January Movies Part 4: Song Sung Blue & Train Dreams

Every year, when the Oscar nominations are announced, I have to do a mad scramble to catch up on all the movies I missed. Thankfully, this year I watched a good number of films, so I can catch up at a more sedate pace. Here are reviews of two movies I watched this week to get fully informed before the awards ceremony!

Song Sung Blue: Written and directed by Craig Brewer, based on the documentary by Greg Kohs, this is a rather charming biopic about Mike and Claire Sardina (played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson), two musicians who met in 1987 in Wisconsin and decided to work together to create a Neil Diamond tribute act. Now, let's be real, apart from Sweet Caroline, I didn't know any Neil Diamond music, but boy did I get a robust education while watching this movie, including discovering a very bizarre bop called Soolaimon that I still mindlessly hum to myself out of nowhere.

This is a pretty traditional story about two Midwesterners who were battling their own personal demons but had great talent and a great love for each other that helped them overcome their struggles. Jackman and Hudson turn in wonderfully charismatic performances, and considering all the drama that happens to Hudson's character over the course of this movie, it's little wonder she has been nominated for an Oscar. I honestly wasn't expecting to like the movie as much as I did, but it was so sweet, so kind, so understanding of human foibles, that I simply couldn't help myself. I'm a sucker for musicals and stories where music brings people together. There's a little side plot where Mike is trying to get a job at a Thai restaurant, and it turns out the immigrant owner is a huge Neil Diamond fan and loves Soolaimon. That's the kind of cross-cultural human bonding that I simply eat up with a spoon.

Watch this movie if you like great acting, good music, and purely wholesome vibes. It's like watching a Bollywood movie, but the actors are doing their own singing. And it's all true, which makes it all the more spectacular.

Train Dreams: Directed by Client Bentley who co-wrote the screenplay with Greg Kwedar, adapting it from the 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, this is a vibey movie that starts out in the 1890s and tells the story of Robert (Joel Edgerton), a young orphan in Idaho. We watch his life as a young man in the American West, working in forests, helping to build railroads alongside Chinese laborers, and eventually falling in love and building a remote cabin by the river to live in with his wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones) and their young daughter. He becomes a logger and has to leave them for months at a time during logging season and we get to watch their struggles to build a life together in this harsh but beautiful New World.

This movie is only 100 minutes long, but we get to see the trajectory of this man's entire life, from sawing down trees in the early 1900s to watching the moon landing in 1969. The movie simultaneously feels extremely slow and deliberate, and then extremely rushed. This is the kind of film that is all about the cinematography and vistas and frankly, might have done better with a 3-hour Brutalist treatment. Instead, we get something that feels a little bit unmoored, much like its protagonist. It's a slice of life, conveying the extraordinary changes that one man can experience in one short lifetime, but did I find that moving or fascinating? Not particularly.

January Movies Part 3: Blue Moon & The Rip

This week I've watched one Oscar-nominated film and one movie that will definitely not be nominated for any Oscars. We call that range!

Blue Moon: Written by Robert Kaplow and directed by Richard Linklater, this is one of those delightful films that you already know has Oscar written all over it once you're ten minutes in. Ethan Hawke stars as Lorenz Hart, half of the famous songwriting duo Rodgers & Hart. However, the action picks up in 1943 when Rodgers has paired up with Oscar Hammerstein to write Oklahoma! instead, tired of working with the alcoholic and temperamental Hart. The entire movie takes place in Sardi's restaurant, during the party to celebrate Oklahoma!'s opening night, and it mostly consists of watching Hart talk to various people like the bartender, Eddie (Bobby Canavale), E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy) who also happens to be at Sardi's, Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), who wants to resume their working relationship but only if Hart can promise to be sober and dependable and stop mocking the Americana naivete of Oklahoma!, and Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), a 20-year-old college student that Hart claims to be in love with, despite everyone thinking his tendencies lie elsewhere. And there's the sergeant piano player, Morty (Jonah Lees), constantly in the background, tickling those ivories and treating us to all the incredible standards that Rodgers & Hart brought into our lives.

The most apt comparison I can come up with is the Before Sunrise trilogy, also directed by Linklater and starring Hawke, that all take place in one day and where you learn all about your protagonists from the art of conversation. In this film, Hawke delivers a tour-de-force performance as the funny, sarcastic, bitter, yet hopeful Hart, who is annoyed that Rodgers has moved on to a new partner, but confident they can team up together again for more greatness. And Kaplow's screenplay has so many pithy one-liners that my husband and I kept quoting at each other that it's no wonder he and Hawke are both nominated for Oscars this year. As audience members, we know that Hart is going to die less than a year after this night, but this movie is only concerned with this one night, making it both melancholy and captivating in equal measure. Like one of the songs Hart wrote, as you watch this movie, you may find yourself bewitched, bothered, and bewildered.

The Rip: There's a reason this movie is on Netflix. Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, this is a police thriller about a team of cops on the Tactical Narcotics Team of the Miami-Dade Police Department and what happens when their captain, Jackie Velez, is shot and killed and no one knows who did it. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck star as Dane and JD, members of the team who are determined to figure out who killed Jackie. Right before she died, she texted Dane with the address of a stash house with a huge amount of money. So Dane decides to raid the house, but also use this raid as an opportunity to flush out a potential cop killer. What could possibly go wrong?

Teyana Taylor, Steven Yuen, Catalina Sandino Morena, and Sasha Calle round out the cast, so you can't complain about the acting, but boy is this script weak. If you're the sort of person who likes to yell out what they think is going to happen next, this is precisely the movie for you, because that's what I found myself doing for much of this film. It's very twisty, but very predictable, with one piece of casting that immediately told me who the bad guy would be. The final act also features a lot of unnecessary action that could have done with some judicious editing - if this movie had been a tight 90 minutes, I probably wouldn't have minded as much, but it is slightly too bloated to just be a fun action romp. If you want to laze on the couch and watch Ben and Matt reunite, go for it, but if you're expecting quality filmmaking, you're out of luck.

December Binges Part 1: All Her Fault, Mr. Scorsese, Down Cemetery Road

I have binged many shows this month, and the last two weeks of the year are prime couch potato season, so here are some recommendations. Plop down with the remote and get ready!

All Her Fault: What a terrifically weird show. Created by Megan Gallagher, based on the novel by Andrea Mara, the show stars Sarah Snook as Marissa, a woman who shows up to a strange woman's house one day, assuming that this is where her son went for a play date. Turns out, the boy is not there, and what follows is her worst nightmare as the police have to treat this as a kidnapping case and have no idea where her son might be. Dakota Fanning plays Jenny, a mom whose son attends the same school as Marissa's son, and when she discovers her nanny might be involved in the kidnapping, she is overcome with guilt and wants to help Marissa in any way she can. Meanwhile, Marissa's husband, Peter (Jake Lacy), is the typical straight husband, a man who thinks parenting has been Marissa's responsibility all along, and therefore everything that is now going wrong is...all her fault.

This show makes for a great drinking game. Just drink anytime a woman is annoyed at a man. Shots when someone literally goes "this is all my/your fault!" No spoilers, but my absolute favorite part of watching this show was in the final episode when a character literally screamed, "It was not my fault...it was YOUR fault!" This is not a good show, and yet I was genuinely surprised by twists and turns in the final episodes that finally brought every character's motivation to light. If you want a soapy, silly drama to while away the day, this is absolutely the show for you. But expect to be giggling a lot while you watch.

Mr. Scorsese: Are you a fan of Martin Scorsese? Then director Rebecca Miller has put together a 5-part documentary miniseries just for you. Chronicling the man's asthmatic childhood that led to him playing indoors a lot and thereby becoming enamored of filmmaking, to his exposure to the Italian mobsters in NYC that led to his many movies about them, as well as a certain bravery when it came to negotiating with studio heads. Watching this miniseries made me realize that I have no knowledge of early Scorsese movies - it was only in the fifth and final episode, when we get into his long collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, that I started nodding my head along. Of course, I've heard of all those early films, but gangster movies have never been my genre. And yet, I was fascinated all the same.

The series is an incisive portrait of a celebrated filmmaker, and it has a lot of access to people who knew him well and could speak candidly about all of his struggles as well as his incredible successes. His three daughters get to chime in about the extremely different fathers they had when growing up - his older daughters were used to never seeing him as he was too busy on set, while by the time he got around to having his youngest as an older man, he certainly made much more of an effort to be a family man. Miller is also keen to interrogate if Scorsese has a woman problem - Sharon Stone speaks about her experience struggling to get time with him in Casino, while Margot Robbie seems to have had a very collaborative time with him in The Wolf of Wall Street. This is a great series for any cinephile but also if you're just curious to go behind the scenes of some iconic and memorable movies and understand all the drama that was brewing beneath the surface. Merry Christmas!

Down Cemetery Road: Created by Morwenna Banks and based on the novel by Mick Herron, this show stars Emma Thompson as Zoe Boehm, a woman who teams up with Sarah Trafford (Ruth Wilson), after an unexpected gas explosion in Sarah's neighborhood kills a family and leads to a missing child. I won't give away more details than that, because this is one of those twisty mysteries where every single episode ends in a frantic cliffhanger where you suddenly suspect all the lead actors have died and you might have been following the wrong story all along. There's a very elaborate government conspiracy that starts coming apart at the seams, and it's all very British and dry.

Fans of Slow Horses (another Mick Herron series) would probably eat this show up with a spoon, but much like that show, I found myself unable to sustain my interest. The trouble is that the show is rather densely plotted, and in this day and age, unless I can binge it, I find myself flummoxed by watching week to week and completely forgetting everything by the time the next seven days roll around. There's also something about Herron's plots, where everything is always a little bit shadowy and high-stakes. I prefer an Agatha Christie-esque plot where humans have personal motivations for their evil deeds, as opposed to whole government agencies getting involved in criminal activity. But again, you do get to watch Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson be a kick-ass duo, so that's worth the effort. Right?

October Movies Part 3: Good Fortune & Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

Do you want to go out for a light comedy? Or wallow in an intense drama? The world is your oyster!

Good Fortune: Written and directed by Aziz Ansari, who also stars, this is a story about Arj (Ansari), a struggling down-on-his-luck documentary filmmaker in Los Angeles who is relying on the gig economy to stay afloat. He is living out of his car and driving around LA to make food deliveries and run errands for anyone who will pay him, and one day he crosses paths with Jeff (Seth Rogen), a super-rich tech investor who lives in a swanky mansion in the hills and appears to be living his best life. Oh and also, Arj has a guardian angel, Gabriel (Keanu Reeves, in an excellent piece of casting). 

Now, Gabriel has a very specific remit as a guardian angel - he is in charge of preventing accidents from texting and driving. That's it, he's not meant to get more involved than that. But, when he sees how Arj is struggling, and begins to worry that he might be a suicidal "lost soul," he decides to take matters into his own hands. Which leads to Arj swapping lives with Jeff, which doesn't quite have the restorative, life-affirming effect that Gabriel was expecting.

If you've seen the trailer for this movie, you've pretty much experienced the entire film. The movie is still charming AF though, and Ansari, Rogen, and Reeves are an excellent trio, playing off of each other in funny and unexpected ways. The always charismatic Keke Palmer also puts in an appearance as Elena, a co-worker and love interest of Arj's who is the voice of reason as he seeks to live out his bougiest fantasies. The movie does end with a bit of a whimper, and Ansari can't quite write himself out of the predicament his script has placed him in a way that feels particularly honest. Nonetheless, it's a diverting and sweet movie about why we all need to be socialists. Eat the rich!

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere: Written and directed by Scott Cooper, based off the book by Warren Zanes, this is the story of Bruce Springsteen (played with customary angst and stoicism by Jeremy Allen White) during the creation of his 1982 album, Nebraska. Springsteen is just coming off a highly successful concert tour, and he has rented a home back in New Jersey to slow down and take stock of what he wants to do next professionally. His manager, Jon Landau (played by the equally stoic Jeremy Strong), is looking out for him, but is also keen to discuss his next album. He's excited when Bruce starts preparing a demo in his house, unaccompanied and using a four-track recorder. But that demo contains a dramatic shift in Springsteen's usual rock n' roll, and what follows is a challenging process of deciding how to record this album and market it to the executives who are not going to be happy about this change in musical style.

Personally, Springsteen is going through a deep depression, reflecting on his childhood, his abusive father (played with complicated menace by Stephen Graham), and his blue-collar roots, all of which influence the deeply dark and personal songs on this new album. He meets a new woman named Faye (Odessa Young, in a somewhat thankless role as an amalgamation of all the women Bruce dated during this period in his life when he was a lost soul), and while like all tortured artists he tries to distract himself with their relationship, he finds that he simply cannot outrun his demons.

This movie is a bit of a slog. If you love Bruce's music, and particularly this album, it might be a real treat, but as someone who barely knows any Springsteen music, and certainly nothing from this album, the entire film just feels like a very somber treatise on depression and the artistic process. It's perhaps telling that the only time I got excited is when we see him record Born in the USA halfway through the film, before things settle back into melancholy. There isn't much plot here, and while White and Strong are delivering great performances and showcase a beautiful friendship between these two men, it felt like this movie was stuck in one gear throughout and grinded through. There's a scene at the very end when Bruce's mask finally breaks, and that was probably the most powerful moment of the film for me, but at that point I had already sat through two hours of rather humdrum storytelling. Ultimately, this movie might be worth it if you're a fan of the Boss, but otherwise, this is not going to be worth your while. 

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.

June Movies Part 1: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, The Phoenician Scheme, The Penguin Lessons, Mountainhead

I have a long list of movies I have yet to see this month, but I've still managed to watch a lot of other random ones. Eclectic mix of reviews incoming...

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl: Written and directed by Rungano Nyoni, this is a Zambian movie about a woman named Shula (Susan Chardy) who discovers the dead body of her uncle lying on the road when she's driving home from a party one night. She seems strangely unfazed by this and goes through the motions of calling up her family and the police, navigating all the bureaucracy of getting this matter sorted out. What follows are the various funeral arrangements, involving Shula's mother and many aunties, aka the sisters of this dead man. Everyone is insisting that Shula grieve and show more emotion, but she seems to just be going through the motions, alongside her cousins, Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela), who seems to be perpetually drunk, and Bupe (Esther Singini), who is suicidal.

If you haven't pieced it together yet, the nieces are not mourning dead Uncle Fred because of...reasons. And yet this movie is a very dark comedy, an insight into the patriarchy, and the many ways in which older generations of women will still try to protect men, while the younger generation are trying to break a vicious cycle. It's a very vibey film, but I had never seen any movie set in Zambia before, so it was extremely engaging, along with its many parallels to my experiences with Indian funereal customs...and the patriarchy, of course. Give it a shot if you want to immerse yourself in something completely unique and strange, but obviously, trigger warnings abound.

The Phoenician Scheme: Written and directed by Wes Anderson, this movie is exactly what you would expect (or at least, it's what I expected). I find it increasingly hard to talk about Anderson's films because they just all seem to blend together into one big twee art project featuring a lot of famous actors delivering nonsensical dialogue or running around like they're in a Benny Hill sketch.

