This movie would have benefited from some editing (I didn’t need to watch a static closeup shot of an entire microwave cooking cycle), but there are also a lot of lingering shots that work, particularly when hanging on Zoe Zeigler’s face. I don’t know if she’s a master of subtle emotion or a perfect example of the Kuleshov Effect, but every scene with her is filled with an undercurrent of emotion.

If you made this movie now the lesbian part would almost be an incidental part of the story, but in 1994 it was pretty uncommon. The acting is pretty stiff; almost all of the cast never acted before or since. The numerous sex scenes might have been groundbreaking at the time, but now they seem overlong. There’s also a little too much Freshly Graduated Film Student Artiness (“Play it backward! Throw it some symbolic shots! Add a fantasy scene with everyone wearing the same wedding dress!”). A lot of this is just a product of when it was created. If it were made with current movie equipment, they would have been able to see what shots didn’t work and reshoot immediately without worrying about running out of film. But even with all that, Go Fish is still very watchable.

This movie shouldn’t work. The main family is played by an actual family, so the risk of nepotism is high. The story is full of perfect coincidences, including: the father, a construction worker, accidentally stumbles into acting in a community theater performing exactly the right play to act as therapy; the daughter gets suspended at just the right time to participate; the mother has connections to help as well; the twin climaxes of the story happen to be occurring withing a few hours of each other. But it does work. The performances are strong enough to support the ridiculous amount of suspension of disbelief required by the story.

The father and daughter get most of the meat of the story, and they both shine. I would not be surprised if Katherine Mallen Kupferer has a long and well-respected acting career.

I knew this movie wasn’t working for me when I started getting distracted by plot holes. If the characters were stronger, or the story more engaging, I would accept all the story points that don’t make sense. I’m looking forward to a better vehicle for Lily Gladstone.

If you’ve ever seen an action movie and thought “they sure have the sound up high,” know that it was nothing compared to the volume was set at for this movie. Hearing aids not required!

Man, I enjoyed this film. The humor works, the riffs on action movie tropes work, the touching stuff works… everything works. June Squibb and Richard Roundtree make a great geriatric Murtaugh & Riggs.

Bonus fun for me: most of it was filmed in the East San Fernando Valley (and they weren’t trying to hide it) so I got to play “Hey, I Know Where That Is!” a lot. “That’s the gas station near Aroma Cafe! That’s the park up the street! That’s the place where we bought the lamp by the couch!”

Look, I know this is based on a book, but “The Bikeriders” is a terrible title.

Very little of this movie actually takes place on a motorcycle. It’s told from the point of view of Kathy (Jodie Comer), who never drives a bike in the movie (though she is a passenger once or twice). It’s a good choice.

There are no surprises in the story, but the characters are strong enough to carry the film. Tom Hardy’s voice absolutely drove me nuts in the trailer, but it’s mixed differently in the movie and sounds less like a cartoon baby voice.

My second time watching a movie, then watching the short film it’s based on (the first was Sometimes I Think About Dying, part of the Mid-February Movie Rodeo Roundup Jamboree Wonder Festival). The short is about a woman in an awkward family situation. The full movie starts there, and then slowly cranks up the tension until it feels like a horror movie where the monster is bad decisions. Rachel Sennott was apparently born to play people trying to use intelligence and shields made of sarcasm to survive living in real world nightmares.