Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Summit Fever, a fictional drama about mountaineers in the Alps. This movie was Not Good but I couldn't tell you why exactly... basically i didn't care about any of the characters and they were all pretty flat. But I still enjoyed it because the cinematography was excellent. It was simply beautiful to look at, and the climbing interests me. A bunch of people die in this movie from avalanches and freezing to death etc.
I feel like the cottage industry of people who make mountaineering films, in general, are people who like cinematography. There is a little ode to the Super8 camera in this film.

Infinite Storm, fictional but based on a true story (BOATS), about a woman who rescues a guy off of a mountain she is climbing. Turns out I had seen this before but forgotten it. Well made but not actually beautiful to look at due to a gray color palette-- this seems to be a fad these days, the gray de-saturated look, and I hate it but clearly lots of film makers love it.... mysterious. She isn't a smoker but her house appears smoky.... weird visual choices.
It's an interesting story, and it's neat seeing a middle-aged, highly competent heroine rescuing a guy who is in an altered mental state and not particularly cooperative.

Here's the original article the movie is based on (they added more stuff for the movie).
https://www.unionleader.com/nh/outdoors/footprints-in-the-snow-lead-to-an-emotional-rescue/article_482a2e0f-e725-5df6-9e7c-5958bdb272e5.html

Uncle Frank 2020, dir. Alan Ball.

I really liked this drama about the gay uncle in a white Southern Family in the 1970s. The POV character is a teen girl named Beth who tells us, the audience, about her favorite uncle. Frank (Paul Bettany) is a college professor in NYC, and when Beth decides to go to school there, she becomes closer with him, and meets his partner Wally (Peter Macdissi).

When the family patriarch dies, the three of them road trip back home for the funeral. Frank is a nervous wreck and we soon find out why-- he has lots of unprocessed trauma. The rest of this film really gets into Frank's feelings and experiences and it was powerful to watch Bettany's performance. Macdissi was wonderful too, all the actors were exceptional. It's a serious movie but felt very much by and for queer people, and it had a hopeful ending. Worth looking up content notes (or ask me).

Some things on Netflix.

The Dads
A 10-minute doc that shows dads of trans kids who are trying to be supportive. This was nice but felt too short, like it's the opener of something longer.

Gender Agenda
A showcase of various gender-y comedians, put together by Hannah Gadsby. Loved this.

Heart Shot
A 20-minute fictional lesbian film, well made but didn't make a lot of sense because it felt like the opener to a thriller film. I'd love to see the whole film though! Features two young lesbians of color.

Long Shot
A short documentary about a man who was falsely accused of murder. His lawyer went the extra mile for him and got his case dismissed, using TV footage from "Arrested Development"-- a live shoot at a baseball game that just happened to have the defendant on camera. The arrest was really traumatic for this guy and it's luck and a good lawyer that got him free.

Blazing Saddles
I really enjoyed this and would have watched it sooner if I'd known how gay it is. Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little light up the screen, what a joy. Towards the end there is a song and dance number featuring men singing about bottoming, which they call "The French Mistake." This looked really good too-- film plus traditional and natural light! What a concept.

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari
A documentary about a disaster in New Zealand in 2019. People went on guided tours to an active volcano! For years! Then eventually it erupted and killed 22 people. Others were left with severe burns and trauma. This one has haunted me a bit. on the one hand, why would anyone take such a tour, but OTOH the companies doing these tours took advantage of naive tourists. One young man lost his whole immediate family. This was a disaster that was totally preventable. One thing I liked about this film was how it emphasized people helping each other.

I'm trying to spend less time on the computer so I'm watching things on the actual TV, which means Netflix.

Designated Survivor: a political thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland. This is actively bad. I'm trying to figure out who the audience is for this messy propaganda, but my brain is not up to that task.

Grey's Anatomy: I tried this a couple of times because I do like medical shows generally speaking. It didn't grab me, which is too bad because there is a lot of it.

The Lincoln Lawyer: This was very entertaining and I liked the actors a lot. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays the title character, a criminal defense lawyer who likes to work out of the back seat of one of his fleet of Lincoln cars. I think the genre character for this kind of "beach noir" is supposed to be slightly sleazy, but the actor has a kind face and is good with people, so he seems more likeable and I enjoyed that. After a work colleague is killed, the Lincoln Lawyer is thrown into a big celebrity murder case. Meanwhile he's trying to juggle family responsibilities and he's got mysterious people bugging his car. Oh and he's in recovery from a pill addiction. Has another season coming.

Suits: a drama about business lawyers. I gave this a couple of eps but it's just so boring...? The main characters are two white business (lawyer) bros. Meghan Markle and Gina Torres are in this, both of whom I like, but they are just background characters.

Keep Breathing: A "limited series" that is a fine example of the survival genre. A young woman (also a lawyer!) survives a small plane crash in the Canadian wilderness and must try to live. Throughout her ordeal she thinks about (and is haunted by) her childhood and early adult experiences. If you've watched a lot in this genre as I have, there's probably nothing new or different here, but it succeeds at what it sets out to do. I liked that the main character is Latina.

Arctic - 2018, Netflix, survival story (fiction).

This movie won't be for everyone: it's slow, it's extremely low-dialog. I however loved it and thought it was very interesting, with impressive realism.

Mads Mikklesen plays Overgård, who is already stranded on the ice when we meet him, after his small plane crashed. He is a hyper-competent sort of person and has apparently been there a while: he has several fishing holes set up with bells to alert him when a fish bites. He has created a giant "SOS" sign by digging out snow down to rock. His watch alarm keeps him on task, relentlessly. He's developing a map of the area and using that to find places to signal with a hand-cranked transponder. His life is relatively safe, and he's just waiting for someone to find him.

One day in a snowstorm, a helicopter appears. He signals the helo, but it spins out of control in the storm, and crashes. Of two people on board, one has died, and the other is injured. Overgård assists the young survivor, a woman who has little English and is drifting in and out of consciousness. He brings her back to his camp and searches the crashed helo for supplies.

One thing Overgård finds in the helo is a photo of the woman and her family. With great tenderness and care, he bends the photo and places it into the breast pocket of his parka. He later places the photo in a window where she can see it if she wakes up. Overgård places his own scarf around the woman's neck and tends carefully to her wounds. His care of this stranger is carried out with the utmost respect. Once when he first carries her to lay her down, Overgård pauses and revels in the moment of touching someone, in the basic platonic sense, just enjoying the warmth of another person next to you. His face transforms.

Overgård must now decide to leave his camp. This woman needs medical care. She was carrying a map of the area, so he can now find his way to a permanent station, a several day's journey. He must pull her along behind him so that he can make sure she drinks water and stays warm.

Overgård has what I think of as a Scandinavian approach to very difficult problems: this needs to be done, there is no two ways about it. So I am going to do it. (Extremely relatable and part of the culture that came over to America with my family members).

What follows is a harrowing journey through an incredibly hostile landscape, one that has a harsh beauty to it. Overgård continues to demonstrate his competence and stamina, but the obstacles continue to increase.

This is a nearly silent film, the ultimate in "show don't tell," and so some things are not explained. The story is simple, but told well. The movie grapples with the idea that our hero might fail, but he is heroic for trying. Overgård represents a healthy and heroic masculinity. He never seems to regard his charge as anything other than someone he needs to take care of and keep alive. Caring for someone gives him meaning and purpose beyond just staying alive. Indeed he risks death to do so, putting the chance of saving her above his own life. If the two of them die, at least they will not be alone.

Content notes: helicopter crash, blood, injury.