In this one, Benicio del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a rich man in 1950 who decides to name his daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who is a nun, as his sole heir. Together, they must travel the world and meet various investors to help fund Korda's morally dubious Phoenician scheme. And of course, along the way, maybe this estranged pair will build a proper familial bond. It's all very weird, it's a string of silly vignettes, and I didn't much care for it. But I must stress, I am entirely too jaded to properly review Anderson's movies anymore - my husband thought this movie was wonderful and a return to form. So, if you're a fan, perhaps this movie will perfectly scratch an itch for you. But if you're too tired of "auteurs" like I am, give it a miss.

The Penguin Lessons: Written by Jeff Pope, based on the memoir by Tom Michell, and directed by Peter Cattaneo, this movie stars Steve Coogan as Michell, an English teacher who decided to teach at a boy's boarding school in Argentina in 1976 when they were in the midst of a coup d'etat. During a holiday in Uruguay, he rescues a penguin who was caught up in an oil slick on the beach, and then proceeds to smuggle it back to Argentina. What follows is a heartwarming story about how a grumpy old Englishman learns to become more empathetic as he is forced to engage with this penguin. And also learns to maybe stop being politically neutral while the Argentinians around him are being abducted and tortured by their government? 

The tone of this film is all over the place, but it's certainly charming enough to stream over an afternoon, particularly if you're into cute penguins. But there's something decidedly colonial about the proceedings, with a classic "white people are shocked to learn how the rest of the world operates" aesthetic. Coogan delivers a good performance, and the movie is certainly intriguing since it is based on a true story, but beyond that, it lacks any real substance.

Mountainhead: Written and directed by Jesse Armstrong (aka creator of Succession and Peep Show - talk about range!), this is a bleak movie about four tech billionaires (well one of them only has millions), who convene in a snowy mansion in Utah to talk about how they might take over the world. Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, Cory Michael Smith, and Jason Schwartzman star as four Silicon Valley dudes modelled after the likes of Thiel, Musk, and Zuckerberg, who are of course convinced of their own inherent genius, and blithely ignore all the chaos their technologies have wreaked upon the world. At the moment they're meeting, the world is particularly rife with misinformation and anarchy, all spurred on by the fake videos and messages being circulated on a social media platform one of them owns, and what follows is a hodgepodge of tech speak and insanity.

This is probably a good movie for those of you who are massively online. But depending on your politics, you will love this movie for very different reasons. As you can imagine, I did NOT enjoy this movie, as it depicts the very reasons why I am not massively online and do not care for tech bros. It's the darkest of comedies, and practically a horror film. It does a brilliant job of capturing that painful Silicon Valley tech speak and how these men want to optimize their lives and think that they are the only ones who know how to run the world. It's the epitome of Move Fast and Break Things, and after you watch this movie, you'll certainly feel like your brain got broken!

March Binges Part 2: Deli Boys, The Pitt, Apple Cider Vinegar, The Residence

I binged way more shows than I thought I would this month so here are some more recommendations coming your way if you feel the need to get solidly acquainted with your couch cushions!

Deli Boys: Created by Abdullah Saeed, this show is a thoroughly delightful binge. Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh star as Mir and Raj, two brothers in Philadelphia who discover in the wake of their father's death that he was actually a criminal. And they must now take over his drug empire with the help of his right-hand woman, Lucky (the indomitably great Poorna Jagannathan), and annoyed CFO, Ahmad (Brian Geroge). These two spoiled Pakistani-American men must quickly figure out how they are going to get back to making this business a profitable enterprise that can help them sustain the lavish lifestyle to which they have become accustomed, all while dodging a persistent FBI agent and negotiating with hardened criminals who would only be too happy to see them permanently put out of business.

It's a wild and wacky premise, and every episode ends on an amazing cliffhanger that makes this impossible not to binge. Trust me on this - my ordinarily "I can only watch one episode at a time!" husband was the one clamoring for us to hit Play Next Episode every day until we polished off the ten episodes that make up the first season of this show. It is funny, smart, full of desi jokes, a little bit bloody, and genuinely exciting and intriguing. Bring on the second season ASAP, but until then, just rewatch this first season on a loop. 

The Pitt: There are still a few episodes left to air to finish out the 15-episode first season, but just start bingeing already, OK? This is one of the best shows airing on TV right now, and unless you are already a doctor who cannot bear to watch a medical show, your eyeballs should be glued to Max as you soak in this ambitious and remarkable televisual feat. Created by R. Scott Gemmill, the show follows one shift in the Emergency Room of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. Each episode features one hour in this most nightmarish of shifts and you're following the various doctors, nurses, students, social workers, and other support staff that keep this place running. As well as a varied mix of patients who are presenting with a number of complaints, some of which might be resolved within an hour, and others of which you'll be tracking over several episodes until they finally leave the ER (for either good or bad reasons). 

Noah Wyle stars as Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, the senior attending who has to preside over this motley crew and ensure they do no harm while working under horrendous administrative pressures. The man is brilliant, but he is also exceedingly human, and he is still reeling from the PTSD of working in the ER during the COVID pandemic. This day, in particular, is a hard one for him, and as the day progresses, things just keep getting worse. A breakdown is imminent, but oh man, it's not clear who is going to snap first, because every single character on this show is going through some gnarly shit. Also, this is the day that the new medical students and interns have rotated into this department, so we quickly get to see who will survive this trial by fire, and who is going to suffer (one of the students faints during a gruesome procedure, and let's just say that I felt very seen.) 

Every actor on this show is doing phenomenal work, and the writers are simply geniuses, effortlessly doling out backstory as they simultaneously cover every medical complication known to man. Keep an eye on anyone you think might be a background actor - someone might seem like they're just an extra in the waiting room on Episode 1, but then they get admitted in Episode 5 and get to have a whole story arc of their own. The production design is incredible, and you will get to see hyper-realistic depictions of everything that goes on in a trauma center. This show is certainly not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach all those bodily fluids, you are in for an emotional and thrilling ride.

Apple Cider Vinegar: From realistic medicine, we go to absolute quackery. Created by Samatha Strauss, who adapted this from the book, The Woman Who Fooled the World, by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, this miniseries is the true story of Australian influencer, Belle Gibson (played with an amazing accent by the always reliable Kaitlyn Dever). Belle was an entrepreneur and wellness guru, who faked having brain cancer in order to amass a social media following and tout her wellness recipes via an app and cookbook. Over the course of six episodes, we see how this woman got to this point, and the various institutions and people that enabled her to get away with it. 

In parallel, we also get the story of Milla Blake (a fictional character, though based on a real woman, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey), a young woman who truly does have a rare cancer in her arm, but chooses to pursue alternative medicine instead of listening to her doctors who say amputation or an experimental treatment might be her only options. She also becomes an inspirational figure in the wellness industry, with a popular blog touting her alternative medicine approach that consists of juicing and coffee enemas. All of which, of course, is dangerous and leads many people astray who need proper medical attention. 

The series is a little uneven and at times it can feel like this didn't need to be extended out into six hour-long episodes. But at its core, it's a fascinating and remarkable look at the very real dangers that these so-called wellness experts pose, particularly during a time when our society is fond of attacking and questioning scientists and medical professionals more than ever. Medical misinformation can have truly devastating consequences, and following the trajectory of these two very different but oddly similar women offers up a compelling vision of why we must always remain vigilant.

The Residence: Ready for a complete pivot? Binge all eight episodes of this murder mystery instead! Created by Paul William Davies, Uzo Aduba stars as Detective Cordelia Cupp, an avid birder who also happens to be one of the best detectives in the world, who is called in to investigate what happened when the Chief Usher of the White House (played by none other than Giancarlo Esposito) is found dead in the game room. Who could have done it?!

