October Binges: Task & Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping

Need a new binge for the month? Do you want a moving American miniseries or a silly British sketch show? Both, you say?! Well, keep reading!

Task: Written and created by Brad Ingelsby, who was responsible for the equally dramatic and moving Mare of Easttown, this is another miniseries set in rural Pennsylvania where we follow an FBI agent named Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo, at his soulful best), who has to set up a task force to investigate a string of robberies targeting stash houses operated by a drug-dealing motorcycle gang. He is working with a group of agents who have been recruited from different teams, some a lot greener than others, and the group dynamics are certainly going to get interesting. But outside of the task force, Tom's home life is currently quite tragic, with his teenage son in prison awaiting a hearing, and his younger daughter trying her best to navigate all the tension at home while his older daughter flies in to create more tension.

Meanwhile the robberies have been masterminded by Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), a man who is seeking revenge against the gang that operates these houses and has decided this is the best way to do it. The initial plot of robbing drug houses reminded me a lot of Dope Thief, but once we get into Robbie's reasons for the robberies and his whole family situation, I got a hell of a lot more invested in this character. The series is kickstarted by a robbery that goes horribly wrong, resulting in the kidnapping of a young boy, and the resulting cat-and-mouse chase between Tom and Robbie, that very satisfyingly culminates halfway through the series, is a sheer delight.

This show is shot beautifully - yes, the body count is high and the emotions are wrenching, but a lot of scenes are set in the woods by a beautiful lake, and there's always a lot of calm Nature to behold as people are getting shot or strangled. The interplay between the different characters is fascinating, and Tom is a particularly compelling lead, as he was formerly a chaplain, and is therefore not some stereotypical hot-shot agent or arrogant Fed who can't have any empathy for the criminals he's pursuing. There are many twists and turns, but everything is wrapped up neatly in seven episodes. If only all television could be this economical and excellent.

Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping: I'm a huge fan of the comedy duo of David Mitchell and Robert Webb, so naturally I was delighted to see they were coming out with a new sketch show on Channel 4. The first series just aired and comprises six episodes that aired weekly but are now all available for your bingeing pleasure. So what are you waiting for?

Fans of British comedy will get everything they want from this extremely silly show. There's a running gag about a Sweary Aussie Drama, and occasional forays into the writer's room to get a meta take on the comedy writing process and sketches we've just seen. The supporting cast comprising comedy stalwarts like Stevie Martin, Lara Ricote, Krystal Evans, and Kiell Smith-Bynoe is excellent, and once in while, you may even get a famous cameo...Olivia Colman anyone? This show is certainly not high art, but every week it offered me a wonderfully diverting 24 minutes, and now I bequeath it unto you. Go forth and have a giggle, you deserve it!

October Movies Part 2: The Smashing Machine, Roofman, The Woman in Cabin 10

Another week, another slew of movies in theaters and on streaming to dive into. Huzzah!

The Smashing Machine: Written and directed by Benny Safdie, this is a biography of the wrestler and MMA fighter, Mark Kerr (played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who doesn't have to stretch his acting chops too much here, but still does a fine job). Starting in 1999, the movie chronicles his struggles with opioid addiction, his challenging relationship with girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt, who seems destined for a Supporting Actress nomination), and his long friendship with Mark Coleman (Ryan Bader), a man he has known since they were both on the college wrestling circuit and now they compete together in UFC. Most of the action centers around a Japanese Pride Fighting League Championship and we watch as Mark ruins his initial chances in this league, but then stages a comeback after going to rehab.

I was invested in this movie from start to finish. What can I say, I'm a sucker for any sports movie. The fights are choreographed beautifully, capturing all the brutality and intricacy of the sport, and I was cringing in my seat with every punch and kick, assuming that at any moment, Mark was going to get a life-threatening injury. The score by Nala Sinephro is jangly and unsettling, which heightens your sense throughout the movie that something abjectly awful is about to transpire at any moment. 

