The Lovers (2017)
It was interesting watching this on the heels of the 1921 films of Lois Weber as in a sense all these years later it stems from a similar place. We find Mary and Michael (Debra Winger and Tracy Letts) at a particular low point in their marriage, each in affairs and the intent to break off their marriage shortly once their son has visited. But a funny thing happens on the way to a separation, and they fall into a new affair...with each other. Of course, it was my original belief that In The Mood For Love similarly involved a couple acting like they were having an affair with each other as a way to add spice. But where my (probably unsupported) interpretation of that film was a victimless kink, there are of course other people whose emotions are at stake here (played by Aidan Gillen and Melora Walters), in addition to their son.
It is an effective meditation on the odd ways of the heart that aren't always logical or pleasing. Though I become a broken record in seeing this type of story and responding "this is where ethical nonmonogamy would be extremely useful." So much trauma resulting from our self-imposed requirement that we have failed if we cannot make one person be everything we need.
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
This is definitely a film that should be considered for its Art Direction because the setting of the film, this peculiar little motel with the California-Nevada border running straight through it, is such a captivating character, beautiful but sinister in its quiet, much like the Outlook Hotel in The Shining. The ride itself is interesting but I found it a little incoherent. A mishmash of mysterious characters whose pasts and motivations are revealed over time, I am not quite sure if there was a broader message to be taken from it. Comparing it to The Cabin in the Woods, the meta-commentary felt particularly relevant to social mores. Admittedly I am less honed to noir motifs and thus might miss some things here, it felt more of its own world than thematically linked to ours.