August Binges: Ironheart, The Hunting Wives, Adolescence

Need to plop down on the couch and settle in for a summer binge? Well, I've got an action-packed Marvel show, a sexy murder mystery, and a rather distressing but brilliant British crime drama. Pick your poison.

Ironheart: Created by Chinaka Hodge, this is a six-episode series that follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) the young genius we first met in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Riri may be smart, but she doesn't like to follow the rules. She gets kicked out of MIT and returns home to Chicago, where she falls in with a bunch of criminals, led by Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos) as they provide the fastest way for her to earn enough money to realize her dream of building a flying iron suit that is even fancier that the one Iron Man has. But of course, our hero is going to clash with Parker, aka The Hood, who seems to be dabbling in some sinister powers that might be a little bit more than the simple life of crime she was expecting.

Complicating all of this is the fact that Riri has built an AI to help her while she's in the suit, but that AI unexpectedly takes the form of her dead best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross). As you can imagine, watching her best friend walk around and talk to her is a bit unnerving at first, and then becomes a massive liability towards the end. This is a show with a lot of classic Marvel jimjams, but the actors are great, the production design is solid, and the fast-paced six episodes will keep you engaged throughout.

The Hunting Wives: Created by Rebecca Cutter, based on the novel by May Cobb, Brittany Snow stars as Sophie, a woman who has moved to Texas from Boston with her husband and finds herself thrust into a community of Texas socialites that she believes she has absolutely nothing in common with. But this fish out of water is going to find out that maybe she does have a lot more in common with them than she realized. Queen of the pack is Margo (Malin Akerman, drawling her way through a bravura performance), who is married to Sophie's husband's boss (played by Dermot Mulroney, who also appears to be having the time of his life), and is therefore someone that Sophie must play nice with. But of course, turns out that maybe Sophie will cozy up to Margo for her own reasons.

There's a lot of sex on this show, both gay and straight, and there's also a lot of murder, because, lest I forget, the opening scene is of a woman getting shot and then we spend the first half of the season in flashback until we figure out who got murdered, and then the rest of the season figuring out who the murderer is. The show is insanely over-the-top and ridiculous, but it is quite fun to watch all these women swanning around and talking about guns and Jesus. The only problem is that it ends with a real cliffhanger. This is a show that would have been better off as a silly, fun, limited series - I don't know that I want a second season of this inanity. But give it a shot (pun intended), because maybe this is just the show you've been hunting (groan) for.

Adolescence: Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also stars), this is a limited series that only consists of four hour-long episodes. But each one packs a punch. This is due to the excellent acting but also the fact that every episode was shot as one continuous take, a monumental feat that means you simply cannot tear your eyes away from the screen. The show begins with the police barging into a family's home early in the morning to arrest 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is accused of murdering a girl he knew from school the night before. That first episode plays out like a police procedural where we get a detailed insight into how a juvenile is processed and interrogated by the British police. The subsequent three episodes are at different time periods following the arrest, and each looks at the case from a slightly different viewpoint, piecing together what may have happened, what was the motivation behind the heinous crime, and how Jamie's family are ever going to recover from this ordeal.

The show is propulsive, and engaging, and enraging. It tackles a lot of hot button issues that are relevant to today's youth, including the growth of the "manosphere" and the power of the Internet in persuading young boys that they deserve more from girls and women. It's about toxic masculinity, family dynamics, police work, and everything in between. The show is simply a masterclass in storytelling and filmmaking, and there's little wonder it has a slew of Emmy nominations, almost all of which are likely to be wins. It's certainly not easy to watch, but you will devour it once you sit down to watch it because it is compelling, urgent, and incredible. 

August Movies Part 1: The Naked Gun, Freakier Friday, The Life of Chuck

I'm behind on blogging this month so prepare for a deluge of random reviews. That's what summer's for!

The Naked Gun: Directed by Akiva Schaffer, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, this is an 85-minute spectacularly silly movie filled with sight gags, a billion puns, and the dumbest jokes imaginable. If you're having a tough day and want to see Liam Neeson disguised as a little schoolgirl, this is the movie for you. 

Neeson plays Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) from the original Police Squad! TV show and subsequent Naked Gun movie franchise in the 80s. Like his father, Frank Jr. is a detective who doesn't play by the rules but manages to be surprisingly effective, much to his supervisor's chagrin. When he meets the sultry Beth Davenport, played by the delightful Pamela Anderson, he is pulled into a twisty murder case, trying to figure out who killed her brother and what devious criminal plans must be thwarted along the way. Fans of the original franchise will eat this movie up, whereas for someone like me, it was a perfectly apt diversion. My favorite joke? A shot of what is clear Crypto.com Arena, with a sign renaming it as Ponzi-scheme.com Arena. Readers, I chuckled.

Freakier Friday: Do I remember anything about the 2003 Freaky Friday movie? No. Was I still looking forward to seeing this sequel written by Jordan Weiss and directed by Nisha Ganatra? You bet!  Jamie Lee Curtis and Linsday Lohan are back as Tess and Anna, the mother and daughter who switched bodies in the original movie and got a literal lesson in how to walk in another person's shoes. Now, Tess is all grown up and made the choice to be a single mom, so she has a teenage daughter of her own, Harper (Julia Butters). Harper's archrival at school is a new girl named Lily (Sophia Hammons), and when the two girls get into a fight, their parents are brought in to speak to the principal. Well, turns out Lily's father, Eric (a very hot Manny Jacinto, with a hot British accent), is a young widower, and sparks immediately fly. Within six months, he and Anna are ready to get married, much to the deep objection of their daughters, who still hate each other. And so, of course, the universe decides another body swap is in order. 

Except this time, the two teenage girls swap bodies with the two older women, and it's all twice the fun. It's silly, it's predictable, you'll forget everything you saw the minute you leave the theater, but you'll have a good time while you're watching it. Jamie Lee Curtis is probably the most committed actor to the bit -- maybe that's why she's the one with an Oscar -- but it's clear everyone involved is having a ton of fun, and sometimes, that's all you want from your silly summer sequel.