I knew nothing about Mark Kerr prior to watching this movie, so I thought this was a wonderful biopic, well-acted and well-told, and keeping me completely absorbed for two hours.  Folks who know more about Kerr would presumably not be as surprised as I was by every turn of events in this film, but this is still a fine example of filmmaking and a fairly moving story about a man who was always nice to everyone around him (to the point where he eventually does need to learn to exercise some boundaries), and fought his demons both on and off the ring.

Roofman: Directed by Derek Cianfrance, who also co-wrote the script with Kirt Gunn, this is another true story about Jeffrey Manchester (played to charming perfection by Channing Tatum), a divorced US Army veteran who is struggling to re-integrate into society and earn enough money to provide for his three young children. He has keen powers of observation and decides that the only solution to his problems is to start robbing local stores by breaking in through the roof at night, holding up the employees in the morning, getting them to open up the safe and give him all the money, and then making a run for it. He does this for two years, earns the nickname "Roofman," but eventually is caught. However, he then escapes from prison and ends up hiding in a Toys "R" Us as he figures out his next steps. Which is where the majority of this movie takes place.

Kirsten Dunst plays a Toys "R" Us employee, Leigh, who becomes the object of Jeffrey's affections. I won't get into how that could even happen when the man is a fugitive, but let's just say it's all very inventive and amazing, and all the more insane for being a true story. This man is so effortlessly charming and wonderful, and the entire movie is just a light romantic comedy that has an undertone of sadness because you know that the good times simply cannot continue in the way that they are going.

I only knew this was a Tatum movie and had completely missed that Cianfrance was the director. This movie is not remotely as devastating as his other films, but it certainly has its melancholy beats accompanied by a beautiful score by Christopher Bear. It's a sweet, quiet, lovely little tale, and I found myself thoroughly invested in these characters for two hours. Now I need to go read up more about the Roofman.

The Woman in Cabin 10: This movie is based on a book by Ruth Ware, and I devoured the novel when I read it a few months ago. Unfortunately, the movie slightly pales in comparison. Directed by Simon Stone who adapted the screenplay with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, the movie stars Keira Knightley as Laura "Lo" Blacklock, an investigative journalist who needs a break from reporting intense stories and decides to do a bit of a fluff piece that would involve a trip on a billionaire's luxury superyacht. What could go wrong?

Well, as you can imagine, a lot goes wrong. Lo wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing a disturbance in the cabin next to hers (Cabin 10, of course), and when she goes out onto the balcony, she sees someone fall overboard. She raises the alarm, but the crew confirm that everyone is accounted for on board, and that no one was ever staying in Cabin 10. We then get a twisty psychological thriller about everyone gaslighting Lo while she tries to prove that she did in fact see someone in that cabin and that something is deeply wrong.

This plot works great as a book, but I think the film treatment exposes some of the rather ludicrous elements of the story. The film also gets a bit rushed and chaotic towards the end, unlike the novel that has an opportunity to keep ratcheting up the tension and make us root for our intrepid heroine. This movie is certainly an acquired taste, but it's also a perfectly adequate Netflix afternoon movie. So, if you're lazing around and want something mildly diverting, you certainly could do a lot worse.

October Movies Part 1: One Battle After Another; The Lost Bus; Sorry, Baby

October is off to a good start with two excellent movies on streaming and one predictably overhyped movie in theaters. Let's discuss!

One Battle After Another: I very begrudgingly walk into the theater any time I have to go watch a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. So you will not be surprised to hear that this film, written and directed by him, did not manage to make me gasp in awe like most critics who are always quick to fawn over his work. It's inspired by the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, so you've got a white male auteur adapting another white male auteur and it's all very sigh-inducing. However, this movie does have a lot of plot, and isn't just heavily vibes-based, so I did appreciate that. 

