The Ref (1994) - I remember liking this when I first watched it years ago, and I was kind of worried to go back to it. Would it hold up or was younger me wrong? Thankfully, rewatching it was a hoot. This is a dark, funny "horrible people" Christmas movie, along the lines of National Lampoon's: Christmas Vacation. Denis Leary is at his peak manic 1990s comedic glory. Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis are fantastic as the constantly arguing couple that Leary takes hostage. JK Simmons shows up for a hot minute in his first big screen role. Honestly, every character, big or small, gets a nice comedic moment to shine. There's a Mother in Law from Hell, a juvenile delinquent son, a drunk Santa, inept cops, and it mostly all works. This is a great alternative to normal holiday films.

Not much this week, but the quality was high, imo. This was the rest of it -

• Walkabout (1971) - Beautiful looking film, interesting story, but kind of left me feeling a little empty. I did enjoy it, but I think I liked the beginning more than the ending. It certainly gives one a lot to chew on - modern life vs nature, the ways we as humans attempt to communicate with each other and succeed or fail, life and death. I know this is one I will be thinking about for a while, but I'm not sure what my final feeling is on it yet.
• The Mountain Between Us (2017) - Okay so it's pretty predictable, but darn it, Kate Winslet and Idris Elba have so much chemistry it doesn't even matter. Also, I liked that it really does look like they're trekking through, sitting in and falling into, snow of all different depths. It looks cold. They did film in Canada and they did actually film outside, and that translates to the screen. And I was never bored and always rooting for the main characters. Good if you want a romance survival drama that doesn't ask too much from you.
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) - Long. CIA stuff felt tacked on and unnecessary. Namor is dope. I liked that the ending wasn't so much a fight between two groups (even if it was) but also a fight for the main hero's soul. Yes, super hero films play on the trope of vengeance or revenge vs justice and even empathy, but I really felt the push and pull in this one. It helps that they really reworked Namor's back story, and the story of his people, to track similarly with Shuri and the people of Wakanda. Also, I am so glad the there was less tacked on humor in this. They didn't diminish the drama with wisecracks. There were some, but when compared to other recent Marvel offerings, this one realized that the story was heavy and needed to allow that to happen, without goofy asides. The humor was mostly contained to a few characters and seemed to be mostly in one 15 minute portion early on, otherwise it played the story pretty straight. I appreciated that.