The Life of Chuck: Written and directed by Mike Flanagan, based on a novella by Stephen King, I would be hard-pressed to tell you anything about what this movie is about. I started watching it on streaming, and then pulled up Candy Crush on my phone and promptly stopped paying attention. The movie starts as a story about a teacher named Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) who are living at a time when the world seems to be on the brink of ending. The news is always terrible, and the planet seems to be in trouble, and everyone is in a constant state of panic. And yet in this midst of this chaos, there are billboards for a man named Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) and we get the story of how this man lived his life and why life is a wondrous thing, full of beauty, and we must seize the moment every day. And there's a scene where he dances for a very long time with a stranger on the street.

I don't know why this movie stars all these British actors doing American accents, and it was just so vibey that I completely checked out. If there was a plot, I'm sorry, I did not notice it. I'm a huge Hiddleston fan, but this movie just felt too anodyne to compel me in any way. Upon reading the Wikipedia plot summary of this film, I can see that oh sure, there was some structure, but again, none of it felt like it had anything important to say. If you love this movie, please let me know if I'm wrong and this movie deserves a second viewing, but my first certainly left me with no impression whatsoever.

July Movies Part 4: Happy Gilmore 2 & The Fantastic Four: First Steps

To close off the month of July, I watched one movie on streaming and one in the theater. Both were perfectly adequately movies that could serve as a good distraction this weekend, so give them a try!

Happy Gilmore 2: First off, I had never seen Happy Gilmore, so my husband quickly rectified that oversight in my film viewing by making us watch that movie earlier in the week. Then we tuned into Happy Gilmore 2, so I could see exactly how much nostalgia was baked into this sequel. Written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler and directed by Kyle Newacheck, Adam Sandler is back as the titular angry golfer who wanted to be a hockey player but turned out to have a flair for golf instead. Spoiler alert, this movie kicks off with him being widowed, so what then follows is a descent into alcoholism and depression, which he then claws himself back from as he has to raise money to send his beloved daughter to ballet school in Paris. A noble goal, if ever there was one.

There are a lot of callbacks to the original movie, and you can bet that almost everyone from the original has returned to this film (unless they're dead, in which case they still might make an appearance). There are also a lot of cameos from new folk who were clearly huge Gilmore fans that wanted to ensure they showed up in the sequel. There's a plot involving an upstart golfing league that's trying to make golf cool again, and Happy will side with a bunch of famous professional golfers to defeat these newbies. It's all very silly and fun, and exactly what you would expect. This movie is perfect fan service so if you loved Happy Gilmore, hop on the couch and tune into Happy Gilmore 2.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps: Written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer, and directed by Matt Shakman, this movie is aesthetically glorious. The production design by Kasra Farahani captures a futuristic 1960s New York and is wonderfully reminiscent of the cartoons. It's all very fun and fabulous (and dare I say...fantastic?). The cast of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is unsurprisingly great, and the quartet look like they are having a lovely time as they banter with each other and save the planet from certain doom. There's the added complication of Sue Storm being pregnant, and the worries of whether the baby will have weird powers, and that storyline just keeps building and building as they encounter a giant cosmic being named Galactus who wants to annihilate Planet Earth. The stakes are high.

I would have recommend this movie without reservations, but the problem is that it came out one week after Superman and really pales in comparison to that movie. While all the right elements are there, the script is just not tight enough (as evidenced by the presence of four screenwriters, never a good sign), and the middle of this film drags interminably and goes off into a lot of unnecessary tangents that ultimately don't pay off. It's still a decent movie, but it misses the mark to be a truly good one.

July Comedy Binges: Murderbot, Stick, Too Much, Overcompensating

Looking for your next summer TV binge? I've got four comedies for you, all very different from each other, so there should be something for everyone!

Murderbot: Created by Paul and Chris Weitz and based on a series of novels by Martha Wells, Alexander Skarsgard stars as a SecUnit, a robot designated to protect a group of researchers who are on a mission to an uncharted planet and have been forced to hire this robot as a bodyguard for insurance reasons, even though they are a bunch of hippies who think that owning a robot is tantamount to slavery. What they don't know, however, is that the SecUnit has hacked his infrastructure so that he can be fully autonomous. But rather than going rogue and becoming some sort of violent, sentient, Terminator-esque AI, this robot is interested in far more prosaic things - he has downloaded thousands of hours worth of trashy television episodes and just wants to be left alone by the crew so he can watch reruns of his favorite space dramas.

It's a fun premise, but I'll confess, I never paid much attention to this show as I was watching it, treating it more as background noise while I did other things. The cast is great, the production design is excellent, all the right components are here, and most people have been raving about how much they love this show. But for some reason, the humor was always too one-note for me and never became much more complex and engaging than this one joke about this robot that just wants to binge TV. There's a ton of action, a lot of encounters with villains and alien creatures, and plenty of excitement for people who are genuinely looking for some science fiction adventure packed into easily digestible 30-minute episodes. It wasn't for me, but it absolutely could be for you!

Stick: Created by Jason Keller, this show stars Owen Wilson as Pryce Cahill, a washed-up golf pro who is barely getting by and still stinging from his divorce and the loss of the cushy life he used to have. However, one day he discovers Santiago Wheeler (Pete Dager), a teenager who seems to be a golf prodigy. He persuades Santi and his mother, Elena (Mariana Trevino) that they should hit up the amateur circuit, and after a lot of persuasion, they agree. The reason I watched this show, however, is because the other person joining them on this adventure is Pryce's friend and former caddy, Mitts, who is played by Marc Maron. I've been hearing Maron talk about this show for months on his podcast, so obviously I tuned in. If you're a fan of WTF, you're probably going to enjoy this performance.

This is a cute show. Watching it one week at a time was the perfect pace because you didn't get too invested but were still curious enough to see what these characters would end up doing the next week. I don't know how well it will hold up as a binge, but each episode is only 30 minutes long so it will go down easy. The writing does suffer a little from the fact that the show was created by a white guy in his 50s, so there are occasionally some painfully awkward conversations about pronouns and social justice that simply don't sound quite right when coming out of the mouths of the younger characters. But this mostly seems like a well-intentioned, sweet show about found family and picking yourself up after grief, loss, and heartbreak, all wrapped in a gentle comedy that has some very exciting golf montages, if you're into that sort of thing. Give it a try!

