Perfect ending for a three-fer

So, what do you do after seeing three films in a row? How about having a stiff drink. And if you’ve seen the three films at the AMC 20 at River Park Square, then a good place to have a drink is at Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar. And I needed one on Friday night.

The day started out in the early afternoon when we watched “Shame, ” the sexploitation film by the British filmmaker Steve McQueen (yeah, not T HAT Steve McQueen — he’s dead). Actually, I trust that McQueen had a serious intent in making the film, which is why calling it sexploitation is probably wrong. Fact is, though, the film featured Michael Fassbender as a troubled guy who spends 100 minutes trying to have sex with everyone/thing he comes in contact with. And there is a lot — a LOT — of full-frontal male nudity. Still … what was the point? Seemed a bit meh to me.

After a quick popcorn and Diet Coke stop, we bought tickets to “The Artist. ” Now, this was enjoyable. A bit soft, maybe. Basically a re-creation of silent-era film that’s clever and touching and well-filmed and … soft. By taking a kind of “A Star Is Born” plot line, the film — by French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius — is old-school melodrama. With the obligatory happy ending. I enjoyed it. But even just 20 hours later, I’m having a hard time remembering much about it except for actor J ean Dujardin’t smile and the pristine black-and-white cinematography. Not exactly “Citizen Kane.”

And then we ended with “Haywire, ” the action-thriller by Steven Soderbergh about a woman intelligence agent — the contemporary word for spy — who gets betrayed and then spends the rest of the film looking for answers. And revenge. The best thing about the film is the protagonist, played by real-life martial artist Gina Carano. And since the movie was directed by Soderbergh, it is, of course, filled with sequences well worth watching. However, this has to be one of the sloppiest written films every directed by a major director. There are so many loose ends here, things that just defy explanation, that I woke in the middle of the night thinking, “What the hell was that?”

And then I realized why, at the end of the day, I’d been so thirsty for a drink. Or two.