychological demons, one in particular.  And finally, for comic relief, Wayne’s World (Penelope Spheeris 1992) with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey. It will take you back to every crazy person you knew in high school and beyond.

Returning: Adaptation (Spike Jonze 2002) a semi-autobiographical story of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s (Nicolas Cage) attempt to adapt a screenplay of New Yorker writer Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) book on the tantalizing underworld of hunting priceless orchids. I am so tired of Streep, who has long become the bland go-to actress for myriad roles. I liked this idiosyncratic film when it first came out but this time around it seemed overly long and a little too cute. Blackbird (Roger Michell 2019) was a real find. A study of a family of emotionally cold, estranged individuals, there’s great performances by Susan Sarandon, Kate Windslet, Sam Neill and Lindsay Duncan. Finally, The Good Liar (Bill Condon’s 2019), based on the novel, is a sharp tale of a confidence man (Ian McKellen) and his mark (Helen Mirren), with an unexpected detour into a Second World War subplot. Seeing two seasoned artists like Mirren and McKellen is evidence the best of British crime and spy dramas isn’t dead.