More movies watched out of alphabetical order, but soon we’ll launch into the L’s…

Come and See (1985)

This is war, specifically Germany vs Belarus, 1943. Kids play with corpses, then run and hide at the sound of approaching soldiers. Dead bodies are stacked behind homes.

One boy’s name is Flyora, and he looks between 12-15. His mom doesn’t want him to go off to war, but it’s not really a choice. War is what boys are supposed to do, death is all around, there’s no escaping it, so Flyora joins the war effort.

In most war movies, the next section is boot camp and training, but not here. If there’s time for drill sergeants and polished boots and rifle practice then your war is a leisurely thing, but this is not that war. No paperwork, no physical exam, no weapons issued — Flyora brings his own rifle, dug up from the battlefield, and once in a shabby uniform, he goes directly from adolescence to an infantry, and then to Hell.

There are no grand battles, no heroics, only chaos and death and flies buzzing around the corpses. War-planes fly overhead, bombs explode trees in the forest, the boy’s eardrums are shattered, and why? There isn’t even a logical target for the bombs being dropped.

Playing Flyora, Aleksey Kravchenko was 14 years old, and seems 50 by the time the film ends. I’ve never seen a better performance, and it never seems like acting.

Bleak as it is, the movie makes one concession to ordinary movies, when Flyora is befriended by a slightly older woman or girl who is, of course, beautiful. That’s a wise moviemaking choice, honestly. Without her, watching this film would be a completely awful experience. With her, it’s still awful, but once in a while there’s a glimpse of something that’s not.

Come and See was filmed on location right where the killing happened, and within living memory of people who lived through it and knew people who hadn’t. Watching it is the next worst thing to being there.

And why? There is no why, no making sense of it. The Nazis burned hundreds of Belarusian villages to the ground, killed all their inhabitants, because they could and nobody could stop them. Just another genocide.

That’s what happens when some country has access to an endless supply of weapons, and a madman is in charge. Fortunately, everyone says it could never happen again.

Verdict: BIG YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

Exit 8 (2025)

A young man rides the subway, then tries to leave the station, but gets lost in the maze of underground walkways that (are supposed to) lead to the surface.

In separate but interlocking walks, a businessman and a young boy are also lost in the walkways of Dante’s subway station. That’s 99% of the movie, so it’s a testament to either the moviemakers’ skill or my own weirdness that it never bored me, even as the film explores the same subterrain over and over.

With callbacks to Kubrick and Bong Joon-ho, this is a modern (presumably AI-constructed, but I ain’t complaining) horror film, with an old-fashioned morality and a happy ending.

Verdict: YES.

♦ ♦ ♦

When It Rains (1995)

Charles Burnett made heavy flicks on serious topics, and maybe this is one of them, but it’s disguised as a cute, sometimes funny 13-minute short.

A black lady is behind on her rent, and a friend tries to help by hustling up donations. Dude goes from black neighbor to black neighbor, usually getting turned down, but a few folks are willing to help.

Call me a grinch, but I wouldn’t chip in on the lady’s rent without a better understanding of her money troubles. Is she gonna be short again next month? Life is rough, sorry, but black or white, the rent is due on the first of every month.

If the good neighbor killed the landlord — a more permanent solution — I would’ve enjoyed this more, but the film is pleasant and inoffensive as it is.

The music is terrific, and what is the bizarre triple-horn Brother Juno Lewis is playing? Apparently, he invented musical instruments.

Verdict: YES.

11/9/2026

Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer.
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No talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.