Too Much: This show is created by Luis Felber and Lena Dunham, so that's probably all you need to know if you're wondering if this show is for you. I am not a Dunham person by any means, but this show did still have some appeal for me, so let's discuss the good parts, i.e. the cast. Megan Stalter stars as Jessica, a woman living in New York City, who can't stop stalking her ex and his beautiful new girlfriend (played by Michael Zegen and Emily Ratajkowski), so she decides to leap at the chance to move to London for work and get a fresh start. As a romcom and Austen enthusiast, her expectations of London are mostly that she's going to be stepping into a Regency period drama and meet Mr. Darcy, but instead, she quickly discovers that it's simply another big city, just filled with people with different accents.

Jessica wastes no time in striking up a romance with Felix (the charming AF, Will Sharpe), a musician wastrel, who is extremely sweet and seems to be the polar opposite of the toxic ex she left behind in New York. Of course, Dunham can't just let things be, so we end up with a lot of drama, a lot of complications, and a lot of bad behavior. This show really gets by on the strength of Megan Stalter, the most lovable and dynamic woman on the planet that you will root for 100%. She makes Jessica such a sympathetic character, that you will never accuse this woman of doing anything wrong - it's just everyone around her who's being a tool. I did not love how the show finally ended, and while I was promised a romcom in the first episode, what I got was a little too dark and dramatic for my liking, though there is one episode that chronicles Jessica's past relationship and is a very accurate portrayal of how women can get suckered in by terrible men. Your mileage may vary, but watch this show to support Stalter, who I hope gets to be the leading lady in many more (better) things to come.

Overcompensating: Remember how when I watched Adults I felt like I couldn't relate to any of it because Gen Z is so foreign to me? Well Overcompensating, created by and starring Benito Skinner, is a story of a freshman who was the valedictorian, Homecoming King, and football all-star in high school, and is trying very hard to maintain that image in college. But he has been harboring a secret all his life...he might like boys? From the very beginning, when Britney Spears' "Lucky" is playing in the background and we see how little Benny's hormones were first set aflame by watching Brendan Fraser in a loincloth in George of the Jungle, it's clear that this is a show for millennials. So even if it's ostensibly about college, settle in my fellow 30-40-year-olds, because you're going to have a blast watching this show.

Besides Benny, the other main character we follow is the delightful Carmen (Wally Baram), a woman who is also trying to figure out her college identity. She and Benny become fast friends (after an initial attempt to be more than that), and it's lovely to see the two of them bumbling through college together. Then there's Benny's sister, Grace (Mary Beth Barone), an ice-cold bitch who thaws out beautifully over the course of the season as we delve deeper into her many layers. And of course, there's Peter (Adam DiMarco), Grace's horrible frat boy boyfriend who embodies the worst that the patriarchy has to offer. Every character on this show is fleshed out and complex, with everyone having some redeeming features, and plenty of flaws, and making plenty of mistakes because that's what we all do in college. It is extremely funny, but also extremely heartwarming and I binged this show with a big smile on my face all the way through. Also, this show has some wildly good cameos sprinkled throughout that will give you a real jolt as you make your way through the season. Everything ends on a massive cliffhanger, so I am definitely clamoring for Season 2. But until then, binge this first season to your heart's content. It's an absolute winner.

July Movies Part 2: The Friend & Friendship

Obviously, I could not resist a post about two movies I recently caught up with on streaming that are similarly named but bear no similarities to each other otherwise. One is a gentle drama about dealing with grief, and the other is an examination of one man's insane spiral as he tries to make new friends. Neither is a film I would have wanted to go to the theater to see, but they were certainly intriguing enough for a couch watch.

The Friend: Written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez, this is a movie about what happens when Iris's (Naomi Watts) best friend, Walter (Bill Murray), dies and leaves his giant Great Dane, named Apollo, to her to take care of. Of course, she lives in Manhattan in a rent-controlled apartment with a very strict no-pets policy, so this is going to be problematic. 

Iris and Apollo have a somewhat testy relationship at first, particularly as he seems to be a rather unbiddable creature who won't let her sleep on her own bed, won't take the elevator, and won't eat anything. But both of them are grieving the loss of Walter, and as you can imagine, they bond over their shared loss and find comfort in each other. There isn't much more to this film - it's a rather vibey movie about New York intellectuals and their general aesthetic, but dog lovers will probably really enjoy watching Apollo, as he's a rather magnificent beast. There's a lot of side plot about Walter and the womanizing and somewhat disappointing human being he was, but none of that seems particularly relevant and I'd be hard-pressed to say I paid much attention to any of it. Overall, this film makes for a perfectly adequate streaming experience on a slow afternoon.

Friendship: Written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, there is a LOT that happens in this movie, most of which I can't quite claim to understand. Tim Robinson stars as Craig, an awkward man with a wife and teenage son, who have a weirdly Oedipal relationship and don't seem to care much about Craig. He is too weird at work to have any friends and is mostly a lonely man seeking connection. A casualty of the male loneliness epidemic, if you will.

But then Austin (the charismatic Paul Rudd) moves into the neighborhood, and unusually, Craig strikes up a friendship with him. The two of them become really close and go off on strange adventures together, sometimes late at night, or sometimes in the middle of the workday, and everything seems rosy. But when Craig goes over to Austin's house for a party with some of Austin's other friends, his oddness becomes too much for the group to handle and he finds himself ostracized. Which of course, means that this man completely loses his mind and spirals out of control in increasingly frightening fashion for the rest of this film. This movie is kind of a comedy, kind of a horror, kind of a mess? I'm not a Robinson person, but I imagine that if you are a fan of his work, this movie would be right up your alley. It's weird and genre-defying and while I didn't much care for it, I'm sure there are many lonely middle-aged men who would. So, give it a shot, I guess?

July Movies Part 1: Jurassic World Rebirth & Superman

July means summer blockbusters and plenty of action. I checked out the two big franchise movies that have come out so far this month, and one of them was good and one of them was atrocious. Place your bets before you read any further!