Turns out, a lot of people could have done it. The White House was hosting a state dinner that night, so a bunch of Australians are present (including some famous ones!), but more importantly, the White House employs a lot of staff members, a number of whom had intricate relationships with the Chief Usher and various motives and agendas that may or may not have resulted in his murder. If that wasn't enough, the President's own family members and friends are behaving awfully suspiciously as well. As Cordelia interviews all these people and runs around the White House looking for clues, she finds a very tangled web.

This show definitely suffers from Netflix bloat, constantly re-hashing the plot and re-summarizing what we have learned so far instead of just getting on with it. It could have been a lean six episodes, but instead is a very long eight episodes, that will occasionally wear on you. But the actors are charming, and the mystery itself is quite elegant when you finally unravel it all. This is one of those shows that might have been better as a novel than a series, but with Shonda Rhimes as an executive producer, you are least guaranteed sumptuous production design and a visual spectacle to keep you engaged in the duller moments. It's like watching a Poirot novel come to life, so if that's your jam, have at it.

February Movies Part 3: Nickel Boys, The Apprentice, I'm Still Here

The Oscars are less than a week away so as you can imagine, I have been desperately scrambling to finish watching the last few nominated movies I haven't yet seen. And now, here are my reviews for your viewing pleasure.

Nickel Boys: Directed by RaMell Ross who also wrote the screenplay with Joslyn Barnes, based on Colson's Whitehead's 2019 novel, this is the deeply dark and distressing tale of two teenage boys at Nickel Academy in the 1960s. Nickel is a racially segregated reform school, where the Black boys are inevitably treated harshly and cruelly and have absolutely no recourse. They are told that they could get out for good behavior, but of course, that is simply a lie, as the school benefits too much from hiring these boys out as cheap labor while not even bothering to feed or educate them properly. We begin our story with Elwood (Ethan Cole Sharp), a young man who ends up in Nickel completely by accident through a gross miscarriage of justice. He meets Turner (Brandon Wilson), another boy who has been stuck at Nickel for years after he grew up in a terrible home. The two of them form a bond, with Turner trying to teach Elwood how to fly under the radar, while Elwood, a bright kid who took part in Civil Rights protests, still can't quite fathom how this place could be allowed to exist.

Of course, the thing everyone is talking about in this movie is the way that it is shot. Told from a first-person perspective, the camera acts as the eyes of the different characters and so you are mostly looking out at the world as Elwood or Turner sees it. It's a powerful way to literally put the audience in these characters' shoes and also feels like absolute magic. There were multiple shots where I would go, "I don't understand how they shot that." That does mean that the camera work can be shaky at times though, so you might get a little unsettled and queasy if you're prone to motion sickness. Even if you're not so afflicted, the horrific story will make you unsettled all the same. While Nickel Academy may be fictional, it is based on the very real Dozier School in Florida, that was only shut down in 2011. So please do give this movie your attention. It is beautifully shot, well-acted, and a powerful reminder of this country's sordid history.

The Apprentice: Directed by Ali Abbasi and written by Gabriel Sherman, this is the story of Donald Trump's rise to power in the 70s and 80s after he was taken under the wing of the powerful and disreputable lawyer, Roy Cohn. Was I dreading having to watch this movie? Of course. But once I steeled myself to do it, I discovered it was a genuinely good film. And can now understand why Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong have been nominated for their performances as Trump and Cohn respectively. Stan, especially, is wondrous at portraying this heinous man that dominates our collective consciousness. He somehow captures all those mannerisms and tics and ways of speaking that are so familiar, without descending into all-out parody or a too-uncanny impression. He has nailed the essence of Trump but then lets us get on with the story of how this venal man came to be, under the tutelage of the equally venal Cohn.

Obviously, your mileage may vary. Far be it for me to recommend a Trump movie to anyone, because who the hell wants to give the guy more airtime? But this is a well-made film (with a great soundtrack to boot) that provides some insights into how this man has always operated and why he is currently obliterating our government. Maria Bakalova also offers up a stand-out performance as Ivana Trump, with one particularly heartbreaking scene that should fill everyone who voted for this man with shame. But they won't care, so alas. Watch it if you're an Oscar completist but spare yourself if the news already has you down. It's a good movie, but it's not worth that much trauma.

I'm Still Here: Directed by Walter Salles and written by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega, based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva's 2015 memoir, this is the true story of Eunice Paiva (played by the incandescent Fernanda Torres), a woman who is a national hero in Brazil, but who I had never heard of until watching this film. This film will quickly explain to you why she became such a hero, even if it is a rather harrowing tale. It all begins in 1970, where Eunice and her family live in Rio de Janeiro and enjoy a rather idyllic life right by the beach. She and her husband, Rubens (Selton Mello), are very much in love and have five children, who all seem to be having a lovely time. However, Brazil is under a military dictatorship, and one night, some men claiming to be the police take Rubens away for questioning. The next day, Eunice and her daughter are taken in for questioning as well, and no answers are forthcoming as to what the army thinks Rubens has done.

The movie is mostly concerned with these events in 1970, but we do then get some time jumps that explain what happened to Eunice and her family in later years. If I have one quibble about this film, it's that it felt like a superhero origin story, more concerned with how this woman acted as a wife and mother, rather than giving us the story of what she did with her life that made her a truly celebrated national treasure. This movie is so well-told and features immaculate performances from every cast member, but now I am desperate for a sequel. This is a woman who really LIVED, and one movie is not enough to contain her greatness. If, like me, you are woefully behind in your knowledge of South American history and feminist icons (or have simply never watched a Brazilian movie), watch this movie posthaste. It is a remarkable reminder of all of the many ways that ordinary people can fight back against injustice and continue to smile.

January Movies Part 2: The Fire Inside, Blitz, The Last Showgirl, Better Man

January has turned into a fiercely busy movie month for me. So gird your loins, a slew of reviews are coming your way!

The Fire Inside: Written by Barry Jenkins and directed by Rachel Morrison (who was the first woman to be nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar in 2017), this is an excellent biopic about Claressa Shields (played brilliantly by Ryan Destiny), a boxer from Flint, Michigan who overcame tremendous personal adversity to make it all the way to the London 2012 Olympics, with the help of her amazing coach, Jason Crutchfield (Bryan Tyree Henry, delivering an unsurprisingly marvelous performance, full of warmth and wisdom). I had never heard of Shields, but having now watched this film, I'm shocked that she isn't a bigger deal, considering the long list of accolades she holds and the records she has broken in her quest for athletic greatness. Of course, a significant portion of this film deals with the inherent racism and misogyny that Shields had to face, where despite winning an Olympic gold medal (oops, spoilers?), she still struggled to find sponsorship deals or endorsements, because people just don't like to see a Black woman beating people up for sport.

I find it unfathomable that this movie hasn't been in the conversation for awards this year, which perhaps speaks to the fact that #OscarsSoWhite continues to be a huge problem. While I'm ordinarily not a huge fan of biopics, this film has a tight script and captivating performances, particularly from Destiny who has to portray a woman who doesn't convey a whole lot of emotion through words, but can poignantly express herself through her stance and body language. One of the first scenes with a young Claressa involves her shying away from a hug from Jason, and that one little movement is enough to convey a world of backstory. This is a film that is content to show, not tell, and the fight sequences are also extraordinarily choreographed, conveying just how talented and remarkable this woman is in the ring. So watch this movie to learn more about a woman who ought to be a household name and to consider how far we still have to go to give women, and especially Black women, the support and encouragement they deserve.

Blitz: Written and directed by Steve McQueen, this is a movie set during the height of the World War II Blitz when London was being relentlessly bombed by the German Luftwaffe. Saoirse Ronan stars as Rita, a single mother who lives with her father and is raising her nine-year-old son, George (Elliott Heffernan), who is half-Black. She decides to send George away from the city to protect him from the bombs, but George only interprets this as gross abandonment by his mother. When he gets on the train, he tells her he hates her, which makes for a brutal parting. Halfway through his train journey, George is overcome with homesickness, and it doesn’t help that the other children are a bunch of racists who make fun of him for being Black. He jumps off the train and thus begins a long odyssey back home, where this poor boy will encounter any number of horrors. 

I can’t say I loved this film - much like the Blitz, it was relentless in its onslaught of terrible things this poor child has to witness on his journey home. But the production design is absolutely epic in scope. Most WWII movies focus on what was happening on the battlefield, but this is the first time I have felt truly immersed in what was happening on the home front and the absolutely insanity ordinary British citizens were subject to during this time. And Heffernan delivers a brilliant performance as a young child who has to grow up far too quickly, not just when it comes to dealing with the perils of war, but also the perils of racism. If this is a period of history that fascinates you, this movie is well worth a watch, but if you are already too overwhelmed by the present-day perils of 2025, give this film a miss.

The Last Showgirl: Written by Kate Gersten and directed by Gia Coppola, this movie has been rightfully earning Pamela Anderson heaps of praise for her performance as Shelly, a 57-year-old Las Vegas showgirl who has to figure out what to do with her life when she finds out the revue show she has been a part of for decades is shutting down. We get to explore her relationships with the younger women in the revue (played by Kiernan Shipka and Brenda Song), who alternate between treating Shelly like a mother figure that can provide comfort or an exasperating older woman who is full of tales of when this show was more popular and prestigious. She has an ambiguous relationship with the show's producer, Eddie (a wonderful performance by Dave Bautista - the man has expressed interest in being in a romcom, and while this movie is a straight-up drama, it's easy to see how wonderful he would be if given the chance to just be a romantic leading man - make it happen Hollywood!). And there's also a great friendship with Annette (the incomparable Jamie Lee Curtis), a dancer who used to be in the revue but then got kicked out and became a chaotic cocktail waitress instead.

But putting aside all the wonderful supporting performances, Anderson truly shines in this role, as a woman who adores her job and has made it her entire identity, probably at the expense of other more crucial elements of her life. She loves to dance, and she loves being in the spotlight, and as the movie progresses, we come to see the abject cruelty that is ahead of her because this is not a career that is feasible for an older woman. She has so much talent and passion, but none of that matters when you're a 57-year-old woman in Vegas, and the gradual dissolution of her hopes and dreams seems imminent. And yet, this character is so perpetually hopeful and optimistic and such a striver. It's a wondrous thing to watch the emotions flitting across Anderson's face as she constantly has to adjust her expectations and cope and then temporarily give in to despair before she puts on her feathers and diamonds and gives a dazzling smile to the audience. It's a tour de force performance that will stick with you for a long time after you've seen it.

Better Man: I grew up in the Middle East and listened to the UK Top 40 every week, so I am well aware of who Robbie Williams is. That information is necessary, because every American person I have spoken to has said, "who is Robbie Williams?!" Which means there's a high barrier to entry for this movie, which is a biopic of the famous British pop singer, Robbie Williams, chronicling his rise to fame as a part of the boy band Take That, his subsequent move to a solo career, and the alcohol and drug addictions that plagued him along the way. Oh, and while the actor Jonno Davies is playing Williams in the movie, he is doing so via motion capture as a CGI chimpanzee. For reasons that are not super clear but essentially amount to the fact that Williams always perceived himself to be "less evolved" than other people and had a very self-deprecating image of himself, that may have led to all those addiction issues to begin with.

Listen, I'm not here to sell you on this movie. It's directed by Michael Gracey, who directed The Greatest Showman, so you can be assured there are some incredible song-and-dance numbers sprinkled throughout this film that are spectacular to behold. And if you're a fan of Williams' music, all the hits are represented, and you'll have a great time. As someone who was a fan of his music but didn't know much about his backstory, I was quite fascinated to learn about his interactions with various other famous British pop stars and the sordid behind-the-scenes machinations of his career. It's a weird little movie that is going to appeal to a fairly niche audience, and while I thought it was a perfectly entertaining way to spend two hours, I'm not going to pretend anyone else is gonna get a kick out of it, particularly if you have no idea who Robbie is. So check it out if you're a huge fan and want to bop along in your seat as a singing chimp dances to Rock DJ. If not, move along.

January Movies Part 1: Maria, Nightbitch, Juror #2

Happy New Year! January has rolled around and awards season is in full swing so I shall continue to watch all the things that have a hope of being nominated. Here are some reviews of some contenders.

Maria: Written by Steven Knight and directed by Pablo Larrain, this film completes Larrain's trilogy of notable 20th-century women that includes Jackie and Spencer. In this film, we get a biopic of renowned opera singer Maria Callas (played by Angelina Jolie), a woman who had a voice that was famous around the world. We meet her a week before her death, and the film then proceeds with a series of flashbacks highlighting key moments in Maria's life, including her impoverished childhood and subsequent rise to stardom because of her prodigious talent. Eventually, she was hobnobbing with the rich and famous, even becoming Aristotle Onassis's mistress (before and after his marriage to Jackie, so the Pablo Larrain Cinematic Universe really comes together). 

This movie is...fine. I loved Larrain's other films so I'm a little surprise by my lukewarm reaction to this one, but it struck me as being the most humdrum and "biopic-y" of the trilogy. It didn't seem to have much to say about its subject, and also it leaned on her singing as a crutch, always cutting to a performance from the past and interspersing it with the present when Maria has lost her voice and can't sing as beautifully anymore. There's only so many times I can watch that gimmick in one movie, you know? I also cannot stand opera, so perhaps I was too biased going into this film. I have previously always loved the scores in Larrain's movies and think they do a tremendous amount of scene setting, so perhaps if you are an opera afficionado, this movie has a lot more to offer you. Unfortunately, this movie could not win me over, and while Jolie does do her best with the material, she is quite obviously lip synching for the majority of the film and it all felt a bit unnecessary. Ultimately, I didn't need this tale of another tragic woman that people forgot once she couldn't give them what they wanted anymore. It's a tale as old as time.

Nightbitch: Written and directed by Marielle Heller, based on the novel by Rachel Yoder, this is certainly a fresh tale about the horrors of motherhood and the gender dynamics at play when you become a parent. I am famously childfree, and this movie does a great job of explaining exactly why that is my stance. Amy Adams plays an unnamed woman, the Mother (duh), a woman who was an artist but gave it all up to be a stay-at-home mother to her two-year-old son. Her husband (Scoot McNairy) travels a lot for work, so she usually feels like a single parent, stuck at home with her toddler, trying to keep him amused at Book Babies and Toddler Yoga, and all the other distractions, while internally she just wants to scream. It's nothing we haven't seen before, but what is novel is that suddenly, she starts turning into a dog.

Yup, I said it. It's hard to explain, so you'll just have to watch for yourself, but the metaphor is essentially that motherhood turns you into a wild animal and you have no time for niceties because you're just so consumed with the basic needs of staying alive and protecting your young. This is a movie about exalting mothers and all the shit they put up with, particularly in a patriarchal society like the United States where families don't get enough parental leave and have extremely limited childcare options which may not even be affordable when they are available. And also, where your husband can get away with doing absolutely nothing around the house or acting really put-upon when he does have to take care of his kid for a day. If you are a mother, this movie might be an excellent one to watch with your partner and then have a serious discussion about whether your household has an equitable division of labor. If you are NOT a mother, however, please do watch this movie as a reminder of how much goddamn work it is to take care of a child and whether or not this is something you genuinely want to take on in your life. Even if you are so economically privileged as to stay at home with your child while your partner works, this movie serves as a reminder that children are exhausting, and being a mother only results in losing your whole identity. Unless you turn into a Nightbitch.