The movie opens with Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor playing Pat and Perfidia, members of a far-left terrorist group who try to break out immigrants from detention centers and attack people and organizations they disagree with. Which certainly has a lot of parallels to the current state of affairs in the United States where every liberal seems poised to get militant to defend their rights. Perfidia gets pregnant, has the baby, but has no interest in being a mother when her life has been devoted to the revolution. When she is caught on a job, she makes a deal for witness protection, naming other members of the group who all have to flee for their lives, including Pat and his baby daughter. The action then picks up 16 years later, with Chase Infiniti playing Pat's long-suffering teenage daughter, who thinks her father is insanely paranoid and is just trying to live her best life. But they are in for some trouble because a far-right colonel named Steven J. Lockjaw (nothing subtle about that name, and nothing subtle about this performance by Sean Penn), is coming for them. He was sexually obsessed with Perfidia back in the day, but now has to show his allegiance to a KKK-style group he has become allied with, and it's all very icky and insane. 

Predictably, I enjoyed the performances of all the Black women in this movie (Chase Infiniti in particular is an absolute STAR and I'm excited to see what she does next in her career), and then was thoroughly fed up of Penn and DiCaprio. I understand that I am supposed to hate the Lockjaw character, but I have to say, it did not feel like much of a stretch for Penn to portray this rage-filled lunatic with insane ideas. Meanwhile, Pat is constantly getting high and self-pitying, which feels thoroughly pointless if you think you're in danger and should be protecting your daughter, but you know, that's how fathers operate. Overall, I would say the plot is fine, the characters are blah, but the actual filmmaking is compelling. The score by Jonny Greenwood is yet another masterpiece, with a lot of chaotic piano in tense chase scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat. And Michael Bauman's cinematography in the climactic car chase on some rolling hills is epic and destined to make this an iconic cinematic moment. I was not happy to watch this movie, and found it overlong and underwhelming, but I cannot deny that it did manage to have moments of brilliance throughout. If only it could have been edited down to only feature those moments and separate the wheat from the chaff.

The Lost Bus: This movie was directed by Paul Greengrass, from a screenplay he wrote with Brad Ingelsby, based on a section of the non-fiction book, Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by Lizzie Johnson. It takes place during the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California's history, and specifically focuses on the true story of a bus driver named Kevin McKay who had to navigate a school bus of 22 elementary school children through the wildfire and drive them to safety. In real life, there were two teachers on board, but in the movie we only get one, Mary Ludwig, as the other teacher did not wish to be portrayed.

Matthew McConnaughey and America Ferrera play Kevin and Mary and it is miraculous to watch these two wonderful actors work together over the course of this film. These two strangers are thrust together in an absolutely horrendous situation, and their ability to join forces, calm each other down, and most importantly, calm these children down as they fight for their lives, is absolutely heroic. But the real star of this film is the direction by Paul Greengrass. His documentary style is in full force here, with close-up shots of his excellent actors that capture every look of fear and panic, and sweeping shots of this fire that is raging through the land with absolutely no intention of sparing the humans along its path. 

There is only one word to describe this movie: harrowing. The shots of the fire and how quickly it spreads are panic-inducing, and watching seasoned firefighters battle against Mother Nature and eventually just give up is painful. It is such a shame this movie had a limited theatrical release and is now just on Apple TV+ because this was meant to be seen in a theater. But considering my reaction to the film when watching it at home, perhaps it's best I didn't have a more immersive experience. At one point I simply burst out crying because I couldn't believe what these people were going through. Living on the East Coast, it's so easy to become inured to hearing stories of wildfires in California, and understanding their horror in the abstract without needing to get into the details. Well, this movie will certainly introduce you to the visceral details. I thought this would be a corny Hollywood "based on a true story" movie, but it's a truly moving piece of cinema that introduces us to some heroic figures and reminds us of how much damage is being done in California every time another one of those fires gets out of control.