Jurassic World Rebirth: I'll be honest, apart from the original Jurassic Park, I would be hard pressed to tell you anything about what happened in the subsequent sequels and reboots of this franchise. In this film, directed by Garthe Edwards and written by David Koepp, we have a greedy pharmaceutical rep (played to perfection by Rupert Friend), who needs the DNA from three different types of dinosaur species, to help him perfect a drug for heart disease that could potentially extend human lifespans by several decades. He hires Zora (a buff and action-ready Scarlett Johansson), a mercenary-for-hire as a bodyguard and general facilitator for an expedition to the Equator, where dinosaurs currently roam free in an area that is off-limits to humans. Henry (the delicious Jonathan Bailey), also joins the crew as the paleontologist who is needed for his dino knowledge, and Duncan (the always wonderful Mahershala Ali), a former colleague and friend of Zora's, steps in as their team lead and boat captain. There are other members of the crew, but the fact that they are not famous Oscar-winning actors should clue you in that maybe they're not going to last long on this expedition...spoilers!

The cast is excellent, but this script is an absolute dud, and it just keeps going and going. This is not a good movie, but I guess it's a good AC movie, i.e. it's worth it on a hot day when you really need to spend two hours indoors in an air-conditioned theater. I'd like to think that the actors had a fun time swashbuckling around the jungle, pretending to be awed by majestic dinosaurs, and collecting ridiculous paychecks, but otherwise, this is a very paint-by-the-numbers exercise where you can see every story beat coming from a mile away. There is an unusual twist involving some people they pick up on the way to their expedition, but it's really funny how some members of this team are so unlucky, while others seem to live a perfectly charmed life among these carnivorous dinosaurs. Go to this movie for a thoroughly mindless time, but please don't go into it with any expectations whatsoever.

Superman: If you're a Zack Snyder fanboy, this movie is emphatically not for you. But if, like me, you appreciate the humor that James Gunn brings to comic book movies and have a fondness for the original Guardians of the Galaxy, this movie will check a lot of your boxes. Written and directed by Gunn, this movie stars the very square-jawed and anodynely handsome David Corenswet as our titular hero, and Rachel Brosnahan as the intrepid Lois Lane, the journalist who works alongside his alter ego, Clark Kent, at the Daily Planet newspaper in Metropolis. This movie does a great job of not belaboring his origin story or their love story - the action picks up right in the middle of Superman suffering his first ever defeat at the hand of Lex Luthor (a brilliantly demented performance by Nicholas Hoult), and we then follow along to discover what's been going on in his life and fill in all the gaps in his biography along the way. It's a great "Show, not tell" script, and bypasses a lot of the tiresome tropes we can sometimes fall into when rebooting a superhero franchise for the umpteenth time.

There is a lot of plot, involving many cameos from weird fringes of the DC universe, so I won't get into all of that. The production design is beautiful and it genuinely is a very funny movie that has just the right amount of Superman earnestness that makes it feel wholesome without being impossibly corny. But like Guardians of the Galaxy, the lasting impact this movie will have on my memory involves the music. There is one action sequence set to a song I love that I would never have imagined would be in the background of a fight scene. And the end credits song is a perfect callback to a seemingly innocuous conversation between Superman and Lois halfway through the film, and makes me certain that Gunn first thinks about what songs he wants in a movie and then writes the entire script around how he's going to get those songs in. 

This movie is silly, fun, and perfectly captures the essence of Superman without being all gloom and doom about it. And while there has been a lot of talk about it being some sort of woke anti-Israel movie, I honestly felt like it was merely an anti-war movie that would apply to a war being fought in any era of modern history. If anything, this movie felt like more of a commentary on anti-immigration policies and ICE raids, with all the rhetoric of Superman being an alien who didn't deserve to be on our planet. So yeah, this movie can mean anything you want it to mean, but at the end of the day, it's simply a great comic book film that understood the assignment and fully delivered. 

March Movies Part 1: Mickey 17 & The Monkey

Headed to the theater? Well, I've already been and here are some thoughts on what's out right now.

Mickey 17: Written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, this is the story of what happens when an Expendable named Mickey becomes a Multiple. OK, hold on, I'll have to explain some more, won't I? This movie is set in the future where various groups of humans are striving to colonize other planets. Mickey (Robert Pattinson) is a man who is fleeing all his debt collectors on Earth, so he agrees to sign up for a mission to the planet Niflheim as an Expendable. Humans have developed the technology to print out clones that can contain the memories of the original, so as an Expendable, Mickey is basically a human lab rat who tests out various hostile environments or substances to see how a human would die, and then he gets re-printed out the next day as a new version of himself who still remembers everything that happened to him. As you can imagine, there are many dubious ethical and moral implications to this, and all of that comes to a head when his overlords accidentally print out the 18th version of him, assuming that Mickey 17 died. Only, of course, Mickey 17 is still alive, and now he and Mickey 18 must figure out how they both co-exist as Multiples. 

Everything that I've explained is contained in the 2-minute trailer for this movie, which I watched a dozen times while at the movies last year. In the movie, however, all of that backstory takes up almost the entire first half, which is why I accidentally fell asleep for a lot of it. Oops. So, I'm here to tell you that this movie wasn't quite my cup of tea. It's an intriguing premise, but the execution fell flat for me. Pattinson is doing a good job, but the comic tone of the film was often histrionic and too over-the-top for me. Particularly when we get to Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collete as the villains of the piece who are just being way too zany for my liking. I don't think this movie quite nailed its tone, and while it had a solid philosophical quandary at its center, it resolved that quandary in a way that felt a bit too pat and Hollywood. I'm sure there are a lot of people who might get a lot out of this movie. But I was not one of them.

The Monkey: Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, this movie is a very funny horror movie about a cursed toy monkey and the twin boys who unfortunately become enmeshed in its bloody vendetta. Theo James plays identical twin brothers Hal and Bill (Christian Convery plays them as young boys), who have a rather difficult relationship, with Bill constantly bullying Hal. But then the brothers find a creepy monkey toy in their closet, and every time they turn the key in its back, some random person in the vicinity dies a gruesome death. They try to get rid of the monkey after it kills someone very important to them, but then we flash forward to 25 years later where Hal is now a loner who is too terrified of having close relationships lest the Monkey rear its ugly head. Which it does.

This movie is only 98 minutes long, so while it doesn't have much plot, you'll be perfectly entertained for the entire run time. It's based on a short story by Stephen King, and you can tell there isn't much story there to stretch out, but as we are subject to increasingly zany and bloody deaths, you can't help but chuckle and settle in for the ride. It's very silly, but very entertaining, and sometimes that's all you want for a quick diversion at the movies. 

