Your Hurt My Wisp

There are two very good movies out today! Hard to believe, it being summer and all -- I mean neither of the movies I speak of are the live-action re-do of The Little Mermaid. Nothing against Melissa McCarthy playing Ursula the Sea Witch -- I kinda love that. But I haven't seen that yet and I probably won't until a very bored weekend afternoon when it's streaming. For now though you should head to the theaters (if you live in a place where these smaller titles are showing) to see these two films -- first off there is Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues’ futuristic pornographic fireman musical Will-o’-the-Wisp, which is a description that nope, I am still not tired of writing. I reviewed the film at NYFF last year, read that here. (And here is the trailer.) I've been dying to see it again because in its sixty-ish minutes it packs so much strangeness in that I didn't come close to sussing out all of its meaning with a first view. But even among all the weirdness it's sexy and goofy and unforgettable. 

Far easier to "get" but no less enjoyable a viewing experience there is Nicole Holofcener's new movie You Hurt My Feelings, which reunites her with the world's greatest comic actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus. That's right, I said it. And right this second as long as I don't try to think up other options I mean it, too! Here is my Sundance review of the film. She plays an author who accidentily hears her loving husband saying he hates her new book, causing her to, as one can expect from JLD, spiral in hysterical fashion. It's a perfect fit into Holofcener's canon -- heartfelt, perfectly observed, and laugh-out-loud funny. Sometimes summer is good to us! Here's the trailer: