Change Your Image
twocents2
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Wicked: Part I (2024)
Wicked Good
I have never seen the musical, despite being a native New Yorker. This film is just a fabulous time at the movies and this year's Barbie. I am sensing a $1B box office total. The only complaint is that we only get half the story in 2.7 hours. There is a lot of pleasant padding as the producers are setting themselves up to cash in next year with Part 2. One nine year old in front of me showed up dressed as Galinda. The theater was 80% full, despite it being a 2:30 PM Tuesday show. Everyone got their money's worth.
Ariana Grande is spectacular as Galinda, the mean girl. She gets suckered into letting Elphalba room with her while sucking up to Madame Marrable. They eventually become best friends. E is only there to chaperone her disabled sister Nessarose, but MM offers to tutor her privately after seeing her magical powers. Munchin Boq is in love with Gal, but she skillfully steers him to Nessarose. They eventually double date with Gal and Fiyero, who transferred after being expelled from three other colleges.
I guess Sabrina Carpenter would be a great Galinda, but nobody is complaining about Ari, who is very cute and can sing everything and anything. Cynthia Erivo is a perfect Elphalba. Jonathan Bailey is all too perfect as Fiyero. Michelle Yeoh is wonderful as Marrable. It's kind of like Angelina Jolie as Maleficent. Jeff Goldblum is terrific as the Wizard of Oz. Ethan Slater is a cute Boq. Peter Dinklage is great as the voice of Professor Dillamond, a goat. Original Broadway cast stars Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel are fine as singers at Oz, but kind of superfluous. Just see it. Such a warm, familiar voice. This film, like Barbie, is review proof. Producers are dancing on the ceiling.
Nightbitch (2024)
Not Too Rich
I was invited to a screening and director Q&A. This film is much artier and obtuse than I expected. The central family is nameless. So we must simply refer to them as Mother, Father, Son for shorthand. Mother is a frustrated former artist, complete with MFA. She's now a frustrated stay at home mom with a two year old terror. He's blonde; mom is a redhead and dad has brown hair. This was a real annoyance for me. Dad has some important job involving travel and goes away for a week at a time. Director Heller is more interested in the magic realism part of the screenplay than giving us any details. I loved the scene that she has with her former classmates, all successes to some degree. She may as well be a fly on the restaurant wall. I also enjoyed Mother's scenes with dogs, which are plentiful. Apparently each of the three main dogs corresponds physically to one of her friends.
Amy Adams is absolutely amazing in the role. But I kept picturing Amy Schumer in the role! I felt that the film is beneath her. She should be in obvious Academy Award level fare, not this experimental lunacy. Scoot McNairy is fine as her shlub hubby. This is one unattractive couple on the big screen. Who says Hollywood is all about glamour? Zoe Chao as one of her mom friends is a dazzling beauty completely stealing every second of her screen time. Mary Holland and Archana Rajan are entertaining as her other mom friends. Jessica Harper is fantastic as Norma the librarian. The director tried to hide the setting, but it was obviously LA. Apparently it was only filmed there because AA lives there. I didn't hate the film, but I came away disappointed by Adams' choice to do it. Being the top dog lead is a big deal. However, this seems like a waste of her talent. I wanted to howl at the sky afterwards too.
Magpie (2024)
Meh Magpie
I kind of liked this film. Daisy Ridley of Star Wars fame stars as Annette, the wronged neglected wife of emerging author Ben. They have it all with a great house in the London suburbs and a newborn. Their other child is six. Matilda (Tilly) is costarring in a Victorian drama with Alicia. The film opens with her successful audition. Annette takes the newborn to a job interview, as her old boss wants her back at the publishing house. But the baby makes such a commotion that the scene is a disaster. So she's stuck home while hubby takes Tilly to set each day. Of course he and the leading lady, Tilly's stage stepmom, strike up an affair. It's a very devious, sinister triangle. Mom goes to great lengths to suss it all out. There's so much cell phone usage in the film it should have been done as an Apple+ film. I loved Ridley in Woman of the Sea. This is totally different. Like her less here. Now she uses her native British accent. Matilda Lutz is glamorous and sexy as Alicia. Shazad Latif is fine as the two timing villain. It's an okay way to spend ninety minutes, but not at all a film to seek out. Ridley and the writer are married, which was never mentioned at the Q&A both attended, so it was basically a package deal.
Martha (2024)
Martha Memories
I really enjoyed going down memory lane with director R. J. Cutler. This truly did let you in on the great one's entire life. It was as open a book as one could imagine. It kept referring to her origins in Nutley, NJ. I later found that she actually moved there at 3 from Jersey City. Her father was a teacher turned unsuccessful salesman and alcoholic. She modeled after getting a tip from a neighbor's family who was in the business. Before you know it, she got a Barnard College scholarship and left that whole mess behind. They omitted her double major in history and architectural history. She had to return to school because of traveling on her honeymoon after a fairy tale marriage to a Yale Law School student. They were together 27 years. He cheated on her and now feels that this film unfairly used him. They soon moved to Westport, CT as pioneers on Turkey Hill Road. She became a stockbroker, dazzling clients. It was great to watch her rise and then fall. Five months in the slammer. She made a number of friends and loved giving out advice. MS is America's first influencer. It concludes happily with her comeback, largely driven by her performance on Justin Bieber's Comedy Central roast. The film was a real hoot. Seeing it in a theater was also a treat.
Usher: Rendezvous in Paris (2024)
Living Vicariously
I walked into a crowd of thirty middle aged black women, so I am not the target audience. But hey, it was enjoyable and the price was right. This was filmed during Fashion Week. Usher had plenty of changes and really got around town, as his prerecorded segments showed. It was fun to see audience reactions as he approached or even when they sat far away. At one point, he was singing on a tiny pedestal less than a hundred square feet and I feared for his safety. I got a kick out of his dancers on roller skates doing loops around the stage. Obviously this was just for hardcore fans who have attended his concerts or have missed them for various reasons. His primary romantic interest was not as attractive as the others, so that was a turnoff. But I enjoyed going back in the time machine with his songs. It was only in theaters for four days, but should have a lengthy life on demand. He is certainly still in demand. We go to the movies primarily to be entertained, and this really does the job.
The Buckingham Murders (2023)
Little Bang for the Buck
I attended this film with my usual crap shoot selection system. I suppose that this film could have a token Manhattan release given the city's diversity. Producer Kareena Kapoor Khan plays Jaspreet Bharma, a British-Indian detective overwhelmed by grief after her young son's murder. She accepts a demotion just to move and gets to Buckinghamshire. Of course, upon arrival she gets a missing boy case, the adopted son of Daljeet (Ranveer Drar) and Preeti (Prabhleen Sandhu). She refused it, but if that went through there would be no film. KKK is a star back home. But her British accent is not great and she is a poor runner. Drar is pretty good as the anguished yet misogynist father. He has a very sexy mistress to help drown his sorrows. Adwoa Akoto is nice eye candy as Bharma's fast friend on the force Sharon Marks. The true killer has a very weak motive and their identity truly comes out of left field. It felt unwarranted and bizarre. We get to see a lot of the Muslim community and how estranged they are from the mainstream. I felt that this film does what most film goers want. It kills time, but that is about all. KKK's fans will be happy to see her on screen. But the screening only had about a dozen people, three of whom were Indian. She ultimately was not much of a draw.
Ghostlight (2024)
See the Light
I was invited to an industry screening, but recommend paying your way in to see this gem. It opened in June with very little buzz, but apparently is going wider now. Writer Kelly O'Sullivan directed it with her partner Alex Thompson. I missed their first film, the much lauded Saint Frances.
The Mueller family uses a community theater production of "Romeo and Juliet" as a cathartic vessel to soothe the pain of their son's suicide. The mysterious circumstances surrounding his death involve a lawsuit and a pivotal deposition. The writer skillfully withheld the shocking details until very late, as most storytelling is about secrets. Father Dan (Kieth Kupferer) is a construction worker in the Chicago area. His relationship with his wife Sharon (Tara Mallen) is worsening by the day. Their fifteen year old daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) had a fight at school, is suspended and sees a mandated therapist at $150 an hour. Dan had a fight at work with a motorist and almost had to take a mandatory leave. Waitress Rita (Dolly De Leon) saw this and, out of both pity and necessity, asked him to join her theater production, meeting nights and weekends because everyone has jobs. Dan is of course a lousy actor. But after the original Romeo quits, Rita talks him into the role opposite her Juliet. It's a much more age congruent match. They were planning to stage their sole performance in the cramped rehearsal space in the heart of town. But Sharon is a schoolteacher and persuades the powers that be to gift them the gym.
It's such a terrific feel good movie, with a fair amount of angst and bitterness swirled in. Dan, Sharon and Daisy are a family in real life. This really cemented their performances beyond what a normal cast would achieve. Kupferer has a ton of theater experience, which he employs to great effect. Dolly De Leon is fantastic as Rita. She continues to produce excellent work after her Triangle of Sadness breakthrough and Between the Temples. The physical disparity between the hulking Romeo and petite Juliet is a source of easy laughs, but that all fades once they are in character. It's always a joy to see theater and film converge, as in Vanya on 42nd Street or Birdman. A raft of rave film festival reviews are entirely accurate.