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.

February Movies Part 2: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Love Hurts, Captain America: Brave New World, You're Cordially Invited

February isn't just about catching up on Oscar movies. It's also about watching the random dregs of cinema that studios throw into theaters and on streaming. Wade on into those murky waters - you may find some gold!

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy: It should come as no surprise to everyone that I absolutely love the Bridget Jones novels, newspaper columns, and movies. I love Colin Firth, I love Pride & Prejudice, it is all one big meta dream for a Jane Austen fan. But of course, when Helen Fielding decided to kill off Mark Darcy in the third novel, I was thoroughly devastated. And this is the movie adaptation of that tale. So naturally, it is bittersweet, but it does feature a ghostly Firth as well as a still alive Hugh Grant as a slightly less roguish Daniel Cleaver, who is no longer ruining Bridget's life but is a "helpful" babysitter of sorts as she tries to move on with her life. And Renee Zellweger is charming as ever while delivering Bridget's endless stream-of-consciousness monologues. There are plenty of reappearances from original supporting cast members, but we also get the wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mr. Wallaker, Bridget's son's science teacher, as well as Leo Woodall as the ridiculously named Roxster, a hot young thing that Bridget is cougaring up with after some Tinder texting. There should be no surprises in terms of how things end up, but like all great romcoms, the joy is in the journey, not the destination. While I missed Mark Darcy, this movie is still a fun nostalgic romp and a reminder of how you can never help rooting for Bridget. It's also very melancholic, and I did find myself getting weepy for our darling heroine at times. But do not worry - everything works out exactly as you want it to, in breathtakingly swoony fashion. It's an absolutely perfect post-Valentine's treat.

Love Hurts: I was excited to see Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose team up in an action romance - that's some fantasy casting right there. This is a movie about what happens when a realtor named Marvin (Quan) is confronted by his dark past that he thought he had left behind, as well as by Rose (DeBose), the woman that he thought he would never see again. You'll get all the back story you need from the trailer, so suffice to say, Marvin used to work for some bad people and did bad things, he got out of the game but is now being dragged back into it, and will team up with his lady love, Rose to win the day. Along the way there is a LOT of ultra-violent fighting, so don't go into this if you don't like watching people get stabbed and killed in various painful ways. Quan used to be a stunt coordinator, so the man is incredible to watch in these fight scenes, but I prefer my cinematic fights to be bloodless, thank you very much. It's hard to appreciate the artistry of stunt choreography when a man has been stabbed in the eyeball. So, check it out if action movies without much plot are your thing, but don't go into this thinking you're going to get a lot else. 

Captain America: Brave New World: This movie is...fine? Directed by Julius Onah and written by a bunch of dudes (you will definitely get the sense that this script was written by committee), this is yet another installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where we get to see Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson officially swan around as Captain America and save the world. We even have Harrison Ford as the American President who has a testy relationship with Cap but recognizes the need to work together. There is the usual slew of Marvel jimjams, all of which sailed right over my head, especially since I had never watched the 2008 Hulk movie with Edward Norton that this movie apparently was referencing a lot. Mackie and Danny Ramirez as Cap's sidekick, Joaquin Torres, aka the new Falcon, are charming as ever and had great chemistry, and Carl Lumbly continues to be great as Isaiah Bradley, the Black super soldier who was experimented on for thirty years, then finally given his due in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and now is due to be treated horribly again in this film. Like with any Marvel movie these days, you can go into it to be mildly entertained, but if you're expecting to have a transcendental experience, think again. Even Harrison Ford couldn't save this one. 

You're Cordially Invited: Written and directed by Nicholas Stoller, this movies stars Will Ferrell and Resse Witherspoon as Jim and Margot, two people who have accidentally double-booked the same small inn on a remote island for the wedding of a loved one. In Margot's case, her sister Neve (Meredith Hagner) is getting married, while Jim is there for his daughter Jenni's (Geraldine Viswanathan) wedding. As you can imagine, many shenanigans ensue between the two wedding parties after they decide to share the space for the weekend and end up sabotaging each other in a myriad of ways. And of course, weddings bring out a lot of complicated family dynamics, with Margot struggling to reconcile with her difficult family that she feels very out-of-touch with, while Jim struggles to truly let his beloved daughter go after years of raising her as a widower. There are certainly over-the-top moments, and this is by no means a subtle comedy, but it does have a tremendous amount of heart and a decent understanding of how humans behave in high-pressure familial situations. I found it be to a thoroughly mindless and entertaining way to while away an afternoon so can happily recommend it as a decent distraction this weekend.

February Movies Part 1: Queer, Companion, Paddington in Peru, Love Me

Valentine's Day is almost upon us (or the far superior Galentine's Day if you celebrate), so I have been watching a lot of love-themed movies this month. I've got some real variety of genres and content for you in this post, so dive in if you're interested in queer love, family love, futuristic love, or...horrific love.

Queer: Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, based on the novel by William S. Burroughs, this is a story about William Lee (Danial Craig), an American expat living in Mexico City in 1950, who is obsessed with a man named Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). We follow Lee's pursuit of this man and their travels to South America in search of what ends up being an ayahuasca trip and a whole lot of vibes. I'll be honest, this is absolutely not my kind of movie. Yes, it's absolutely gorgeous to look at, and every frame has some breathtaking shot and perspective. And damn does Daniel Craig look great in a fedora and linen suit. The acting is all on point here (my husband particularly enjoyed Jason Schwartzman offering up some light comic relief as Lee's friend, Joe). But ultimately, I found myself too perplexed and frustrated by this film. It started off strong but went off the rails. If you're the kind of person who wants to indulge in intense, melancholic, trippy vibes, this is the perfect movie for you. But if you want a bit more plot and structure, give this one a miss.

