STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI renewed my faith in the STAR WARS universe. I’m going to review it, but first let me get a few things out of my system. I was 10 years old when STAR WARS hit the big screen, and my exploded along with the Death Star. I saw it eight times that year on the big screen and loved every minute of this incredibly simple yet powerful space opera. Despite the Ewoks, the entire first trilogy wowed me. Then George Lucas crushed any love I had for this universe with his three boring prequels. ROGUE ONE had great action but overall it was a forgettable movie, as I didn’t care about any of the stock characters. STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS similarly phoned it in with yet another rehashing of plots, cardboard villains, and stunning action and effects I found boring because I couldn’t be made to care about any of the characters. Han Solo, a beloved character, is brought back (wearing the same outfit he wore 30 years ago, apparently fashions never change, just as Jedi like to wear the same clothes as Tatooine water farmers), only to be thrown away like garbage. I wasn’t angry about it, just bored.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI starts off the same way, with the plucky rebels fighting the generic came-out-of-nowhere-to-destroy-the-helpless-Republic First Order led by a foppish and cartoonish villain, undeveloped characters doing stuff, huge stakes that are presented without any real context or meaning. Empty calories, but that’s okay, I was expecting fluff. Then the movie took an unexpected turn into telling a real story. Luke Skywalker steals the show, with Mark Hamill pouring his heart into Luke’s swansong. His internal conflict is gripping and real, which makes his conflict with both Rey and Kylo Ren tense and believable. Rey’s search for meaning and her strange connection with Kylo Ren add more strength to the story and make us care.

The script keeps setting up typical action punchlines and story questions, only to defy the usual rote resolution. Built on the foundation of a good story, the action scenes become gripping, from the fight with the emperor’s guards to the counterattack against the First Order fleet. Luke’s return to war is fantastic, his final scene with Leia touching. There are plenty of cute moments and one-liners to comically diffuse tension, but they aren’t shoved in your face with a saccharine grin. I don’t really care about the STAR WARS mythos anymore, so I can’t quibble about things like Rey’s parents, Snoke, or anything like that. I just wanted to be entertained by being made to care about the story and the people in it, and the movie accomplished that for me.

So overall, it wasn’t the best movie I’ve seen in the past year, but it was solid, and for me, it was the best STAR WARS film since the original trilogy.

I was blown away by OCCUPIED (available on Netflix), a Norwegian TV series (created by bestselling author Jo Nesbø) about a Russian “silk glove” invasion of Norway. As a political, spy, and police thriller, it’s hands-down one of the best things I’ve seen on a small screen. Just finished the second season, which is as good as the first, with enough twists and ratcheting tension to satisfy any thriller fan, and with enough smarts to satisfy those who prefer TV written for thinking adults.

At the end of the first season, Jesper Berg, the prime minister, joins the resistance as open warfare erupts between the country and Russia. The second season opens with the prime minister in exile after eight months of guerilla warfare produced an uneasy cease fire. The new prime minister hates his no-win job and resigns, creating an opportunity for Berg to come back. His assistant Anita, however, makes a pitch to parliament for a new government that results in her becoming prime minister. Anita must now navigate Russian influence and maintain the peace, while Berg must keep the heat on and disrupt that peace to get the Russians out and him back in power.

The result is a powerful political thriller with realistic characters in realistic conflict, motivations and actions that are rarely morally clear, and extremely smart machinations and twists that keep you guessing and surprised. I loved it, and I’m hoping a third season gets made.

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2016) is a documentary based on an unfinished manuscript by James Baldwin, a Black novelist and social critic. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the film depicts Baldwin’s observations about race in America from the 50s on and traces his relationship with the American civil rights movement, notably Medgar Evers, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King.

The documentary lacks historical depth and is more deeply personal, going into Baldwin’s head and what he thought. We’re given an ample look at his views going back to the 60s, including his infamous debate with William F. Buckley that brought the mostly White audience to a standing ovation. Baldwin’s observations are smart, cutting, and powerful.

As examples, he derides Bobby Kennedy’s observation that Blacks had made significant progress in America, and that in 40 years, might even make President. While White liberals saw this as uplifting statement, Baldwin naturally found it insulting, wondering if he should be thankful that in 40 years, if the Blacks were good, they might be elected to the highest office. In his views, Blacks and Whites needed each other, were both Americans with just as much right to participate in society, but that Blacks found themselves disenfranchised as if living in somebody else’s house. “Negroes built this country,” he says. Popular culture depicted Blacks as stereotypes, which he despised, feeling it denied his humanity, just the way social questions about “how to help the Negro” did and blind racist hatred did. Blacks needed a fair shake and to be regarded fairly and equally, as human beings, nothing more, but certainly nothing less.

These and many other issues are explored in the documentary, which I found more a social critique and personal intellectual narrative than historical film. While it lacks punch, its power is subtle, gnawing at you by making you think about race relations a new way, especially if you’re White.

I, TONYA (2017) is a biographical film about the rise and fall of American figure skater Tonya Harding (brilliantly played by Margot Robbie), who was connected to the savage attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Winter Olympics. With a script based on real events given depth and context by secure interviews with Harding and her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, the story is funny but painfully tragic, and made me rethink the “pure ice princess savaged by bitter low-class rival” media framing.

The film begins with Harding growing up in Portland in the 1970s, raised by a mother who pushes her into figure skating. As Harding gets older, her mother takes her out of school so she can train full time under a personal coach. Her mom (Allison Janney, who chews every scene in the role) pushes her hard and is rough on her, but it goes way beyond tough love into outright abuse.

Harding marries Jeff Gillooly to get away from her, but he too turns out abusive, frequently hitting her. Harding keeps at her skating, but the judges won’t give her decent scores in competitions because she projects a white trash image, with her home-made costumes and heavy metal music selections. This brings up one of the most interesting themes of the movie, which is that Harding, though a success self-made through a lifetime of dedication and hard work, nonetheless constantly faced an uphill battle in the figure skating world due to its ingrained snobbery. “It should be about the skating,” Harding complains at one point, and she’s totally right. Harding was no doubt one of the best skaters in the world, the first woman to do the very difficult triple-axle.

When Harding gets a crack at the 1994 Winter Olympics, Jeff and his loser friend Shawn hatch a plot to psychologically mess with Nancy Kerrigan. The plan goes awry, leading to a physical attack on Kerrigan with very tragic consequences.

The film comes across a little inconsistent, as it’s based on reminisces by two people with very different recollections of the events as they happened. Both of their stories are considered truthful and blended in the script. Overall, it’s a very engaging movie for its humor (the kind of ridiculous humor that can only be found in real life), great acting performances particularly by Robbie and Janney, riveting skating scenes, and hearing the “villain’s” side of the story. But it’s painful to watch as well, this being a tragedy of a woman’s difficult life ruined through bad associations, all leading up to an ending we already know well.