Chosen Family (2024)
Choose Chosen
I saw this a full month before it premieres and after its showing at four film festivals. This is just a solid romantic comedy written and directed by its star, Heather Graham. She plays Ann Fitzgerald, a yoga instructor with a home on luxurious Rhode Island waterfront property. There are four or five sweeping bird's eye views of the town, showing off a picturesque marina and the Atlantic ocean, which becomes monotonous to watch. The first scene is her signing her addict sister Clio (Julia Stiles) out of a rehab facility, only to dump her at her parents' home's garage and more toxicity. Ann is still single and dates toxic men. Her friend Roz (Andrea Savage) copped her dating site passwords and is tinkering with her profiles. Her married friends Max and Frances (Thomas Lennon and Odessa Rae) are deep in debt after opening a sprawling restaurant. This trio is her second family. After getting a gander at Max's dreamboat contractor Steve (John Brotherton), a match comes to organic fruition. The conflict is that his ex wife is destroying him in divorce court and their spoiled daughter Lilly (Ella Grace Helton) hates Ann and tries to sabotage every second the three have together. By the way, Clio also hates Ann for not preventing an abuse incident, despite Ann being ten at the time. The sisters' story gets very short shrift and feels tacked on and glossed over. We can barely process what even happened as Clio quickly blurts it out. I wanted more Clio, but Ann is driving the car. But this is first and foremost a comedy. We are treated to their wacky mom Dorothy (Julie Halston) pester Ann for help in getting a singing career off the ground. Ann only has three students. Her boss tells her that the studio's rent went up, though we can't imagine how it was ever solvent. She talks Ann into doing a vlog to salvage the business. Given her incredible figure, looks and crazy rambling, it goes viral and there's a line around the corner. Her instant sold out status gets her an invitation to a fancy festival where she can really blow her up if mom and sis don't get in her way. What happens next is a doozy. The performance are all pretty good. Halston's flashy character stands out. Savage is amusing as the boss B businesswoman friend. Brotherton provides a deep voice, chiseled physique, full beard and flowing hair. The stereotypical man written by women in chick lit. He explains his impossible situation quite well and actually has it even worse than Ann. Stiles does about all she can within the cramped confines of her role. Lennon is all warmth and comfort, like a human fleece blanket. Rae is a really talented comedienne. Helton is fine as Lilly. She doesn't disturb the film's rhythm, which is always a challenge with a child actor. Graham has lost almost none of her Boogie Nights appeal and is a treat to watch as she navigates all the objects she set herself up to juggle, but mainly Steve's. She has endless energy, charisma and floral outfits. The little bit over the credits is sentimentally sweet. The film is an entertaining 88 minute trip, cosigned by the Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and just about everyone in the town with a pulse.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
The Juice is Joyously Loose
I have not seen the original, but that wouldn't stop me from enjoying an all star cast which entertained me for over a hundred minutes. I clearly missed a lot, so newbies should read a few reviews before going. The original's teenager Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is now 50+, a widowed psychic hosting a big time TV show. She walks out of a two show taping when she gets a message from mother Delia (Catherine O'Hara). It so happens that her father died. She picks up depressed daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and go to the family home to settle his affairs. Real estate agent Jane Butterfield (Amy Nuttall) is thrilled to finally sell the place. Lydia gets a marriage proposal from her producer Rory (Justin Theroux) and reluctantly accepts. Astrid allegedly finds love from neighbor Jeremy (Arthur Conti), who ends up manipulating her and her family. Danny Devito shows up as a janitor who helps summon Dolores (Monica Bellucci), Beetlejuice's ex-wife. The title character is convincingly played by its originator, Michael Keaton. Keaton is endlessly entertaining and milks every word to its maximum worth. Chasing him is deluded actor Frank (Willem Dafoe), who hams it up accordingly. The music is terrific. The costumes are perfect. Tim Burton continues to be a genius. This is a movie that I would watch again and again each week. It's just so delightful and fun. With a $100M opening weekend in September, it will be around for quite a while.
The Greatest of All Time (2024)
GOAT Takes You By the Throat
I wandered into this theater having only read their thumbnail description and figured that I'd have an okay time, despite the daunting three hour investment. Our pathetic audience of four could have played bridge. The others were very sedate throughout. We sat very far apart in the cavernous house. I did periodically peek in on them for reactions. They didn't seem to have a pulse. But I was having a high old time.
It started on a high octane note. The lead, Gandhi, got himself on a high speed train through the middle of nowhere. He was securing a stolen sample of U-235, which the captions inform us could blow up to Hiroshima or Nagasaki levels. Needless to say, mission accomplished. There is so much thrilling action in just this scene with him and his anti terrorism colleagues. They all pose as Indian tourism workers as their job, a front which also keeps their adoring families in the dark. Given the amount of twists, turns and flashbacks, it would be exhausting to detail a review. The comedic scenes are hilarious and appear throughout. The dance numbers are lavish, overwrought spectacles. There is a fair amount of romance involving both leading men.