Sorry, Baby: After watching those sweeping epics, you may want to settle in for this quiet and yet nonetheless powerful movie written and directed by Eva Victor, who also stars in it (triple threat!). Victor plays Agnes, an English professor at a liberal arts college in the wilds of New England. The movie opens with a visit from her best friend, Lydie (the marvelous Naomi Ackie), and the two of them have a wonderful time together, marred only by an awkward dinner with some of their friends from graduate school. As Lydie and Agnes talk, you get the sense that Lydie is worried about Agnes, wondering why she still lives in the same house and works at the same school they graduated from, and overall seems to have a somewhat subdued and stagnant life. But Agnes reassures her that all is well.

The movie follows as a series of vignettes that flash back in time to gradually give us the story of what happened to Agnes in graduate school and how she has subsequently been dealing with the fallout during The Year of the Bad Thing. Be warned, it involves sexual assault, but this movie deals with the topic in such an incredibly nuanced and heartbreakingly funny way. It highlights the thoroughly useless response most of society has when you have to report a sexual assault or actually hold anyone accountable for it, whether it's the doctor that Agnes goes to see or the college administrators she makes a report to. Of course, Lydie is by Agnes's side throughout, and this movie is the ultimate ode to female friendship, showcasing how female friends can have a relationship that far transcends the paltry realm of romantic love. 

The dialogue is spare and direct, and most of the joy of this film is in watching expressions flit over Agnes's face as she struggles to figure out what would be the right thing to say or how she should feel in any given situation. It's such a remarkable and singular performance. The final monologue she delivers at the end of the movie serves as a distillation of the entire human condition and is so profound that it makes me want to cry just thinking about it. Everyone should watch this movie, watch that final monologue, and come away with a renewed understanding of their role in humanity. I can't wait to see what Eva Victor does next.

September Binges: The Paper and Duster

Yes, it's October 1, but I've been travelling, and I did watch these two shows in September, so indulge me, OK? 

The Paper: Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, this is ostensibly a sequel to The Office, with the same behind-the-scenes documentary crew now having moved on to filming the staff of a struggling newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, called the Toledo Truth Teller. A new editor-in-chief has just joined the paper, Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), and he is certainly no Michael Scott. But he is also a bit of a nepo baby, who was previously a star toilet paper salesman, so there is understandably a lot of doubt as to how this man is going to turn this newspaper around. He is full of gusto, filled with a love for proper journalism, and determined to return the Truth Teller to its former glory as a prestigious local paper that features original reporting instead of a hacky click-bait venture that has nothing substantive to say. 

Obviously, there are going to people that support his cause, like former Army soldier and Stars and Stripes reporter, Mare (Chelsea Frei), and then people who hate everything he's doing and want him to fail, like Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore), the interim editor-in-chief who was usurped by Ned's arrival and has no interest whatsoever in his brand of journalism. But the majority of the staff are just people trying to work a 9-to-5, who will go along with the new guy's plans because they just need to take home a paycheck. As the ten episodes of the first season progress, however, you can start to see these people come together and maybe understand Ned's vision. And of course, there will be a healthy mix of their personal and professional lives before the season ends.

There's nothing particularly revolutionary about this show, but it has a wonderfully charming cast and goes down real easy. These characters are all relatable, and if you loved The Office, there's no reason you won't fall in love with this show too, as it has many familiar beats but also feels updated for 2025. The only returning cast member is Oscar Nunez, so you will get some fun asides with him as he tries to avoid the camera crew abut spectacularly fails as he gets more invested in the Truth Teller's journey. This show is telling a relevant story about the importance of local reporting and the need for real journalism in a world that is increasingly prone to lazy reporting standards. But overall, it's a light and breezy comedy that will give you plenty to laugh about.

Duster: I binged all eight episodes of this show on a single plane ride back from Amsterdam. It was the best seven hours of my life. And I was devastated to then learn the show was cancelled after a single season, probably because it took people like me so long to get around to watching it. Alas. But I am now here to exhort all of you to watch it as well. Who knows, maybe if more eyeballs get on it, it'll magically come back to life? But even if it doesn't, it makes for a riveting miniseries that will have you on the edge of your seat from the first episode to the last. Created by J. J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, and set in 1972 Phoenix, this show is unlike anything else I've seen on TV for a long time.

