Three Recent Watches: In Bruges, The Odyssey & Tampopo

Three watches this past week, and about as wide a spread as you can get — a pitch-black hitman comedy set in a fairy-tale city, Nolan's massive take on Homer on the biggest screen I could reach, and a Japanese ramen comedy shared over actual bowls of ramen. Two of the three are new additions to the shelf. Here's how they landed.

In Bruges (2008)

Directed by Martin McDonagh. Starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.

This was the pick of my friend and fellow Haven film club member Kayla. I didn't own it and was pretty sure I'd enjoy it, so I blind bought it on 4K Blu-ray for our watch. On the surface this plays like a simple odd-couple comedy, albeit with a much darker tilt — both leads are hitmen by trade. The dark humor lands, but underneath, the jokes are softening a far more complex story about guilt, judgment and the importance of a personal code. Bruges itself is shot beautifully throughout and becomes a character in its own right. On the flip side — as it's hinted at and then more or less spelled out for us — the city is serving as a kind of purgatory where we watch everything unfold.

The performances are great, the comedy does its job in making the story easier to digest, and it made for a worthwhile watch. I have to stop short of calling it fun given the subject matter. It's an excellent film and well worth the time to watch and to have on the shelf at home. I'm landing on a solid 3.5/5 — just under a 4 — on this one. I can recommend it, just do your homework up front, as there are some sensitive subjects covered over the course of the film.

The Odyssey (2026)

Directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and more A-list actors in small roles than you can shake a stick at.

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Next up, I took my two oldest kids to see Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey at our local theater. We aren't among the fortunate few with 70mm IMAX reasonably close, so we settled for the standard IMAX presentation at our local Regal. In the months leading up to this one my anticipation went on a bit of a roller-coaster ride. When I first heard Nolan was working on it, I was really excited. When the first trailer dropped, that cooled off — the tone didn't sit right with me. As more trailers came and social media whipped itself into a frenzy over casting, modern language, and the aesthetic of the ships and armor and so on, I got less and less excited. Then a bit of hope crept back in after I watched some early reviews from critics I've come to trust.

While this isn't my favorite Christopher Nolan film, the kids and I both had a great time and a great overall theater experience with it. The trailers either intentionally misled on the tone or just badly missed the mark — I enjoyed this notably more than they had me expecting. This isn't a standard sword-and-sandals adventure; it's very much Nolan's spin on the original story. The issues people had already used to pre-judge the film turned out to be insignificant portions of the movie and didn't hurt my experience at all. Instead of a straight adventure, I walked away focused on the drama and the exploration of family, personal guilt and responsibility. I think it says a lot about what happens to the world when we abandon simple human decency toward one another.

It's shot beautifully, as I trusted it would be. Nolan knows the theater experience he wants to craft and he delivers — this is a theater experience the likes of which we don't often get. The performances were also excellent with Tom Holland showing something different than when he's suited up as Spider-Man. My main nitpicks: the audio mix continues to blow out dialogue, as is common in his films, and I do think the dialogue — and yes, to a degree the modern language — didn't support the story to its fullest. I'm landing on a 4/5. It could have easily climbed toward a 5 if not for those script and dialogue hangups. I'd personally recommend giving this one an honest shot. There aren't many movies being made on this scale, and there's considerably more to enjoy here than the social media backlash would have you believe. I'll be adding it to my physical collection day one when it releases.

Tampopo (1985)

Directed by Jūzō Itami. Starring Ken Watanabe and Nobuko Miyamoto.

Last up for the week, I watched Tampopo at the Haven with a group planning a trip to Japan in the coming months. We had ramen during the film and used it to explore Japanese culture and the "right way" to eat a bowl. It's Criterion sale time, so I took this as my excuse to add their Blu-ray release to the collection. The film is largely a lighthearted, if slightly off-center, comedy. One of my favorite moments plays out like a Rocky-style training montage built around making the best ramen you can. It really plays with genre, leaning into classic Western and even samurai tropes. Those stretches revolve around a struggling local ramen shop, where our assembled team of ramen heroes helps the title character elevate her run-down spot into a top-tier establishment. I adored these portions of the film and the whole setting — the exploration of food and the rituals, personal and cultural, that grow up around it. It's zany at times, but the comedy never tips over into slapstick. If the film had stayed focused on these characters and that shop, it'd make my favorites list.

Intermingled with that story are a couple of other plot lines that play like disconnected shorts with unrelated characters. One of them recurs a few times and centers on a younger, hyper-stylized couple exploring their food fetish. I found these scenes jarring and off-putting — hard to sit through. I don't mind this kind of content when it feels right and makes sense, but it didn't work for me in this context. Luckily they're short, and we soon get back to Tampopo and her team. I'm sure the filmmaker had a reason and was trying to illustrate a different side of our relationship with food, but rather than thought-provoking, it landed as stomach-churning for me.

Rather than ruin an otherwise charming film, it just lowered my enjoyment, so I'm knocking it down half a star based on my personal reaction to that piece. 3.5/5. Given those scenes and how uncomfortable they'd make this to watch with certain company, I can't give it a blanket recommendation. I'm happy I watched it — glad I even own it — but it's going to get filed with the films I know aren't going to be for everyone. If it sounds interesting, I'd recommend doing a little research so you know what you're in for. Also keep in mind those scenes aren't the bulk of the film, and the rest is very much worth your time and attention.

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