Juror #2: Written by Jonathan Abrams and directed by Client Eastwood, this is a perfectly middling courtroom drama that is worth a watch on the couch if that genre is of particular interest to you. Nicholas Hoult stars as Justin, a man who is called into jury duty and then is selected for a homicide trial. However, once the trial is underway, Justin realizes he is in possession of information that could exonerate the defendant. Justin can't share this information, however, because it would put him in trouble instead. Oops.

What follows is a twisty little tale, very reminiscent of Twelve Angry Men, where you have Justin as the one juror who says "Not Guilty!" and must then try and convince his peers that the prosecution don't have enough evidence and the defendant could potentially be innocent. The prosecutor (Toni Collette), is an ambitious woman running to become the state's district attorney, while the public defender (Chris Messina), is convinced his client is innocent, but has no way to prove it. You will scoff at a lot of what's happening because it's all very Hollywood and nothing that would be allowed in real life, but hey, that's why we watch the movies right? The actors are doing fine work, but the script is hokey as hell, and honestly, the ending is a bit of a cop out. But if you enjoy this kind of drama with high stakes and genuine suspense until the very end, this is a perfectly acceptable way to spend two hours of your afternoon.

December Movies: Emilia Perez, A Complete Unknown, The Piano Lesson, Nosferatu, Babygirl

New movies have been pouring into the theaters, and onto Netflix, so I’ve been desperately catching up, since many of them are also slated to get some love during awards season. As the year winds down, dive into these films as a last hurrah to 2024!

Emilia Perez: Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, based on his own opera libretto that was loosely based on the novel Ecoute by Boris Razon, this is a very bizarre but compelling movie about a trans Mexican cartel leader named Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (played by Karla Sofia Gascon), who needs to ensure her wife (played by Selena Gomez) and children are taken care of after she receives gender-affirming surgery and starts a new life. She hires/kidnaps Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldana), a lawyer who is brilliant but has never gotten the chance to exercise her brilliance in court. Rita is initially skeptical but then agrees to take on the work of helping Manitas find the right doctor and set all the wheels into motion so that she can live as her authentic self while ensuring her family is safe. Post-transition, Manitas is now Emilia, and while she thought she could just be happy on her own as a woman, she realizes she needs something more and asks Rita to help her once again. Oh also, this entire movie is a musical, with characters constantly breaking into song, in various languages. Tonally, it’s a wild ride, but the three main actresses are delivering outstanding performances, and the plot is so twisty and engaging that I was riveted throughout. It’s a movie that’s well worth streaming because it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen before. It’s weird, but it’s quite good, and isn’t that what we all aspire to be?

A Complete Unknown: Directed by James Mangold, off a script he wrote with Jay Cocks, based on the book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald, this is a perfectly serviceable biopic that follows Bob Dylan (Timothee Chalamet) from the time he arrived in New York City in 1961 to the infamous Newport Folk Festival in 1965, when he shocked the world by playing with electric instruments. Along the way, we see the evolution of his relationship with his mentor Pete Seeger (played with a Mr. Rogers-esque kindness by Edward Norton), his romance with steadfast girlfriend Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning, playing Dylan's actual girlfriend Suze Rotolo, but Dylan requested the film not use her real name) and the tempestuous musical/romantic relationship with Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro, singing her beautiful heart out). It’s all very typical for a biopic, a genius man and his music, who has no time to be treating the women in his life well when he has all these songs to write. Blah blah. Chalamet’s performance is the truly extraordinary piece of this film, as he sings and plays guitar and harmonica, and does the world’s best Dylan impression. Give him the Oscar already. The film is 50% music, and not just Dylan’s, but a lot of Baez’s work too, which Monica Barbaro brilliantly performs and deserves her own Supporting Actor Oscar for. This movie is definitely worth it for the music and performances, but don’t go into it expecting any great revelations beyond the standard biopic fare.

The Piano Lesson: Directed by Malcolm Washington, who wrote the screenplay with Virgil Williams, adapting it from August Wilson’s play, this is the story of a piano that is sitting in the living room of a woman named Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler), and what happens when her brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington) travels up to her house to get this piano with the aim of selling it so he can buy the Mississippi farmland where their ancestors were previously enslaved. This piano has a lot of history, some of which is literally carved into its woodwork, and as the movie progresses, we slowly get the story of what this piano has been through, and also, what the members of this family have been through. Set in 1936, this is a classic tale of the African American experience on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line, and the poverty, racism, and fear, that keep impacting future generations of Black folk as they try to go about their lives. It’s also a ghost story, so be prepared for some fantastical elements you may not have necessarily expected. While Deadwyler delivers a great performance, I found it hard to really get into this film - given its play origins, it was ultimately too talky and not very cinematically compelling. I have yet to see John David Washington convince me that he’s a leading man, so again, I’d say this is a competent film, that continues Denzel Washington’s valiant plan to bring all of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle plays to the screen for a wider audience. But this particular story did not grip me as much as Fences or Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, so maybe you're better off re-watching those films.

Nosferatu: Directed by Robert Eggers, who wrote the screenplay with inspiration from the 1922 silent film of the same name and Bram Stoker's Dracula, this is your standard vampire movie about a maniacal vampire who desires a woman (in this case, Ellen, played by Lily-Rose Depp), and must therefore wreak absolute havoc on a bunch of people is his diabolical quest to get laid. Can you tell I was not the target demographic? As always, Eggers is brilliant with his artistic vision, with breathtaking production design from Craig Lathrop, costumes by Linda Muir, and cinematography from Jarin Blaschke. And I legitimately had no idea Bill Skarsgard was the one playing Nosferatu, he is so creepy and vile throughout. Nicholas Hoult is great as Thomas, Ellen’s husband who is lured to do the vampire's bidding and then must fight him to try and save his wife. But ugh, I simply did not care. It all felt like a very elaborate plot that amounted to the same old, patriarchal nonsense where a woman must suffer so the rest of us can live, and everyone is being punished for being lusty, and yada yada yada. It’s all very well done, and if you love horror movies and vampires please run to the theater. But if you suspect this is not the kind of genre film that is your jam, then I am here to tell you, you are right, there is nothing novel here that will make it your jam.

Babygirl: Written and directed by Halina Reijn, this is a deeply weird but oddly compelling film, thanks to the central performance by Nicole Kidman. She plays Romy Mathis, a brilliant and successful CEO, who is married to a dashing theater director named Jacob (Antonio Banderas) and has two nice children. Her life is all perfect on the outside, but of course, all is not well on the inside. Because in 19 years of marriage, Romy has never had an orgasm with her husband and instead has to rely on porn to get off when he’s asleep. Well now, her company has hired a young intern named Samuel (Harris Dickinson), and Romy is irresistibly pulled into an erotic liaison with him, exploring the submissive power dynamic she has never been able to share with her husband. The theater I was in was filled with people who kept laughing at the sex scenes and outlandish bits of dialogue, so I suppose you could treat this as a comedy. But really, it’s just an erotic thriller, and Kidman delivers a knockout performance. The way she portrays Romy's vulnerability and constant need to hide herself and deny her urges is wondrous, and it’s equally wondrous to see her suffering behind the icy facade she has to put on for her family and colleagues outside of the bedroom. Harris Dickinson also continues to be eminently watchable on screen, being thoroughly creepy and hot and indecipherable all at once. And special shout-out to the score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, which was truly one of the most engaging parts of the film. This movie is well worth a watch, even if it's hard to find it compelling these days to watch another rich white woman having a breakdown. In this case though, the breakdown is masterfully portrayed.

October Movies Part 1: My Old Ass, Sing Sing, Wolfs, Saturday Night

So far, October has been a bit more promising on the TV front than movies. But there are still some options for you in the theater or on streaming so let's get to them!

