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Some crazy stories in there.

Seems to me Cunk on Life promises a kind of nature show hosted by the always-bonkers and never-informed Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan), but it's more about various aspects of human life - religion, philosophy, art - and comes across as rather haphazard. It's Cunk, so it's never going to be coherent exactly, but there are leaps here that defy category. Maybe it's because I'm a French-Canadian Catholic (well, THERE'S a redundant phrase), but we mock religion as a matter of course, so starting on creation as defined in the Bible, etc. felt like very low-hanging fruit (apples, I guess). I start to chuckle after those segments when they get into human biology (one biologist takes these interviews so seriously, it's pretty hilarious). The special also has fun with the format, creating fake commercials and constantly telling what's going to happen next, but never getting 'round to it. It's Cunk, so it's funny, but it does often feel like it's a clip show from other, non-existent, specials, like they just couldn't stay on course.

Annette Haywood-Carter is one of those "talent to keep an eye on" female directors (I swear, it's in her IMDB bio) that somehow never got to make films more than once every 5-10 years, despite her first feature, Foxfire, being a very cool, gorgeous-looking, 90s coming of age with a very specific point of view. And yet, I probably wouldn't have known it existed except for the fact I was looking up Clint Eastwood's Firefox and had a dyslexic Google moment. High school girls who don't really know each other are bonded for life when they take revenge on a teacher sexually harassing one of them after a badass runaway (Angelina Jolie) encourages them to. And then this sisterhood has other adventures punishing bad men in their lives, but realistic consequences tend to ensue. It's not some kind of fantasy, they get into trouble no matter how much they're in the right. The rest of the cast isn't hugely famous and more easily become their characters (the lead Hedy Burress was in Boston Common, but I hardly remember the show, and I suppose I know Jenny Lewis as a singer - and she does sing a bit here - but I didn't recognize her). This kind of movie needs a good soundtrack, and it IS strong, without going for any of the obvious, cliched hits.

Remove Bill Murray from Meatballs, and I think you'd still have a cute, fairly realistic vignettes about summer camp, playing for nostalgia more than anything else. Pranks, summer flings, forced camaraderie. Cute, but not memorable. Billy Murray gives this early Ivan Reitman film a bit more shape, however, and more goofiness. He's basically improvising his way through scenes and his P.A. announcements are a lot of fun, but I think where he shines best is in his relationship with a boy who has a hard time making friends and is the camp outcast. Looks like Murray is great with kids, and not so great with adults, which seems fair given he's still a camp counsellor at his age. I wish they'd done more with the rival camp for rich kids across the lake, with their pretentious activities and nasty 1-percenter dispositions. When the North Star kids are up against the cultural appropriators of Camp Mohawk, there's a better semblance of a plot, proving that sometimes, you need villains to jeer at to keep the energy going. I mean, these guys are better at everything and STILL feel entitled to cheat. Booooo! Murray's Tripper is kind of the perfect coach in this situation. It's not a great film by any means, but I was surprised how charmed I was by it.

Sometimes, you just have to commit adultery to save your marriage... A hoary old movie trope (thanks Woody Allen!) that Babygirl also leans into. Not that this movie ever REALLY says anything definitive about anything. On the one hand, it seems to mean to be kink-positive, as Nicole Kidman's high-powered CEO struggles to climax with her objectively hot, loving husband and finds release with an intern who's too easily got her number. On the other, the film also lays in images of neuro-programming (her childhood, that her business is about automation), so masochism is... bad? These elements are so underplayed, they feel orphaned from an earlier version of the script. But this is a movie with characters who need to feel jeopardy to be sexually satisfied, and yet denies its audience any real aesthetic satisfaction. It teases and threatens jeopardy, but deflects it at every turn as if we'd shouted out our safe word any time the going got tough. Ultimately, I just can't believe in Harris Dickinson's motivations - he goes from meeting his boss to almost immediately treating her like a submissive - and he therefore becomes a fantasy thirst object for whatever segment of the audience likes this sort of thing. Babygirl has some good things - I like the sound design and the soundtrack (even if the songs are a bit on the nose), and Antonio Banderas is impeccable - but I don't think it works nearly as well as its more ambiguous trailer. Or much at all.

All I really remembered from watching Fritz the Cat a long time ago was cartoon animals getting high and screwing. There's not a WHOLE lot to it other than that. Can't say Ralph Bakshi's opening gambit in the world of adult animation isn't a fair adaptation of Robert Crumb's work, but that's not exactly narratively based, so as a feature film, it's kind of slapdash. There are some brilliant bits, like the billiard player's death and the explosive climax, but generally, the storyline is rather dull. Said cat is part of the sexual revolution and at first uses political talk to bed girls, but is progressively drawn into activism until he hits a radical limit. Those politics are a little naive and simplified, but as an anti-establishment screed, I'm sure it has its fans. Not so much for its content as its format - Bakshi (like Crumb) was making something for adults that looked like it was made for kids, and just that (and taking the X-rating) takes some balls. But Fritz is a product of his time, and once you get past the shock value (which we, as a society, did, decades ago), we're left with dated ideas, language and solutions, and a movie that doesn't really have any momentum, political or otherwise.