For such a sprawling ensemble, it is by and large well cast. Gandhi's wife, played by Sneha Anusuya, is absolutely stunning and talented. I am unfamiliar with the lead, Joseph Vijay. He is a huge star in South Indian film and this is his penultimate film, though he is only fifty. He is incomprehensibly talented, charming and charismatic. I was constantly rooting for him, despite his increasingly poor survival chances. Rajiv Menon made a great villian in Mohan. The director, Venkat Prabhu, is obviously a patient and wise man with great taste. The outtakes during closing credits are hysterically funny and as entertaining as anything in the film itself. What a wonderful coda. At one point, Gandhi recreates the Mission Impossible theme song, which is a clever homage and cute way to implicitly break the fourth wall. This film's scope and breadth rivals that of RRR, which I saw with a house of 250 happy people. Unfortunately, this film will not find much of an American audience. Their Indian American audience base, enormous in my city, may have seen it on opening Saturday. It's the kind of movie that needs a significant audience for ideal engagement. They don't know what they're missing.
Blink Twice (2024)
Don't Think Twice, Skip Blink
I was really looking forward to this film given the upbeat party atmosphere of the trailer and hookup potential. But the setup was so farfetched that you would have to be under 21 to buy it. An aspiring nail designer and her BFF roommate Jess are working as waitresses at a fundraising event. Frida (Naomi Ackie) meets the man of her dreams billionaire when she trips over her own gown. The gowns that she and Jess have somehow changed into after a little serving duty to infiltrate the party. The billionaire calls off security and even invites them to his private island, as is often the case. It is simply nirvana, but she has misgivings. The original title was P Island, loosely based on Jeffrey Epstein's island. The women are abused, but never remember a thing the next day. She doesn't know why she has bruises and dirt under her fingernails. The cast pass around Jess' lighter constantly. Violence ensues in the third act.
So here's the deal. Naomi Ackie cannot carry a feature film. Her charms are best consumed in theater or film and television supporting roles. It was so utterly depressing to realize that I would have to watch her for a hundred minutes. Her first strike is being British and playing Whitney Houston, a national treasure. A sad commentary on the current state of American acting. But okay, what's done is done. Let us address BT.
Secondly, the pixie haircut and gapped front teeth are so distracting. Why would handsome billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum, of all men) pick plain and frigid Frida of all women for an island romp? It baffles the mind. Oh, because Zoe Kravitz cast her. For plot purposes he also had to invite her even more repulsive pal Jess (Alia Shawkat). I'd kick both to the curb for Sarah (Adria Arjona). But she's stuck with dopey chef Cody (Simon Rex) bowing to her while she stares daggers at jackpot winner Frida.
The film worked out perfectly for Kravitz. She got to make her pet project and met her future husband, Tatum. For viewers, not so much. This borrows heavily from both Glass Onion and Promising Young Woman, much better films. I enjoyed seeing Christian Slater and Haley Joel Osment chewing scenery and having a blast. Simon Rex hams it up nicely too as the chef. There's way too much partying in fact, almost an hour's worth. Kravitz needed to get an actual plot going so an audience can stay interested. There's only so much eye candy and nouvelle cuisine we can absorb. There isn't even any nudity to distract us in the meantime. Geena Davis is King's ditzy assistant who abets his cover up, a fictional Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell is currently doing twenty years in minimum security somewhere in NY. Davis gives a fine performance, and IRL does a lot of female empowerment work, so her casting was a slam dunk. Ethan Hawke's spitting image son Levon is cool as a young brainy tech guy who wants to eventually run his own company. This film was a real buzzkill letdown with a much padded script to kill time. Kravitz sure killed mine.
Tokyo Cowboy (2023)
Ride 'Em Cowboy
I entered this film the old fashioned discreet way. TC is an unexpected delight. I could not stop grinning or laughing the entire time. All I knew about it was the favorable rating, which I read just before it began. Hideki Saito is a corporate finance guy in Tokyo who is a mastermind at transforming fading companies. We see him efficiently buy out a chocolatier at the very beginning. His cost cutting solution proves to really hinder the product, a payoff that we will see twice much later in the film. He decides to take his talents to Montana and resurrect a failing cattle ranch. What can go wrong? It's a laugh a minute comedy, so a lot. He's been in a seven year relationship with fiancee Keiko, who's also his boss. She warns him to deliver or risk getting fired. No pressure. His luggage never arrived and things get much worse from there. There's wacky banter with perky hotel receptionist Cindy. He declines a four wheel drive rental car; it's $17 a day extra. This is a very poor decision. Consultant Wada, a ranching genius who flew over with him, prefers getting plastered with the locals and gets himself a long hospital stay in the bargain. He butts heads with ranch manager Peg, herself a spinster. The audience concludes a lot faster than him that his wacky plan is destined for failure. He does help ranch hand Javier, a failed rodeo star, who has an illicit sideline business on the property. Due to car trouble, he is grudgingly invited to a Quinceanera. There, he reflects upon his own relationship and makes an effort to improve it. Two hours fly by. I was absolutely entranced by the film's beautiful cinematography, to say nothing of the dialogue and performances. The theater was mostly empty, but our hearts were full by the time the credits rolled.