The charming Josh Holloway stars as Jim Ellis, a getaway driver who works for Ezra Saxton (the brilliant Keith David), a mob boss who was in the war with Jim's father and who has known him all his life. Jim essentially regards the Saxtons as family, but all of that is about to change with the arrival of FBI Agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson), the FBI's first Black female graduate, who has specifically requested to work on this case. Nina has a personal axe to grind against Saxton, and with the help of her new partner Awan (Asivak Koostachin), she sets out on a mission to recruit Jim as her inside man to help her get the dirt she needs to arrest Saxton.

All of these actors are doing incredible work, and the scripts are tight and propulsive. No bloated 1+ hour runtimes here - each episode usually lasts 50 minutes or so and it's a wild ride every time. The characters are all interesting and lived in, and there are constant twists and turns where you will get little doses of information at a time that completely upend your understanding of what has been happening all along. While a work of fiction, the show will also randomly involve actual historical figures, like Elvis Presley, Howard Hughes, or Richard Nixon, and it's so wildly inventive and delightful that I had a big smile on my face the whole time I was watching it. It's insane to me that more people have not been raving about this show, but now here I am, and I suggest you watch it so you can rave about it alongside me. It does end on a huge cliffhanger to set up the (now-cancelled) Season 2, but it manages to wrap up most of its plot lines neatly and heartily satisfy you for this one glorious season. You can't always get what you want - but this show is exactly what you need.

September Movies Part 2: Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, The Long Walk, Spinal Tap II

Looking for a delightful foreign romcom, a dystopian horror, or a mockumentary sequel? Well, you're in the right place! Read on for some eclectic movie reviews!

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life: Written and directed by Laura Piani, this is a terribly charming French film about a woman named Agathe Robinson (Camille Rutherford) who works at famed Parisian bookstore, Shakespeare & Company. A Jane Austen fan, she is always making recommendations to buyers about which Austen novel they would like. On the side, she is an aspiring writer, but has been struggling with crippling writer's block. She suddenly gets an idea and writes a few chapters, and unbeknownst to her, her best friend and colleague Felix (Pablo Pauly) submits her work to a writer's retreat in England that is run by some of Austen's distant descendants. Agathe is reluctantly persuaded to make the journey, has a very Pride & Prejudice-esque meet-cute with Oliver (Charlie Anson), and her love life is off to the races.

This is a cute film that does pack some emotional heft as Agathe has a lot of baggage she is carrying around. There are misunderstandings and multiple suitors and Agathe will have to decide who is the person who is destined to truly make her happy. Whilst also finding her own voice as a writer of romantic fiction. The world is currently celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, so what better time to watch this movie and chuckle over the influence this woman has had on readers through the years and throughout the world.

The Long Walk: Speaking of influential writers, this film is an adaptation of Stephen King's 1979 novel. Written by JT Mollner and directed by Francis Lawrence, this is a tale of a dystopian United States after some long war that has left most of the country in dire poverty. In order to boost morale and generate TV ratings, the Major (Mark Hamill, in a most un-Skywalker role) has instituted a scheme where every able-bodied young man enters a lottery to participate in the Long Walk, and one is selected from each state. The fifty men arrive at the starting line and just have to keep walking at a steady pace no slower than 3 miles/hour all day and night long without any rest, though they do get rations for food and water. There is no finish line. Instead, you get three warnings if your pace slows down, and after the third warning, you are shot dead. Until there's only one "winner" left.

