Arthouse Watch: The World to Come (2020)

Watched:  07/19/2026

Format:  Library disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Mona Fastvold

I really liked Vanessa Kirby in last summer's Fantastic Four, and was aware she had a career a bit like Rebecca Hall.  Be foxy in things  After getting noticed in smaller stuff, do a mix of some big, silly crowd pleasers (Hall is in two King Kong movies and an Iron Man) while still doing smaller art films and some prestige pictures.  Do all the things.    

I happened to find two Kirby movies right off the bat via Austin Public Library, and so I've borrowed this movie, The World to Come (2020) and the Ron Howard flick, Eden.  

The World to Come was not exactly a critical darling, but pretty close!  It clocked in at a 73 on Metacritic.  And I'm not surprised that, especially in the political climate of 2020 - the year of the movie's release - it did well.  It got a lot of international attention.  It's a period piece about forbidden same-sex love, and it is very sad, and that is absolute critic bait.

Sci-Fi Horror Watch: The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

Watched:  07/18/2026

Format:  TCM with John Carpenter and Alicia Malone

Viewing:  First

Director:  Val Guest

SimonUK kept suggesting The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) to me during the podcast era, and I can see why.  I think mostly in England, but also among sci-fi and horror-heads in the US, the Quatermass media - of which there's more than you'd think - is considered foundational or classic.  Thus, it may have inspired things like Doctor Who (which I confess I never got into) and there's no small amount of John Carpenter's early work in this movie.  

And, in fact, I watched it because Carpenter is hosting two days of movies on TCM with Alicia Malone. 

I'd also argue - Stan and Jack may have lifted the origin of the Fantastic Four from this movie in a small way.  And if you know Jack, he was constantly reworking what he saw on the street, in movies and in culture right into his comics, so it wouldn't shock me.