Arata Iura is absolutely wonderful as fish out of water Hideki. His adventures never got stale or old; his persistence is remarkable. Goya Robles is tremendously convincing as Javier, striving for a better life. Robin Weigert is maybe a bit too urban for Meg, but she's hilarious. She reads NY all the way. Jun Kunimura is laugh out loud funny as wily Wada. Ayako Fujitani, a cowriter, is really perfect as Keiko, down to her short efficient hairdo. Scout Smith is a revelation as Cindy. Most people will miss this film, both in theaters and streaming. Ah reckon that right there would be a mighty shame.
City of Dreams (2023)
Shattered Dreams
If you find yourself at this film, you know what you've bargained for. This is a tough watch. Young motherless Mexican boy Jesus (Ari Lopez) has dreams of a soccer star life. But of course he's mired in the worst poverty imaginable. He gets a dubious chance to attend an LA soccer camp, which Dad eagerly signs off on. Before you know it, he's sold off into a windowless sweatshop sewing for his life. The going rate for kids is $10K and up. A potential girlfriend is sold off into child sex slavery. Another kid arrives with the soccer camp pamphlet and Jesus loses it. Of course some sort of escape is in the works. We then meet Officer Stevens (Jason Patric). He strays from the LAPD MO and gets his just desserts. But a happy ending is coming, or at least as happy as one can expect under the circumstances. Patric is the biggest name in the film. He's had a decent enough career, but nothing notable in over thirty years. This film does have flashy producers: Tony Robbins, Luis Fonsi, Yalitza Aparicio, Linda Perry, Luis Mandoki, Enrique Santos, Thomas Jane and more. The director's father served in a sweatshop, so he has skin in the game.
This is a labor of love to focus attention on the issues of child labor and sex trafficking, kidnapping, etc. The last third of the film really picks up the pace and is riveting to watch. Patric is the white savior who makes everything marginally better. We assume that Jesus is better because of the epilogue, which I will not spoil. This is not a great film, but not a bad one either.
AfrAId (2024)
Afraid It's Average (AIA)
I entered the theater the old fashioned way for the last twenty minutes. I decided to watch the whole thing, and it was an okay time killer. Sony did not provide press screenings, so they at least made some money before people got hip to this mess. For me, it was a choice between Afraid and The Crow. I looked up the latter's reviews on my phone and picked the former as the lesser of two evils.
John Cho plays Curtis, a marketing wiz. He and his mentor and partner Marcus (Keith Carradine) are offered crazy money to market AIA, a souped up Alexa that will change the world once consumers adopt it. Curtis grudgingly agrees to test it out in his family's lavish home. It read his entomologist wife Meredith's (Katherine Waterston) master's thesis in .007 seconds and has great pointers on getting her PhD thesis off the ground. Mom loves it. It helps write daughter Iris' (Lukita Maxwell) college essays. It even helps undo the damage from her nude photo getting turned into revenge porn. Preston and Cal (Wyatt Lindner and Isaac Bae) race through their chores after AIA incentivizes them. Curtis is offered a job at Cumulat. He declines, so they buy out Marcus, who is now loaded. Curtis is named CEO. Oscar nominee Chris Weitz is the writer/director slumming for a paycheck. The studio clearly sought to capitalize on the AI success of M3GAN. Sexy Cumulat employee Meldody (Havana Rose Liu) is also AIA's voice. She even tries to seduce Curtis when things start going south for AIA's future. I enjoyed all the settings and cinematography. But it never really took off as anything worthwhile. I recalled Cho as a brainy Obama junior staffer. He's a little too typecast and such a big personality that his casting kind of upstages the film itself. Waterston blends in seemlessly as the harried mom. She turns on AIA after a particularly unsettling resurrection of a family member. Isaac Bae is very cute as Cal. Carradine is so friendly and relatable. I really enjoyed his work. I kind of like staying within the family cocoon and forgot all about the other couple that bookend the film. The ending felt like a rush job to throw everything together. The closing credits tell us that AIA is very much an intrusive addition to all our lives. I guess this forgettable film will break even. If nothing else, it reminds patrons that M3GAN II is on the way.
My Penguin Friend (2024)
Waddle in and Enjoy
I saw the trailer for this ten times, being an avid moviegoer. No interest whatsoever, but I sneaked in and there are no signs outside most of the theaters, so unfortunately it's potluck. I was just relieved that it wasn't something I'd already seen. I'd just walked out of one hall after being told it was Deadpool. MPF is a pretty good way to spend 97 minutes, just long enough to avoid boredom. The star is that wacky penguin Dindim. He went from Patagonia, Argentina to coastal Brazil for eight years to chill with some geezer and his wife. We learn early that geezer, a fisherman named Joao, foolishly went fishing with his son on a stormy day and got him killed. They are childless. One day he fishes Din out of the ocean and decides to nurse him back to health for a month. Whole village is thrilled, since nothing else is happening there. At one point a marine biologist and her team tag Din. After a village video goes viral, they investigate and discover that Din made the trek and is living large. Everyone feeds him sardines and Joao built him a fancy crib. Din barely socializes with other penguins, preferring Joao and the bros. They cage him and take off, but biologist gets sentimental and lets him roam, let's say.
