With an enormous amount of screenings and screeners for FYC season, and life being the most, I’m collecting 15 of the movies and TV shows I’ve watched this fall here for some quick reviews.

“Nouvelle Vague”
4/5
As someone who loves the French New Wave, I loved seeing this behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making of Jean-Luc Godard‘s “Breathless.” It was also lovely to see other filmmakers of the time like François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol get some screentime.
Folks are heaping on the praise for director Richard Linklater‘s “Blue Moon” (my review is below), but for me, “Nouvelle Vague” is the superior choice.

“The Morning Show” (Season 4)
4/5
Alex (Jennifer Aniston), Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) and the crew are back and still in great form. While I could take or leave some of the subplots, the main storyline of the season was quite compelling, thanks in large part to the performances of Witherspoon, Billy Crudup (Cory) and Mark Duplass (Charlie). I do still appreciate how they can take a bunch of small moments from throughout the season and build them into one hell of a finale.

“Train Dreams”
4/5
If you’re in for a slice of life period drama that will tug at your heartstrings, “Train Dreams” is the movie for you. It does chug along a bit slowly, but Joel Edgerton’s performance as a journeyman logger is one of the year’s best.

“Roofman”
4/5
I thoroughly enjoyed this little crime caper romp with Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst. It has a lot of heart, too, and wasn’t entirely what I expected from filmmaker Derek Cianfrance.

“Predator: Badlands”
4/5
I loved “Prey” more than any other Predator movie I’ve seen, so I was excited to see this given it’s from the same director, Dan Trachtenberg. While I do think this is quite a departure for the franchise and might give some die-hard Predator fans the ick, I really enjoyed “Predator: Badlands.”

“Frankenstein”
3.5/5
I wanted to love this so much, but it fell a little short for me. If you want to watch a Gothic horror from Guillermo del Toro, check out “Crimson Peak.”
I usually love Oscar Issac, but I felt his performance swerved too far into the cartoonish category in “Frankenstein.”
However, Jacob Elordi, who I honestly have not been that impressed by in the past, is the reconstructed beating heart of this movie and infuses most of the film’s humanity in his turn as the legendary monster.

“After the Hunt”
3.5/5
When I first heard Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield were making a movie with Luca Guadagnino, I was immediately seated. While some of the story structure doesn’t work for me and it at times gets as muddled as the film’s subject matter, I did appreciate that “After the Hunt” was a movie that made me think. I am still thinking about it weeks after my September screening.

“Blue Moon”
3.5/5
I love an Ethan Hawke-Richard Linklater collaboration, and this is no exception. While it is nowhere near the beloved “Before” trilogy or even “Boyhood,” I still found Hawke’s performance compelling, even if it was distracting to think about how they pulled off making him shrink to the height of legendary musical lyricist Lorenz Hart.

“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
3.5/5
Rose Byrne is fantastic as always, and I loved seeing Conan O’Brien pop up as her character’s therapist. Ultimately, though, this does get a little hard to watch and is definitely not for the faint of heart. Let’s just say I’m glad I’ve decided to not have kids.

“Regretting You”
3.5/5
A cute little romcom(dram) to break up the horror and early awards bait that dominate this time of year, nothing more, nothing less. The AMC product placement was a little much, though. How do they have a megaplex in the seemingly small town where these people live?
Between this and some other movies I’ve watched recently (“Now You See Me 2” and “Neighbors”), I am pretty baffled by the existence of Dave Franco’s continued presence on the screen. (I still want to give “Together” a shot, though.)

“The Lost Bus”
3.5/5
Not even strong performances from America Ferrera and Matthew McConaughey could keep this from falling into the standard trappings of lackluster biopics.

“Die My Love”
3/5
This is arguably one of the better performances from Jennifer Lawrence, but I just couldn’t help but feel that “Die My Love” verged a little too far into exploitative territory. Also, I’m still not convinced Robert Pattinson is a good actor. He took one step forward with “Mickey 17” earlier this year, but this made my opinion go a few steps back.

“Dead of Winter”
3/5
I really enjoyed seeing a different side of Emma Thompson, but every beat of this thriller was entirely too predictable.

“A House of Dynamite”
3/5
A fascinating concept is not fully executed here. I am glad to see Kathryn Bigelow continue to get opportunities to make movies but hope she can find some better material.

“Ballad of a Small Player”
2.5/5
I really, really wanted to like this. After watching and adoring Colin Farrell in the neo-noir show “Sugar” earlier this year, I was excited to see another noir turn from him.
Unfortunately, this movie feels like as much of a struggle for the viewer as it does for his character.
After three attempts (“All Quiet on the Western Front” – 3 stars, “Conclave” – 3.5 stars, this at 2.5), I’ve decided I’m just not a very big fan of Edward Berger‘s films.

I should be getting back into long-form reviews soon, including my thoughts on “Hamnet,” “Loot” season three, “Palm Royale” season two and “Is This Thing On?” coming soon.