There are some gems this week

It's not a surprise that Scott Marks didn't much care for Fifty Shades Freed, the last chapter in the Fifty Shades trilogy, given what he thought of parts one and two. (Still, the sorry softcore was enough to fire up his critical engines, at least.)

Nor is it especially surprising that he thought well of Clint Eastwood's latest, The 15:17 to Paris, given what he thought of Eastwood's last outing, Sully.

It is, however, surprising that he thought so well of Hollywood's latest exercise in finding well-loved, well-established properties and giving them the ol' reboot: Peter Rabbit. Between that and Paddington 2, might someone be onto something?

And it's even more surprising that he found time to review The Insult, given how busy he was previewing entries into this year's San Diego Jewish Film Festival. And to top it off, there's talk of his lending an ear to The Ballad of Lefty Brown sometime in the next little while. Such is his devotion to providing you, dear Reader reader, with quality cinematic assessment.

As for me, it was a slow movie week. I mused a bit on why movies matter to me and took in A Ciambra, a good cautionary coming of age film.