Companion: As is well established on this blog, I'm a sucker for comic horror. And this movie did not disappoint. Written and directed by Drew Hancock, this is the story of what happens when Iris and Josh (Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid) go up to a remote lakehouse with some friends for the weekend. The house is owned by Sergey (Rupert Friend), a cartoonish Russian millionaire who is dating Jack's friend, Kat (Megan Suri). Iris is terribly in love with Josh and is desperate to make a good impression on his friends and behave herself on this trip. But something really bad happens early on in this visit. And we are then treated to a twist that means the rest of this film becomes an absolute raucous delight with an ever-increasing body count. All of the actors are putting in phenomenal work (Sophie Thatcher is particularly a marvel, while Harvey Guillen and Lukas Gage are also present at this cabin as Jack's friends and offer up excellent comic relief), the script is tight and funny and horrific in all the right ways, and it's a beautiful 97-minute movie that entertains you for just the right amount of time without overstaying its welcome. It's perfect alternative Valentine's Day programming.

Paddington in Peru: I mean let's be real, everyone has to love this movie right? Written by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont, and directed by Dougal Wilson, this is the third installment in the Paddington franchise and is just as charming and delightful as the others. In this film, Paddington and the Brown family embark on a trip to Peru after Paddington receives a worrying message about his Aunt Lucy who lives there in a home for retired bears. Once they get there, the Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman playing a nun, what more could any of us ever want?) who runs the home informs them that Aunt Lucy is missing. Which means that the family must now embark on a harrowing journey through the Amazonian jungle, accompanied by a riverboat captain played by none other than Antonio Banderas. Be prepared for lots of puns, silliness, and Britishness. The production design and animation is remarkable, and there's a powerful story about identity and found family to tie everything up nicely with a lovely bow. You won't be bored for a second and will leave the theater feeling all warm and cozy. And really craving a marmalade sandwich. 

Love Me: Written and directed by Sam and Andy Zuchero, this film is about the love story between a satellite and a buoy. Yes, I too thought that was a typo when I first read a summary of this movie, but that is in fact what this movie is about. Set in a post-apocalyptic Earth where no humans are left on the planet, we get a tale about what happens when a smart weather buoy that is bobbing on the oceans connects with a satellite that is orbiting the planet and contains a full record of all human existence. They start to communicate and then build a virtual world where they exist as human avatars, played by none other than Kristen Stewart and Steven Yuen. That casting alone should convey that this movie is charming AF. It's deliriously inventive and definitely a movie for those who are chronically online. And with a 92-minute runtime, it's this perfectly portioned piece of sci-fi, fantasy, mind-bending entertainment that can thrill your brain and leave you thinking about it for the rest of the day when you leave the theater. Now that's the kind of love story we should all be seeking out.

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.

December Binges Part 2: Interior Chinatown, The Madness, No Good Deed

It's getting colder so why bother leaving the house when your TV beckons with so much entertainment? We just got our first snowfall in NYC and I'm planning on hunkering down on the couch with a cup of cocoa as the Arctic winds rage outside. If you have similar plans, consider the following three shows to hunker down with!

Interior Chinatown: I was a big fan of the novel by Charles Yu, but now he has translated that book into this twisty and extremely meta ten-part series. Jimmy O. Yang stars as Willis Wu, an unassuming Chinese waiter who works in his uncle's restaurant in Chinatown, alongside his best friend Fatty (Ronny Chieng, playing a typically Ronny Chieng character). However, when some cops start investigating various crimes in the neighborhood, Willis is drawn into their investigations. He initially serves as a background character of this police procedural, but he then teams up with an Asian detective, Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet), who is also hustling as a supporting character in this show. As the two of them start to investigate the disappearance of Willis's brother, Johnny (Chris Pang), they further delve into what exactly is going on with their lives and what it takes for minorities to get to star in their own show.

I know that description may not make much sense, but believe me, you'll get it once you start watching this show. It serves as a meta commentary on television and who gets to be a leading actor, as well as what types of stories are allowed to air. It is confounding and perplexing at times, but if you don't think too hard about it, it's a thoroughly enjoyable ride and Yang is doing some great work as a leading man. And special shout-out to Diana Lin who plays Willis's mother and probably does the most affecting work on the series. It's an intriguing and fun show that will lead to plenty of discussion after you're done watching.

The Madness: Created by Stephen Belber, this is a show about what happens when a news anchor named Muncie Daniels (the brilliant Colman Domingo) is on vacation and then discovers the murdered corpse of his neighbor. C'mon, doesn't that rope you right in? What follows is a classic man-on-the-run thriller, almost a throwback to the 70s and 80s, where you have one lone man fighting the system as multiple conspiracies and shadowy figures abound. Except this show is firmly rooted in 2024 where a Black man goes to the police to report a crime and then has to go on the run himself as he is framed for the murder and becomes the prime suspect. Sigh.

With stalwart support from actors like Marsha Stephanie Blake, John Ortiz, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Deon Cole, and even Bradley freakin' Whitford, you will spend eight twisty episodes delving into all sorts of topics like white supremacist groups and corrupt billionaires, as well as watching Muncie try to mend various relationships and discover who he can truly count on. The story is definitely convoluted but overall, this is a pulpy engaging show that keeps up a relentless pace until the very end.

No Good Deed: Created by Liz Feldman, who also gave us the fantastic Dead to Me, this is an intriguing and wonderful show with an absolutely stacked cast. Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano star as Paul and Lydia, a Los Angeles couple looking to sell their family home. You can sense there's some tension there, and maybe Lydia is not as into this sale as Paul, but as the series unfurls, you will start to get flashbacks and bits of story to clue you into what happened in this house and why selling it might be a good idea. In the meantime, we are also following the various potential buyers from the open house, who include actors like Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson, O-T Fagbenle, and Abbi Jacobson. All of these people have their own stories and little secrets they're carrying around, and as the show progresses, we spend time with all of them to understand what they're hiding and what they're going to eventually reveal.

I'm not giving away any more plot because this show is a comedy mystery gem that also has a great deal of heart. It has genuinely tense and ridiculous moments, and then moments of great catharsis and warmth. It's a story about couples and families, and the things people do to protect their loved ones that can sometimes just lead to driving an even bigger wedge between them. And I promise, at the end, you will get a happy ending, with only the deserving villains receiving their appropriate comeuppance. It's beautifully written and well told, the perfect miniseries for the holidays. 

December Binges Part 1: Say Nothing, A Man on the Inside, The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh

As always, I have spent much time on the couch over the past month and have been catching up on a slew of streaming shows. If you’re hibernating this month, why not fire up one of these shows to keep you engaged?