That is basically the extent of the plot. So, spoiler alert, you're going to spend 100 minutes watching a bunch of men get shot, and the camera doesn't pan away, so be wary if you're squeamish. This film is extraordinarily well-made and the cast of young actors is compelling and eminently watchable, particularly the camaraderie between Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Tut Nyuot, and Ben Wang. You watch these men all bond with each other and try to boost morale and help each other before the inevitable happens. I will confess, it did make me roll my eyes a little and think, "is this what it takes to get men to forge deep friendships?" Judy Greer also has a very minor supporting role as the distraught mother of one of the participants, in a classic weepy Judy Greer role (can we please get this excellent woman a leading role in something charming and fun?), but other than that, there are no women in this movie, which also makes it a hard sell to half the moviegoing audience. There were moments of true friendship and allegiance between the men that did make me feel teary, but once I left the theater, I already found this film leaving my brain. It's a powerful film while you're watching it, but once you're done, it fails to leave much of an impression. It's also hard to watch this movie in our current political climate when gun violence and assassinations seem to feature particularly prominently, so while timely, it's also not something I would recommend if you're trying to stick your head in the sand and escape our current news cycle.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues: Speaking of movies that don't leave much of an impression, Rob Reiner is back directing the sequel to 1984's This is Spinal Tap, with a script written by him and the three lead actors, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean. Still told in the same mockumentary fashion, with Reiner playing documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi, we are following the band forty years after the release of the first film. They have not worked together for 15 years but now have the opportunity to have one final reunion concert in New Orleans. So, it's time to get the gang back together, watch them practice, hire a new drummer, and heal some rifts. Oh, and Paul McCartney and Elton John may be jamming with them for a bit. Maybe.

I did watch This is Spinal Tap years ago, but I have no memory of it, which I think is a detriment going into this film. This is clearly a movie meant for fans of the original and is steeped in nostalgia and callbacks that all whooshed right over my head. So, the only thing I can recommend is that you absolutely must watch the first film if you want to have a good experience with this sequel. I suppose it is perfectly serviceable as a standalone film, but I simply couldn't get into it with no prior memory of the characters and what had happened in the original. However, if you're a massive fan of Spinal Tap, this movie will likely scratch every itch you had, so go forth and enjoy!

September Movies Part 1: Caught Stealing, The Thursday Murder Club, Elio, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

We're halfway through September and I'm catching up on movies on streaming and in the theater. What are you craving? Period British drama, modern British mystery, 1998 New York crime caper, or fantastical Pixar animation? I've got it all!

Caught Stealing: Written by Charlie Huston (who adapted it from his novel) and directed by Darren Aronofsky, this is a movie about what happens when Hank (Austin Butler), a bartender living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (Alphabet City to be precise) in 1998, unwittingly gets caught up in a lot of trouble when his neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith) leaves town and asks Hank to look after his cat. Turns out Russ was working for a bunch of drug dealers and had something they really want, and now those bad guys are all convinced Hank was working with Russ and could be persuaded to part with that information via violent means.

The movie gets a little bloody, and there's a lot of cringey body horror as various people try to torture Hank for his intel. The body count starts to go up, and yet everything is told with a bit of a comic spin. The content is bleak, but the tone is farcical, and you'll happily follow Austin Butler along on this ride through the grimy New York of yesteryear. I can't say the film is particularly memorable once you leave the theater, but while you're in there, you'll have a great time.

The Thursday Murder Club: If you're a fan of Richard Osman's British murder series, then rejoice, because the movie adaptation has arrived on Netflix, with a screenplay by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote and directed by Chris Columbus. The cast is astonishingly good, with Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie, Pierce Brosnan, and Ben Kingsley playing Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim, four pensioners living in a retirement community, who have unusually decided to pursue a hobby of gathering together on Thursdays to discuss unsolved cold cases. However, when someone they know is murdered, they decide they're going to partner up with the police (sometimes against the police's will) to solve this brand-new case.

I loved the book, but watching the movie did make me realize how incredibly complex the plot is. While this cast is charming, this seems like the type of murder mystery that is fun to curl up with on the couch and read, rather than try and condense into a two-hour film. However, if reading is not your thing, this movie certainly does the source material justice and will give you a good idea of why this series is so popular, with the fifth installment due to be released at the end of the month (yes, I have already reserved it at the library and cannot wait!). After all, there can never be too many British mysteries in the world.

