I decided to go with the poster for Alex Thompson’s Rounding as the header for this post because Rounding is the best movie I caught out of virtual Tribeca this year, and I didn’t even get to review the damn thing*. Instead I wound up reviewing a fistful of mediocrity. So it goes.
It’s 2022 and I am making the effort not to be pejorative or unnecessarily mean in my writing, but I found the experience of being disappointed four times in a fucking row very, very exhausting; therefore I’m not feeling especially charitable. I will say that each of these movies has something to offer, and a couple of them are almost good until they aren’t, so that’s something!
- The Year Between: Deeply unpleasant and so phony in so many ways that I was surprised the publicist confirmed that the film is about the director’s (Alex Heller) experiences with bipolar disorder. She does string together a couple solid visual gags here, and I hope she leans into that knack more for her next movie.
- God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines: What a title! And y’know what? The movie’s not half bad either! I just wish it actually took its premise anywhere, or gave more time to its development.
- Rudy! A Documusical: Just make a movie about how Rudy Giuliani is a colossal piece of shit and a gibbering moron. (They did that. Then they wove in a fake-ass musical to round the thing out.)
- Of Medicine and Miracles: I’ll sound like a heel for shrugging this movie off, but you can get all the details found here from a few Google searches.
All of these ran at The Playlist.
*I am always a fan of directors taking hard turns away from their known aesthetics and doing entirely new stuff, so imagine my surprise to see a psychological breakdown film set in the medical world from the guy who made Saint Frances.
A Constant Visual Feast 