Movie Death Match: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" v. "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"

New pod! We took the critical insight of Filmspotting and added the primal thrill of bloodsport to create Movie Death Match!

In our Disclosure Day themed debut episode, two "passionate and highly credentialed advocates" argue the relative merits of Steven Spielberg's two friendly-visitor classics. Representing 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind is Margaret Weitekamp, curator nonpareil! Pounding the table for 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is Jen Chaney, critic extraordinaire!

I'm grateful to them both for their game participation and to Filmspotter-in-Chief Adam Kempenaar for the opportunity to administer firm-but-fair cinematic jurisprudence.

The Torturned Seamstresses Department: "Mother Mary," reviewed.

Michaela Coel is working with phantom thread in Mother Mary. (Frederic Batier / A24)

It wouldn’t be right to say Coel acts rings around Hathaway in the title role, but their dynamic certainly leaves no question about which performer’s career is on the ascent. Coel is just as compelling holding her own against Ian McKellen in “The Christophers,” a contemporaneous release where she plays a similar part: an assistant/creative partner to an artist who has fallen on hard times. But “Mother Mary” reverses the polarity of that film: Here, she’s the one who gets most of the big speeches, while Hathaway’s performance consists largely of nonverbal reactions and then line readings choked out through tears. She’s always been one of cinema’s great cryers.

My Washington City Paper review of David Lowery’s Mother Mary is here.

Reacher versus the Cybertruck: "War Machine," reviewed.

This isn’t the type of film where you’d recall the names of any characters anyway, but because it’s set during Ranger selection, most of the characters have no names, just numbers. Ritchson is No. 81. James is No. 7. Millie Bobby Bongiovi née Brown is … not involved in this Netflix project.

My Vulture review of the latest Netflix movie to carry the title War Machine is here.

The French 2075: "Arco," reviewed.

My Washington Post review of Arco, the Oscar-nominated feature debut sci-fi from French director and cowriter Ugo Bienvenu, is here.

Snake Oil: "Anaconda, reviewed."

Jack Black and Paul Rudd can’t save this ssssssssssstinker. (Sony Pictures)

You’ll want to sit down and do some exercises to limber up your brain before you try to process their supernova of perverse inspiration: Their new “Anaconda” is no mere reboot but in fact a midlife-crisis comedy about four pals who travel from Buffalo to the Amazon (as played by Queensland, Australia) to knock out a no-budget, guerilla-style remake of the 1997 Sony Pictures trash classic “Anaconda,” a fondly recalled object from their youths.

Still on the fence? Your stars are Paul Rudd and Jack Black, those winningly youthful 56-year-olds whose shtick is, like Rudd’s face, evergreen.

My Washington Post review of Anaconda, a toothless nomedy, is here.

"Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning," reviewed.

Tom Cruise has yet another plane to catch in The Final Reckoning. (Paramount)

Any new Mission flick is the start of a long relationship for me, and as with 2023’s Dead Reckoning, my estimation of the new one went up on a second viewing. It’s still a goddamn mess, though.

My Washington City Paper review of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, the eighth and perhaps-but-also-perhaps-not climactic MIssion is here.

A Lost Time Accident: "A Working Man," reviewed.

I miss when David Ayer made real movies. My Village Voice review of Sabotage from 2013 is lost to time, but my NPR pieces on Ayer’s Fury, Suicide Squad, and Bright are all readily available. It’s a bummer that the guy who wrote Training Day and wrote and directed End of Watch is now doing shlock like A Working Man — which I reviewed in your Washington Post.