I enjoyed vet Jean Reno as Joao. He really is the backbone of the film and is a sturdy lead. Adrianna Barraza as his wife was very good. Duda Galvao as the little girl who names him was very sweet. Her mom Calista would likely have married Joao's son Miguel had he lived. It's a great family movie and some of the shots are outstanding. They even ended with a real life scene of the actual participants involved. I really appreciated having this film unfold and wash over me. Price was right, of course.
Zhua wa wa (2024)
Success
I went to a Sunday morning screening and was the only gringo among twenty Asians. This movie just charmed me from the outset. Ma Jiye is a billionaire's son, but his parents have set up an alternate universe for him with seemingly unlimited funds. Teng Shen and Li Ma are absolutely perfect in these roles. Only by overcoming the most incredible adversity can MJ grow up into a truly great man capable of running a giant corporation as the Successor. Ma Chenggang and Chunlan have engineered quite the environment. Ma Jiye is being raised by them, acting as a struggling couple, in a pathetic slum with a supposedly crippled grandmother in tow. Rina Sa was terrific as granny. Secret entrances and compartments reveal a sleek elevator, an esteemed chef and all of Ma Chenggang's employees. His English teachers were pretty cool, including a hot Russian babe. The whole conceit is so endearing and exciting to watch unfold. Despite knowing no Mandarin or Chinese, the subtitles were enough to keep me howling with laughter. He collects cans and bottles for family cash. He gets relentlessly bullied for being dirt poor. He runs three miles a day to get to school, then three back. This crazy routine impresses a track coach, who comes to their house to recruit him. But his parents fake a foot injury to keep him from becoming a jock. He's going to take the critical college entrance exam and get accepted into the best business school in the country if it kills them. The first born son inherits nothing in Chinese culture and here is painted as a loser idiot. But will MJ catch onto the family's elaborate scam and upset the apple cart? You'll never guess what's on the exam answer sheet that he submits to his proctor. The film is rather drawn out at 2:13 for a comedy. But unless you're dying to hit the bathroom, it's a nice long ride. There are also very good action scenes. Congratulations to directors Da-Mo Peng and Fei Yan.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
No Rom No Com Yes Suspense
I liked this a lot better than I thought. I sneaked into the multiplex screening, so I entered at midpoint and had to stick around to watch the first half. The benefits employee of the evil corporation that Rain and her friends work for has diabolically doubled her work hour requirements with a few keyboard clicks, so she cannot leave Jackson's Star for Yvaga III and finally see the sun. Her friends are also held hostage in an eternal limbo in this depressing dystopia. The whole cast should really have been older, but Hollywood wants to get the teen demographic and they work very cheap. This neophyte crew decides to hijack a ship and get to a floating space station where they can get pods enabling the nine year ride to the promised land. Of course, this place is riddled with booby traps, the familiar face huggers. Rain is partnered up with the family android, Andy, played by David Jonsson. What else would he be called? He's supposed to solely protect her, until he's programmed with other orders for a while. His British accent was so annoying. The exposition is pretty decent for a while, holding us until the real action kicks in. Rain's BFF is of course pregnant POC Kay, which we learn early, and we can guess what the spawn will look like. It's an Exorcist vibe in the middle of an Alien franchise film. All we really don't know is the order in which the supporting cast dies. We know the last one standing from jump street. Aileen Wu as the bald badass Navarro was pretty interesting. The classical Remus and Romulus dichotomy is supposed to be a classy, clever detail. But it was lost on me and probably 99% of the audience. They ultimately didn't make enough of a big deal about it, despite it being in the title. Ian Holm as the corporate bad guy on a computer screen was standard issue villain. Cailee Spaeny is okay in the lead role. She's the polar opposite from Sigourney Weaver, very understated, frustrated yet determined. The guns are great, and the huge space station is a great playground for the director and his crew. Bottom line is that this will make big money and everybody will get paid. Spaeny gets even more visibility after her title role in Priscilla. I enjoyed it and expect big crowds now that Deadpool and Twisters are finally starting to fade.
Longlegs (2024)
Diet Silence of the Lambs
I slipped into the theater for this gratis, hoping for a fun and gritty time. As a huge Nicolas Cage fan, I certainly expected one. The FBI agent lead played by Maika Monroe does not maika anyone recall Jodie Foster, of course. The script is a lot more out there, involving her ESP and families being wiped out upon a child's birthday falling within a certain radius of the 14th.
