The Odd Couple (1968)
A happy balance that works out for all concerned, not least for Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon. It's a case of a theatrical play working well for the movie version, not because of opening up -- there's some of that, here, and it does add some New York City flavor, such as the night photography with the flashing signs at the beginning, and buses and Shea Stadium -- but because everything Neil Simon's play does well also keeps it from movie foibles. It's situation comedy in the truest, best sense, not firing gags or one-liners, or setting up punchlines like tee-ball, but creating a portrait of these characters from their situation and rolling that along through dialogue that always flows with its context.

Nuremberg (2025)
This starts out almost as if it's too flip about the subject. But there are two qualifications of that, one in the movie itself, the other from the situation outside it. The movie sets up a progression that's a recreation of how it occurred then: the revelation of the full extent of the holocaust. So there is definitely a contrast, a setup for a scene at the Nuremberg trials that involves archival footage. The other matter is just how difficult it is to play this sort of thing, especially when everything this message works against has returned and is being normalized. A certain amount of mollifying good conscience has come with the warmed over lessons of World War II, and even the well-meaning rehearsals like Judgment of Nuremberg. But as much as there needs to be room for other types of reaction, there doesn't need to be concession made to unregenerate denial. This movie is also not just the trials, despite the title, but a related story, another route to them, that of a psychiatrist who interviewed Hermann Göring. Despite a somewhat slick, expedient approach, it manages to get its points across.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Like Bruce Springsteen himself, with his music, this walks the line between popular cliche and anything it would be or be about otherwise: original music, more profound contemplation, folk or ballad or rock that is popular without being hackneyed or pandering. Further twists ensue with artistic integrity or authenticity, since even what is true, deep, natural, soulful, etc., can be a pat or trite idea, itself conventional or cliche, or without understanding of the complexity of artifice. Scott Cooper, who directed and wrote the script, based on a book by Warren Zanes and Springsteen's autobiography Born to Run, tries to make this more about the creative process, which is admirable, but it's also another kind of hazard. Trying to show how artists create often reduces processes of the mind to literal-minded depiction, biopic cliches. The movie starts out looking like that, but becomes more interesting where's it about the particular project and process of Nebraska. For related movie interest, the title track of that album was inspired by Badlands. Springsteen watching a movie or looking up articles on Charles Starkweather provides more pithy and interesting practical action, tracking away from melodramatic swells. I was also wondering if Jeremy Allen White would avoid the smoldering of either the beleaguered artist or the Carmy variety, and he does a good job of giving us a tack that's not just impersonation or derivative.