My Old Ass: This is a genuinely wonderful movie that people should be watching in droves. It has flown a bit under the radar because it doesn't have any big-name stars attached apart from Aubrey Plaza, but it is a sweet, funny, and moving film. Written and directed by Megan Park, it tells the story of 18-year-old Elliott (the brilliant Maisy Stella), who is spending her last summer at home with her family on their idyllic cranberry farm before she leaves for university in the big city (Toronto!) and can finally begin her life. When she does shrooms with her best friends, she has a trip where she is visited by her 39-year-old future self (played by Aubrey Plaza). Future Elliott has some good advice, mostly around cherishing this time she has left with her family, and to not be so desperate to grow up. But there is also some more cryptic advice that you will spend the rest of the film worrying about until the surprising conclusion. 

This is one of those films where you shouldn't pay too much attention to the science fiction implications of time travel: future Elliott puts her number into present Elliott's phone as "My Old Ass" and the two of them are still able to communicate after she is done tripping - don't think about that too hard. Instead, just go along for the splendid ride to experience a beautiful story about living in the present and not worrying too much about the ramification of your choices. Also, Elliott is unapologetically gay and has a great support system, so this is a great movie for queer kids and other folk who would like to just enjoy the fantasy of seeing a gay kid live their life without too much drama. This is a gem of a film and while it seems too small to get much recognition at awards season, I do dearly hope it might get a nod for Park's screenwriting or Stella's lead performance. Everyone, please run to the theater and watch it immediately.

Sing Sing: Speaking of powerful lead performances, it should come as no surprise that Colman Domingo is great in this film. Directed by Greg Kwedar, who co-wrote the screenplay with Clint Bentley, this is the story of the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program at Sing Sing prison in upstate New York. This program has been running for almost 30 years, and the focus of this film is on  John "Divine G" Whitfield (Domingo), a prisoner who joined RTA and became a playwright and director, while he also fought his wrongful conviction and tried to secure his release. Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin also co-stars as himself, and we get to see how Divine G scouted him to join the RTA program, gradually molding him to become a star actor in the program, after overcoming his initial skepticism.

This is a film about the transformative power of the arts and the important work RTA does to get these prisoners to process their emotions and learn new ways to express themselves instead of the old standbys of anger and violence. Sing Sing is a maximum security prison, and many of these men are serving life sentences with little or no hope. But participating in RTA gives them joy and a new purpose in life. I listened to a podcast with Maclin and it's wonderful to hear this man, who had such a rough start in life and was sentenced to 17 years in Sing Sing for robbery, speak about what this program did for him and how he is now taking the work forward by helping prisoners and at-risk youth with these skills. I can't say that I always found this movie engaging, but the actors (most of whom are actual RTA alumnae) are captivating and the story they are telling is compelling and important. And the final scenes when you get to see some of the real-life plays that RTA put on through the years is enough to make you believe in humanity after all.

Wolfs: Oof. Written and direct by Jon Watts, and starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, you would have thought this movie would be great. But it's an Apple TV+ production and is "aggressively mid" as I once heard NPR's Linda Holmes describe a lot of their catalogue. Clooney and Pitt are playing "fixers" who get called into a Manhattan District Attorney's hotel room when she accidentally finds herself with a dead body and doesn't know what to do next. She called Clooney, while Pitt was called in by the hotel owner, and now these two lone wolves must work together to clean up the situation. Which leads to a wild night across New York City as they unravel the plot of how this "dead" man ended up in that hotel room, and other tangled conspiracies that ultimately relate to who they work for in the first place. 

Honestly, I cannot tell you much more beyond that, because I barely understood this convoluted plot, the cinematography was so dark I could barely see any of the action, and apart from the very end, in a diner scene, when it felt like I could finally see Clooney's facial expressions and be reminded me of why he's such a great actor, I was thoroughly bored. I was expecting the two leads to recapture the old Ocean's Eleven magic, but their banter felt forced, and every line of dialogue just fell flat. Pitt also seems to be an increasingly sketchy public figure who needs to account for his terrible behavior towards Angelina Jolie and their children, and while he ordinarily whitewashes his reputation by producing excellent movies, this movie is such a dud that his luck has run out. So don't bother watching this film, and let's just all band together for a Pitt boycott instead. That would be a much more worthy use of our time.  

Saturday Night: Directed by Jason Reitman, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Gil Kenan, this is a movie about the 90 minutes preceding the airing of the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. As we swoop through the studio and Rockefeller Center, following creator Lorne Michaels (played by Gabriel LaBelle) around as he deals with recalcitrant actors, peeved writers, a righteous censor, eager comedians, doubtful studio executives, and...a llama, it's an absolute whirlwind of chaos. As someone who watches SNL every week and is a fan of the many iconic comedians and characters that got their start on this show, this movie is a veritable who's who of famous names. But it felt like watching The Bear, an anxiety-provoking hellscape where you just want to be like "man, is this even worth it." And oddly, it also felt like watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, where everyone's laughing at the supposedly hilarious sketches, while I just sat there thinking, "huh, this doesn't seem that funny." 

Obviously, SNL is an institution, and that first episode WAS really funny and led to this show still being on the air 50 (!) years later. But this movie is such a hagiography, such a self-aggrandizing piece of "yeah, it's us against the establishment, man!" that it's a bit hard to swallow, given that SNL now IS the establishment. The movie is trying to convey how this scrappy little show was going up against the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, with all these counter-culture comedians that no one had heard of, and it was so risqué and daring. But in the cold, hard light of 2024, it no longer feels fresh or innovative, a lot of the jokes feel sexist and tired, and apart from Lamorne Morris's delightful turn as the lone Black cast member, Garrett Morris, this just feels like a sea of white people patting themselves on the back for sticking to their guns. I really did want to like this movie, and while I do think it's a technical marvel with the way it conveys all the frantic energy and endless fires (figurative and literal!) that Lorne has to put out until this show can finally go live, it ultimately didn't seem to have anything new or exciting to say. Which is probably what most people say about SNL these days.

April Movies Part 5: Abigail, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Challengers

April is finally at a close and I somehow managed to watch three more movies in the theater. Whether you're jonesing for horror, action, or sexy tennis, I've got every possible genre covered for you in this post!

Abigail: I only like funny horror and my fiance only likes vampires, so this movie was the perfect intersection of our horror movie preferences. If you've seen the trailer, you already know what to expect. A group of criminals have been recruited for one lucrative mission - kidnap a little girl and hold her in a mansion for 24 hours until her father pays a princely ransom. Each kidnapper gets a generous cut of the ransom, and the girl is returned to her father. What could go wrong?

Well, turns out the little girl is actually a deadly vampire. So...mayhem ensues. This movie is thoroughly entertaining, gory but funny, and with great performances delivered by every single actor, especially Alisha Weir as the murderous but adorable ballerina vampire. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, who were inspired by the 1936 film Dracula's Daughter, this is a splendidly silly film that does not seem to follow much coherent logic in terms of what vampires can and cannot do, but don't let that bog you down. Just settle in for some laughs, jump scares, and buckets of blood. 

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Directed by Guy Ritchie, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, and Arash Amel, this is a heavily fictionalized account of a true story. Set in 1941, at the height of World War II, Winston Churchill needs some way to get rid of the German U-boats that keep sinking supply ships that are carrying aid to the struggling UK. He recruits a ragtag bunch of commandos to conduct a special raid on a Spanish island where a boat containing all the supplies needed to keep the U-boats running is docked. What follows is a very complicated but exciting mission where our stalwart heroes must outsmart the Nazis.

This is a Guy Ritchie movie, so you should know exactly what you're going to get. There's lots of action, lots of broad comedy, and lots of lovable rogues. The cast includes folks like Henry Cavill, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, and Henry Golding, and they are all having a whale of a time. Could this film be edited more judiciously? Of course. Is there a ton of exposition and some unnecessary twists and turns just so we can have a bit more shooting and punching? Naturally. But at the end of the day, do you want a film where you just sit back and watch a bunch of hot British men fight Nazis and look effortlessly cool while doing so? You bet!

