The Old Man & The Gun (2018)

This is such an unassumingly charming movie. I love everything about the retro, sort of grainy film-style. Robert Redford, in supposedly his final acting role, is just delightful. He acts so effortlessly, demonstrating decades of experience. You can't help but smile and be charmed like Sissy Spacek. And the movie is wistful, full well acknowledging the nostalgia factor in a brilliant Wes Anderson-esque montage at the end (paying homage to a young Redford, I think). The movie is actually quite funny, too. The dialogue between Redford and Spacek is disarmingly charming.

I do have one big criticism of the film. I really cannot stand Casey Affleck. He basically plays the same character from his previous collaboration with director David Lowery, A Ghost Story. Yes, in that movie he plays a dead sheet ghost. And in this film, he plays just as lively a character unironically. Actually, he plays himself. So is he even really acting? I don't think his story line really adds anything to the movie. We clearly are meant to sympathize with the criminal, so why go to the detective's point of view at all? Tika Sumper is fine but we unfortunately have to get Casey Affleck to get her. I am willing to overlook this glaring black spot because the rest of the movie is so darn pleasing.

All the President's Men (1976)

After seeing Spotlight last year, I had to watch the original journalism thriller. And I was not disappointed. Journalism is tough work. It's not glamorous. But it's important. Redford and Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein are both excellent. The story unfolds in such a way that keeps the audience on edge throughout. The nitty gritty of the politics behind the Watergate scandal is fascinating. I also love where it ends, right at the beginning of the uncovering of the truth, not hashing it all out. I didn't realize it would end so abruptly, but it leaves a lot to typewritten postscript. It perhaps shows the scope of the investigation and the amount of effort and dedication that the Washington Post put into this investigation. Solidly acted, interesting and important.