Elio: This movie came and went from theaters and it has taken me a long time to get around to catching it on streaming. Written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones, and directed by Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi, this is a story about a young boy named Elio Solis, who was orphaned and now lives with his very overwhelmed aunt who is an Air Force major. Obviously, with that tragic backstory, this kid keeps to himself and doesn't have any friends. But he does have a deep and abiding love for space, and firmly believes aliens exist who could maybe provide him with a way out of his depressing existence on Earth. Well, turns out aliens do exist, Elio does get to meet them, and when he is accidentally mistaken for Earth's leader, things start to spiral out of control.

The plot of this movie is extremely fantastical. The animation is all beautiful as you would expect of any Pixar film, but the story is a bit trite, really hammering home the themes of loneliness and parenting failures. It's all very inventive but it's all somehow still boring, which is astonishing for such an original concept. The tragic backstory felt too classic Disney for me, and even aliens and the threat of galactic warfare couldn't save it from being maudlin and prosaic. Watch this if you love animation and want to be a Pixar completist, but otherwise, this is not their best work.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale: Speaking of maudlin and prosaic...welcome back to Downton Abbey! I went to the premiere of the 2019 movie, and we all thought that was the end of this franchise, but Julian Fellowes has returned for one last (maybe?) time to follow the fortunes of the Grantham family in 1930. Everyone's back and hitting all the same character beats - Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is going through a scandalous divorce and is being shunned by all of polite society, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) is worried about money and continues to be incensed that the world is continuing to modernize and render his way of life obsolete, and Paul Giamatti enters the fray as Cora's (Elizabeth McGovern) brother from America, who has been helping to settle their dead mother's estate and is now in London to share the terms of the inheritance. 

There are also many plot lines involving the staff of course, with Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) due to retire and pass on their duties to the next generation. It's wonderful to see how these characters have grown and come into their own over the years, and while this movie is plainly just a bit of fan service, you can consider this fan fully served. My favorite part was when Edith (Laura Carmichael) declared "Is he also Turkish?" and all of us in the theater chuckled at this callback to Mr. Pamuk from Season 1. If you know, you know, and if you don't know, do not watch this movie!

August Movies Part 3: Highest 2 Lowest, The Roses, Honey Don't!

Well, I ended August by watching two great movies, and one...not so great. Let's discuss!

Highest 2 Lowest: It has been established that I am a real sucker for films shot in New York City. Well, director Spike Lee has delivered another homage to the city that is a wild and crazy ride that I enjoyed from start to finish. Written by Alan Fox and serving as an adaptation/re-imagining of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film High and Low, this is a twisty film about what happens when David King (Denzel Washington), an immensely rich and successful music executive, has to deal with a ransom request from kidnappers who have taken his son. What follows is a tense, but also extremely funny and frantic film about how rich people treat others, ambition and pride, and overall, the pursuit of Black excellence. The cast is brimming with great actors, and while the dialogue can sometimes be a bit silly and clunky like you're watching a play, there's nothing clunky about Lee's filmmaking prowess. It's so flamboyant and emphatic, and I soaked it all up like a delighted sponge.

It makes sense that for a movie about a music executive, the thing that delighted me most about the film was its soundtrack and the score by Howard Drossin. The opening of this extremely New York film is set to "Oh what a beautiful mornin'" from the musical Oklahoma. Which made me chuckle right away and set the bar for how funny and irreverent this film was going to be. There are action scenes set to some extremely tense piano music that I loved, and you will also be treated to a few musical performances over the course of this film that may or may not knock your socks off.