Challengers: I walked into the theater with my arms crossed, all set to hate this movie. Based on the trailers, I thought this was going to be "Hot Threesome: The Movie" and prove to be an insufferable treatise on ethical non-monogamy or some such nonsense. However, written by Justin Kuritzkes and directed by Luga Guadagnino, I was instead treated to a remarkable character study of three very twisted people who are suffering from crippling work-life balance issues. And when the work in question is professional tennis, you get a compelling and thrilling film that is kinetic and exciting and manages to be both sexy and funny.

The screenplay is written brilliantly with a flashback structure that means we keep getting the back story of our three main characters in tantalizing bursts. We always get just enough information to advance the plot further by one more step, but it's only until we get to the very end that we finally have the culmination of everything these people have been to each other and the current state of their entanglements. In my screening, there were two men who clearly thought they were coming to this movie to watch Zendaya take her clothes off, and instead, they became markedly agitated as the movie proved to be rather homoerotic, with far more attention being paid to her sweaty male co-stars, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor. 

This movie is shot beautifully, and I have never been more engaged in watching tennis in my life. The soundtrack is genius, always providing a propulsive beat that gets you excited for the next tennis match or the next complicated sex scene where you get to see the true value of an intimacy coordinator who knows how to choreograph not just the physical act, but all the emotional complexities it represents. The actors are sublime, each representing a complex and screwed up human being with thwarted ambitions, and the evolving nature of their relationships from past to present is stunningly portrayed. This movie was a real revelation - go into it knowing as little plot as possible and you will be thoroughly rewarded. 

February Films Part 2: Lisa Frankenstein, Drive-Away Dolls, Next Goal Wins, Bank of Dave, Nai Nai & Wai Po

This month has featured a real hodgepodge of films so here's an update on two films in theaters, and three you can catch on streaming if it's too cold to leave the house.

Lisa Frankenstein: I saw this film and I promptly forgot all about it until I sat down to write this review. So that is certainly not a ringing endorsement Directed by Zelda Williams and written by Diablo Cody, this film is a genre mash-up set in the 1980s, that tells the story of Lisa (Kathryn Newton), a teenage girl who suffered a personal trauma when her mother was murdered and now is having a hard time getting along with her father's new wife (played to catty perfection by Carla Gugino). Her new stepsister, Taffy (Liza Soberano), is very kind, but is also a very cheerful cheerleader, which doesn't quite gel with Lisa's whole silent gothic vibe. Of course, Lisa loves hanging out at the local cemetery, and one day, during a storm, a lightning strikes animates the corpse of a Victorian-era man who was buried there (played by Cole Sprouse). He shows up at Lisa's house and she must hide him away in her bedroom. What follows is a bit of a high school tale, a bit of a romcom, a bit of gothic horror, and a whole lot of 80's tropes. 

The story is quite the hodgepodge and is all a bit aimless and forgettable. Everything seems very comic until it all gets very murderous towards the end. The most notable thing about this film is the aesthetic - it's definitely an homage to Lisa Frank, and every frame is suffused in vibrant fun colors that make this film always a pleasure to look at, even if it isn't always a pleasure to watch. I wouldn't recommend watching it in theaters, but if you need a bit of a diversion, or if teen gothic comedy horror is your jam, your mileage may vary.

Drive-Away Dolls: Directed by Ethan Coen, who also co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Tricia Cooke, this movie is set in 1999 and stars the spectacular duo of Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan as two lesbians who unwittingly steal a valuable briefcase and are now on the run from all the unsavory folk who are trying to retrieve it. Many hijinks ensue, including various delightful cameos from award-winning actors.

This movie is exactly what you would expect from a Coen brother. It's a little raunchy, a little bloody, and a whole lot silly. You are not going to be able to predict what is in that suitcase and why. Ultimately, that's not even very important, because the point of this film is to watch these two women on a road trip, learning to navigate their different approaches to getting laid at lesbian bars, and teaming up to defeat some incompetent gangsters. This is such a spectacularly queer movie, and all it cares about is exploring how women fall in love and/or lust, while the men are just a bunch of buffoons causing unnecessary violence. It's a diverting and fun two hours at the movies and certainly is the most unique experience you can hope to have this month. Down with the patriarchy!

Next Goal Wins: Directed by Taika Waititi who also co-wrote the screenplay with Iain Morris, this movie is everything you may have expected from the trailer. It's an underdog sports story, based on the true story of the American Samoa football team, who were the worst football team in the world. They had never scored a goal in international competition, so the President of the country's Football Association, Tavita (played here by the incredible Oscar Kightley), decided to advertise for a coach from the US. He got Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), a man who had coached several US MLS teams but was currently being banished to American Samoa for increasingly volatile behavior. So now we have a mean coach with a chip on his shoulder, and a team of lovable misfits who have never scored a single goal. Can you see where this is all going?

You're going to get training montages, heartbreak, inspirational monologues, disappointments, triumphs, and a lot of personal growth. There's a whole journey in the coach's relationship with Jaiyah Saelua (Kaimana), a non-binary fa'afafine member of the team, who ended up being the first trans player in international soccer. There's a lot of cultural adjustment that needs to happen and plenty of mockery of this white man and his preconceived notions of Samoans. This is not a surprising or revolutionary movie by any means, but it is certainly a fun treat if you love this particular film genre and need a great team of underdogs to root for.

Bank of Dave: Speaking of rooting for the underdog, here's another wonderful tale of a man who went up against unscrupulous British bankers after the 2008 global financial crisis. This movie tells the true-ish story (and that "ish" is doing a LOT of work here, because this movie is heavily fictionalized) of Dave Fishwick (Rory Kinnear), a successful businessman from Burnley who started lending money to friends and members of the local community when they were getting turned down for bank loans. He loaned out nearly a million pounds and every single person returned his money back to him. So he comes up with the idea of setting up a local bank that would serve the community and give all profits back to local charities. However, in order to set up a bank, you need a banking license, so he hires a lawyer named Hugh (Joel Fry) to help with all the paperwork. Together, the two of them embark on a real David vs Goliath quest against the London regulators, who haven't approved a new banking license in over 150 years.

Written by Piers Ashworth and directed by Chris Foggin, this is a great story about taking down the establishment, tearing down the banking boy's club, and arguing for more socialism and less late-stage capitalism. It has a lot of "eat the rich" energy, and as someone who works for a British bank, you know I enjoyed all the sections talking about capital requirements and compliance. But overall, this is just a sweet, fun, typically British film about fighting for what's right, and having a small town in the North go up against greedy rich men in London. It's charming, there's a romance subplot with Phoebe Dynevor from Bridgerton, and Hugh Bonneville gets to swan about as an evil villain called Sir Charles. I ate it up with a big ol' spoon - how could you not?!

Nai Nai and Wai Po: Don't have hours to spare to watch a movie? How about 17 minutes to watch a thoroughly charming Oscar-nominated short film? Directed by Sean Wang, this is a movie about his two grandmothers, who live together in a house in California. They may have started out as in-laws, but over the years, these two women have developed a deep and abiding friendship, and now they regard each other as sisters, even sleeping in the same bed. They are 83 and 94 years old, and they look out for each other, ensuring that they still feel cared for and loved in their old age. With their grandson at home, making this film, their silliest and wisest selves are unleashed, and over the course of 17 minutes, you will be treated to two old ladies who have really cracked the code of aging with grace and humor. You simply must watch this film. It will make you laugh, help you embrace your mortality, and give you a whole new idea of how to plan out your retirement.