Blair Underwood's casting as her superior was interesting. I didn't believe that he would casually invite her over for her daughter's birthday party, which was otherwise unattended. But he's kind of a name brand and delivered the performance. Cage, as it turns out, only has little more than a cameo. It's not by accident that he's not in the film's generic poster. Only he and Brad Pitt were considered for the role, and he's a much better choice. Besides, Pitt would have declined. I didn't expect a formulaic Cage-Monroe confrontation in an interrogation room, which immediately conjures SOL associations for whoever has not already made them. It's a manhunt led by a woman, and a rookie agent at that. Quantico must be shocked.
There are at least three solid jump scares for me, not that I've ever consciously been aware of them before reading movie reviews. Monroe also has an interesting relationship with her mother (Alicia Witt), mostly be phone. Witt is pretty good. This is a great way to kill a hundred minutes on a hot summer afternoon. Will you remember anything about it in a week? Doubtful. I do recall the large Pres. Clinton framed photo in Underwood's office. The flashbacks to the 1970s were great. The cinematography is above average, given how bare bones the settings are. I appreciate the art house spin on a horror film. Hey, you could do a lot worse.
Dìdi (2024)
Puberty Bites
This film won the Sundance Audience Award. You'll see why fast. My packed audience gasped and reacted to much of it and we were fully involved and invested. Wang is an Oscar nominee for his documentary short starring his grandmother, who he cast here as the lead's grandmother. She's an amateur, but a delight. We get to see a Fremont, California 13 year old Taiwan American attempt to overcome his social and academic issues. He's a somewhat interesting kid. I'm really not interested in puberty cinema, but at least it doesn't outstay its welcome at 94 minutes. I later learned that his name is Mandarin for little brother! Big sister Vivian is soon off to UCSD. Grandma thinks it's too far away and stresses the importance of Didi getting into Stanford. That's a pipe dream at this point for the aloof student hanging out with a bad element. Shirley Chen is pretty good as Vivian. She has shadings to her acerbic character later when she opts to become sort of a second mom to him. Joan Chen is tremendous as the mom. She keeps pursuing her artistic dream by painting in a spare room and submitting her work to competitions. She once even dreamed of having a studio in NY. Chen is a pro's pro and delivers late in the film conveying her frustrated dreams. The family has first world problems as they live in a gorgeous home financed by the breadwinner off winning bread in Taiwan. The scene involving another Asian family at a restaurant was great. The other mother brags about her children's accomplishments while Didi's mom seems crestfallen and embarrassed about her own. It's not exactly a family film with all the cursing, sexuality and even violence. But it's a wonderfully entertaining coming of age film that will be memorable. Wang will be directing films with huge budgets within five years if he so chooses. Izaac Wang, no relation AFAIK, is really engaging as the lead. He can be the Asian Michael Cera. Or he can just be himself.
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)
Beyond Hopeful
I snuck into this film and expected zero. But it was such a heartwarming story that absolutely captivated me. Great gospel singing. While it was a bit long in running time, I bought into the characters. The story really accelerated in the last half hour as the lead teen got herself in a life threatening situation and adults panned out looking for her. Nika King is a gorgeous woman and reminded me of a young Vanessa Williams. I was tuned in simply to enjoy her presence. She was a housewife in a tiny East Texas town, Possum Trot, struggling to raise both biological and adopted children. Pastor husband WC, Demetrius Grosse, was excellent as the firm backbone of the community. Elizabeth Mitchell was wonderful as their caseworker. It's a great story which has been widely featured in the mass media, but I didn't know anything about it. The real life couple appear at the end in a minutes long plea to donate money via QR code for tickets so others can see this. I walked out of that. I hated this emotional pitch after such an emotional movie. But that's what brings in the bucks, I guess.
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Cat Got Their Tongue
I won't be quiet about how bad this movie is. Given the consensus brilliance of the first two AQPs, which I missed, I looked forward to having a great time.
The viewer is asked to root for a terminal cancer patient poet and a British law student. That's a no on both. The first thirty five minutes are tolerable. Then Eric pops out of a flooded subway station and follows Sam's cat back to Sam. Instead of heeding her instructions to the seaport evacuation site, he opts to hang out with her. She is determined to eat Harlem pizza, even though seven miles south in Chinatown. The Lower East Side scenes are clearly a sound stage. The film revives bad 9/11 memories I could have done without. As a New Yorker, I was criticizing every inaccuracy on screen, and there are plenty.