Denzel is having an absolute blast as this character, a risk-taking mogul who might be in deep financial trouble but is always looking for an angle to exploit. Then you've got Jeffrey Wright as his chauffeur, Paul, a man who will have his loyalty to his friend and employer tested in many ways, and Ilfenesh Hadera as David's wife, Pam, an extremely sensible woman who has to keep talking sense into her grandiose husband. And there's John Douglas Thompson, playing the detective in charge of this kidnapping case, who treats the rich David with kid gloves but then gives no quarter to Paul, a classism that will get called out several times. This may be a film about a rich guy living in a penthouse in Brooklyn, but you can bet that before the movie is done, we will spend a lot of time in less bougie areas of the city and that's where the film truly sparkles. It is so much fun, and so alive, that even when things feel a little corny, you'll brush them off. You don't have time to dwell on them, because the next scene is going to captivate your imagination and make you fall in love with this movie and this city all over again.

The Roses: Written by Tony McNamara and directed by Jay Roach, adapted from the novel The War of the Roses by Warren Adler, I was worried about this movie because it stars some of my favorite actors, but the trailer made everything seem rather mid. Well, I needn't have worried. Because you do not cast Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch as your central couple and end up with a dud of a picture.

Colman and Cumberbatch play Ivy and Theo Rose, two people who meet in the UK, but are fed up of their jobs and decided to fall in love and move to California. The trailer positions this entire movie as being about a horrible couple who hate each other, but this is actually a rather beautiful love story about how this couple fell in love, how deliriously happy they were for the first decade of their marriage...and THEN how they became a horrible couple who hate each other. The supporting cast is a murderer's row of folks like Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, Zoe Chao, and Jamie Demetriou, who pop in and out of the film as friends of the Roses who must witness their fracturing marriage and look on in horror as their dinner parties get increasingly tense. But in a very repressed, British way that these Americans cannot fathom.

The comedy is immensely British, so I can see American audiences squirming through a lot of this film. But boy did I happily eat it all up. Cumberbatch and Colman know how to dispatch dialogue with the best of them, but the best treat is to simply watch Colman's face during a fight - the way her face can go from serene to tragic to furious within the blink of an eye is a wonder to behold. This is a movie that has a lot to say about love and marriage, and gender roles and the patriarchy within a marriage. It is so sharply observed, well-acted, and all set in the most gorgeous Californian backdrop, that every scene is a delight. If you have avoided seeing the trailer for this long, do yourself a favor and continue to avoid it. Head straight to the theater and revel in this film. 

Honey Don't!: Directed by Ethan Coen, who co-wrote the screenplay with Tricia Cooke, this movie is essentially a murder mystery set in modern-day Bakersfield, but populated by bizarre characters who sometimes seem like they stepped off the set of The Maltese Falcon in the 1940s. Margaret Qualley plays Honey O'Donahue, a private investigator who begins digging into the death of Mia Novotny, a woman who died in what was considered to be a tragic car accident. However, Mia had made an appointment to see Honey the day she died, so Honey is convinced there's something more to this "accident." 

While all of that's going on, we also get scenes at Four-Way Temple, a "church" helmed by Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans, having a glorious time), who is basically running a sex cult that also acts as some sort of front for French drug dealers? Or something? We also get insights into Honey's family life when she visits her sister who is overwhelmed with too many children, and also insights into Honey's sex life, when she starts dating MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), a cop at her local precinct.

There are a lot of seemingly random threads in this film, but they all tie up nicely in a little bow at the end. The trouble is, this movie is too weird, and none of the characters particularly feel like people you want to root for. Everybody is a bit too aloof and caricatured, and while Qualley is a commanding and delightful presence, she can't really save this movie. I'm not sure what happened here - this had the right ingredients to be a good film, but it goes off-piste too quickly with gratuitous female nudity (always a bugbear of mine - if you're gonna show naked women, you gotta throw in a penis too) and a lot of random non sequiturs. The conclusion to the mystery did genuinely surprise me, and I did appreciate that this film was a tight 89 minutes, but I can't give it a hearty recommendation. It's too average and all over the place. If you're thinking of seeing it...honey, don't!