Say Nothing: Created by Joshua Zetumer, based on the nonfiction book by Patrick Radden Keefe, this is a searing miniseries about the Troubles in Northern Ireland that spans the 1960s to the 90s. The series focuses on Dolours Price (Lola Petticrew/Maxine Peake) and her sister Marian (Hazel Doupe/Helen Behan), two young women who were initially pacifists who protested for peace, but who then joined the provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and tunred to a more violent path.

This is also a story about the Disappeared, people who were suspected of being informants and were secretly killed and buried by the IRA over the years; we specifically follow the story of a widow with ten children named Jean McConville, who was suddenly taken from her family and never seen again. And this is also a story about Gerry Adams, a man who led the IRA but then went on to become a politician and the president of Sinn Fein, who tried to broker a peace deal while claiming he was never a member of the IRA. 

These stories may seem disparate, but they are interwoven and culminate in tremendous fashion in the series finale. Over nine episodes, I was captivated by this show, on the edge of my seat to see what exactly would happen next. The series showcases the Belfast Project by Boston College, which helped former IRA members, like Dolours Price, record an oral history of what they had done, so every episode winds back and forth as you see the older version of these characters re-live their past in vivid flashbacks. It’s a masterful piece of television that outlines a dark and dangerous period of history and makes it feel urgent and relevant today. 

A Man on the Inside: If you don’t want drama but a comedy that will still make you periodically tear up, creator Michael Schur has you covered. In this show (based on the 2020 Oscar-nominated documentary, The Mole Agent), Ted Danson stars as Charles, a lonely man who decides to answer a classified ad that Julie (Lilah Richcreek Estrada)put in the paper. Julie runs a private detective agency and has a client who wants to investigate the retirement community his mother is in; her necklace is missing, and he thinks there’s a thief in her midst. Charles seems to be a perfect candidate to pose as a new retiree in this community, so Julie hires him, trains him up on how to be a spy, and sends him in.

The supporting cast includes Stephanie Beatriz as Didi, the extremely dedicated and competent woman who runs the community, and Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Charles' daughter, Emily, who is worried about her father, but somewhat relieved that he has found a hobby. As you can imagine, Charles is not a natural spy, and his first few days at the home are a bit of a disaster as he tries to figure out how to fit in with the residents without blowing his cover. But as the days go on, he starts to find his way with this motley crew and also starts to hone his spy craft (well kind of). 

This is a beautiful show that is about old folks and how much more they have going on in their lives than Hollywood ordinarily wants to acknowledge. It also reflects the very real challenges of growing older and the strain it can put on families as they try to navigate how best to take care of their elderly relatives. It's a very funny show and has an engaging mystery element, but it's also incredibly heartfelt and sweet, so keep a box of tissues handy at all times.

The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh: If you don't want to cry at all, then settle in for a typical American sitcom about a rather atypical family. Creator Vijal Patel gives us this show about a family that moved from India to Pennsylvania. But when we first meet them, they are being interviewed by two immigration officers who are trying to figure out who burned down their neighbors' house. What follows are eight episodes of interrogations where we get their story in flashbacks.

Sindhu Vee (a comedian I absolutely adore), plays Sudha (my mother's name!), a doctor who is mad at being uprooted to the US where no hospital will even accept her medical license. Naveen Andrews plays her husband Mahesh, a man filled with bright-eyed optimism about the land of opportunity, who has a SpaceX contract and thinks he's going to make it big by launching a rocket factory in PA. They have three children, Bhanu (Sahana Srinivasan), a very horny teenager who has her sights set on the hot boy next door (Nicholas Hamilton), Kamal (Arjun Sriram), a very neurotic teenager who has somehow developed an infatuation for the mother of the hot boy next door (Megan Hilty), and Vinod (Ashwin Sakthivel), a cheerful, upbeat kid who is obsessed with the garbage truck. 

This is definitely the broadest of comedies, but it contains fun jokes about white people and Americans and the challenges of fitting in as foreigners. There's plenty of material about Indian traditions and customs, but at the end of the day, this is a pretty standard sitcom that is easy to binge through in an afternoon. If you're Indian, you may enjoy it for the representation, and if you're not Indian, maybe you'll learn something?

November Binges: The Franchise, Three Women, Disclaimer, The Penguin

The following shows have all been airing week-to-week (such a novelty in this day and age!) so I have been delighting in them in installments over the past few months. However, they are now all done, so are available to you for an epic binge if that's how you consume your entertainment. There's quite the range of genres and themes here, but all are excellent in their own way, so prepare yourself to spend a lot of time on your couch.

The Franchise: Created by Jon Brown, a man who has written for Succession and Veep, this is a biting comedy about the machinations of making a big-budget superhero film. Set on a studio lot in London, Himesh Patel stars as Daniel the much-beleaguered first assistant director on a movie called Tecto: Eye of the Storm. He has to support the neurotic German director, Eric (Daniel Bruhl), an auteur who is trying to impose his unique artistic vision on this mass market movie, with the support of his sycophantic script supervisor, Steph(Jessica Hynes). Daniel also has a brand-new third assistant director, Dag (Lolly Adefope) who joins the crew filled with wide-eyed excitement, but quickly comes to realize that showbiz is a slog. The superhero movie's protagonist, Tecto, is played by an anxious actor named Adam (Billy Magnussen), an insecure man who is desperately trying to break into the A-list, even though he knows his character is not in the top tier of superheroes in this particular franchise. His co-star, Peter (the diabolically hilarious Richard E. Grant), is a wry British actor who is just doing this for the paycheck, is an HR nightmare, and finds the whole enterprise to be inane.

Throw in the studio bigwigs and producers who are there to make money not art, and you have a recipe for delicious disaster. Every episode is scored with this pulse-pounding techno beat that ratchets up your blood pressure as Daniel and the crew try to avoid an infinite series of disasters and petty squabbles, and try to keep within budget and timelines in an increasingly futile effort to make a movie they might actually like to watch. It's a perfect commentary on the current state of filmmaking, and a thoroughly excellent British comedy.

Three Women: Based on the nonfiction book by Lisa Taddeo that told the story of the sex lives of three different American women, the first thing you should know about this show is that it is extremely racy. If you are not into explicit content, this is not the show for you, a feeling that was shared by the network that originally paid for this show, Showtime, who then did not want to air it and sold it to Starz for distribution instead. Consider yourself pre-warned. 