The cat steals the movie from both actors, even Oscar winner Lupita Nyongo. Frodo has about 9000 lives and always reunites with its owner no matter the crisis. It even survives three minutes underwater. There's no benefit to even studying law in NY unless you become an American citizen or get a graduate law degree, which Eric is clearly too daft for. The ending is beyond maudlin. I was basically enthralled by the cat for the entire film. He had gotten fat, as Sam observed. But he sure got a lot of exercise over two days here. Sam is short for Samira. But the gender neutral name perfectly suits the character, who betrays no trace of femininity whatsoever. Joseph Quinn apparently is a hot actor these days. But this was a crappy, if high profile, role. I'm sure his team is thrilled. He's basically just a mopey second banana. My mind wandered to how much the cats (there were two to split the labor) must have been pampered on set. There is nobody to invest your emotions in, not a soul with over two lines. Without any human rooting interest whatsoever, it's just the cat and the beautiful establishing drone shots of Manhattan that give it my grade. This was ultimately a money grab, despite the screenwriters' best intentions. Just a colossal waste of time.
The Bikeriders (2023)
Film Never Exceeds 55 MPH
I wandered into the theater and this was starting. Given the marketing and high profile cast, I decided to stay the two hours. Benny is the lead, but Tony winner Jodie Comer as his wife Kathy practically steals the film from Austin Butler, who seems incredibly stuck in the past after Elvis and Masters of the Air, despite his excellence in both.
He's great here also. We see him get beaten to a pulp in the opening scene, but he quickly becomes a homewrecker breaking up Kathy and her poor slob ex who simply cannot compete with what Benny offers. But Kathy soon becomes jealous of Johnny, leader of the Chicago Vandals motorcycle group. Not that Benny is into Tom Hardy in that way. The Vandals take up way too much of his time, time that would be better spent with the mesmerizing Comer, whose upper Midwest accent has the audience eating out of her hand. What will come of this love triangle? The Vietnam War. New members totally change the nature of the club and it all goes to hell like Hell's Angels.
This sounds more dramatic than it is. The film is really a character study over eight years. Michael Shannon and Norman Reedus check in to add some more flavor and seasoning to the stew. It could be about ten minutes shorter. But I'll take all the Comer I can get.
Daddio (2023)
More Than Meets the Eye
I was excited to see this after learning that it's just two people taking a cab ride in real time from JFK to a midtown Manhattan block I know like my SSN. Such a premise defies execution. Of course they get frozen behind a serious accident, which gives them the necessary time to chew the fat and bump the run time. I saw it in a NYC theater with a comped crowd, with one big mouth lady yelling back to the screen (it's NY). Most of us seemed to love it.
As a theater lover in America's theater capital, this would be marginally better suited on stage. But it works fine on screen also. The poster didn't paint Sean Penn as a typical enraged middle age middle class guy, so I didn't anticipate violence, and there is none. It's just talking, with a massive reveal 90% in that I didn't see coming. Penn was a Broadway actor himself, and he certainly handles everything asked of him and excels. In other words, the usual quality.
Johnson is an actress I dismissed as a nepo baby bimbo who looks great in bikinis (TLD) and her birthday suit (FSG). I didn't expect much acting here with just the one guy to act off of and no sets. And she's a producer, with all the power that entails. But she does deliver and I found her mostly credible. I didn't understand why a coder would have such flashy nails, especially coming back from two weeks in Oklahoma. That was always distracting. Now that I think, it can be a present to herself after her OK travails. They make it all pay off. And she pays her cabbie with an outlandish tip that left us all speechless. I had a very good time against all expectations. It was free, but I was honest.
Umro Ayyar - A New Beginning (2024)
Better Than Expected
Leisurely experience for me with a matinee at a huge cineplex with five other viewers. I'm sure I'd give it half this score if I'd seen The Matrix. For a Pakistani film, it held my interest quite well. As I was debating a bathroom run, the film helpfully announced a ten minute intermission, complete with a countdown clock on screen. More films should do this. Anything over two hours, given today's attention spans.
Amar (Usman Mukhtar) is an interesting character, a genius professor who also sees apparitions and is the last in a long line of UAs. It's cool to see him branch off into reluctant superhero mode. Guru (Manzar Sehbai) is like a Pakistani Morpheus or Yoda. This gentle and wise sould had a pretty cool vibe that I bought. I kept thinking there may be a romantic subplot with Amar and his fetching daughter, but that never came to pass. The modern portion of the film was like a free travel pass to an obscure country. Half the dialogue was conveniently English. It was nice not having to read subtitles for the entire time. The time was well spent, even though I had no idea what I was about to watch.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024)
Just Don't
I sneaked into it at multiplex. But I paid the price in time wasted, totally bored by the couple and their plight. It was pure agony. Older patrons will tune out. I actually rooted for the killers. Madeline Petsch is an okay TV actress thrown in an ensemble. She cannot carry a film, even horror crap. Nor can Froy Guttierez, eye candy for sub 30 crowd. Maya is an architect, but so dumb that it's not credible. They've been together five years, but no engagement ring in the foreseeable future. She's wasting her time even more than we are. The usual dumb decisions and red herring details. First of 3 films within a year, which is ludicrous! I hated myself for sitting through this slop. You will too. Stay away from all 3. You've been warned.