In this show, we follow Gia (Shailene Woodley), a sort of stand-in for the book's original author, as she's interviewing different women to write her book, but also going through some personal turmoil in her own love life. We then get three separate stories about three women - there's Lina (Betty Gilpin), a midwestern housewife in Indiana who yearns to be touched but has a thoroughly uninterested husband; Sloane (DeWanda Wise), a rich and successful event planner who has an open relationship with her handsome husband, Richard (Blair Underwood), and is always keeping an eye out for a new man or woman to recruit into their polyamorous trysts; and Maggie, a young high schooler, who has an affair with a married teacher and a few years later decides to file a formal complaint against him.

This show can be very hard to watch at times and will be quite triggering if you have any history of sexual violence or assault. But it is also an incisive and cutting portrait of how these different women navigate their sex lives, and the ramifications when they either demand or don't know how to ask for what they want. Each actress is doing phenomenal work, offering up brutally honest and wrenching performances that make you thoroughly understand why they're doing what they're doing, even if you think what they're doing is a mistake. I cannot recommend this show as a feel-good watch, but it's unlike anything I've seen on TV. I was captivated by Taddeo's book when I read it years ago, and while the show struggles to come up with a coherent narrative, it still captures the essence of her book and its attempt to navigate the complexities of being an American woman in our modern world. 

Disclaimer: Written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, based on the novel by Renee Knight, I will have to warn you again about this show being insanely explicit. Seriously, do not watch this show if any young children (or conservative adults) are around. Once you get them out of the way, however, hunker down for a thoroughly twisty and disturbing story that unfolds with absolute precision. Cate Blanchett stars as Catherine, a successful documentary journalist who is married to Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen, in a very somber dramatic role). They have a 25-year-old son, Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who has struggled with addiction but is trying to get back on his feet. Overall, they are a typical rich British family - some problems, but nothing that money can't solve. Until a mysterious novel called The Perfect Stranger enters their life.

This novel was self-published by a retired teacher named Stephen (Kevin Kline), and the rest of this miniseries is a story about what that book is about and why Stephen is using it to destroy Catherine and her family. I am loath to give away much more information, because the whole point of this show is to watch the mystery slowly unfold and twist upon itself like a mesmerizing Mobius strip, so all I'll say is that Catherine did something in her past that involved Stephen's son, and now that event is coming back to haunt her. You will think you know what's happening for six episodes, and then the final Episode 7 will turn everything on its head. It's a remarkable and propulsive piece of storytelling that had me on the edge of my seat every week and now can have you in the throes of a manic binge for seven hours straight. Enjoy!

The Penguin: While I'm not a DC person, I have always enjoyed Christopher Nolan's Batman movies and found myself quite enjoying The Batman with Robert Pattinson in 2022. In that film, Colin Farrell had a supporting role as Oswald "Oz" Cobb, aka The Penguin, one of Batman's many nemeses, and I absolutely could not recognize him under all those prosthetics, limp, and strong Brooklyn/Gotham accent. Well now, he has his own spin-off show, and every single week, I would watch it and say, "I still can't believe that's Colin Farrell!"

This show is really firing on all cylinders. Created by Lauren LeFranc, the production design is epic, the writing is superb, offering up cliffhangers that kept me riveted throughout, and the performances by the supporting cast are excellent. There's Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, a woman who was betrayed by Oz but might team up with him again to defy her evil family. Their relationship takes many twists and turns that you can revel in for eight episodes. There's also Deirdre O'Connell as Oz's mother, Francis, a woman who has an extremely weird, almost Oedipal relationship with Oz, but also has an incredible backstory that we flesh out during those final episodes. And there's Rhenzy Feliz as Vic, a nervous young boy from the wrong side of tracks who has to team up with Oz in an emergency but then seems poised to maybe make a life for himself after all. 

This show is like watching a superhero version of The Godfather, with shifting loyalties, many betrayals, and insanely compelling characters that have many layers of evil within them that you will have to dig through. Don't forget, this is a story about a villain, and by the end of the show, you won't have any sympathy for The Penguin, but you will probably be horrifically impressed at what he has managed to accomplish. While this was meant to be a one-off miniseries, the show has done so well that it could come back for another season, and there is a teaser about what new characters we could see then. Fingers crossed, but even as a single season, it is a true delight.

November Movies Part 4: Gladiator II, Wicked: Part I, Red One

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, so bring on the blockbusters! I watched two movies that have been hotly anticipated all year long, and one Christmas movie that was probably only hotly anticipated by me. Did they all measure up to expectations? Sure!

Gladiator II: The original Gladiator is one of my all-time favorite movies, one of the rare films I have rewatched multiple times. 24 years later, director Ridley Scott is back with a sequel written by David Scarpa that essentially rehashes the original film but asks "what if we made it even more over-the-top and had a battle with literal SHARKS in the Colosseum?!" 

Paul Mescal stars as Hanno, a soldier in the city of Numidia, who is forced into slavery and becomes a gladiator after his city is captured by the Roman army, under the leadership of General Acacius (Pedro Pascal). Like Maximus in the original movie, Hanno moves up through the ranks, catching the eye of Macrinus (Denzel Washington, playing this character with an unparalleled squirrelly glee), a man who wants to use gladiators to impress the evil twin emperors who currently rule Rome with an iron fist (the emperors are played by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger, who at this point is becoming one of the most typecast actors in Hollywood and I would like to see him not playing a crazy psychopath please). There are a lot of questions about who exactly Hanno is, and when he makes it to Rome and fights his first bout at the Colosseum, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the original movie) is startled to see him. You can watch the movie to unravel the rest about this man and how exactly he might be related to all your favorite characters from the first film. 

There are a lot of fights with great stunt choreography, plenty of CGI that can sometimes be laughable, and somewhat shaky cinematography by John Mathieson. But if you want all the grandeur and spectacle of Ancient Rome, you'll get that in spades, thanks to production designer, Arthur Max. This movie certainly doesn't pack the emotional heft of its predecessor, even though it valiantly tries, particularly in the final scene that features that iconic music that reliably makes me weep every time I watch the original. I did not shed a tear for this film, but it was still a satisfying nostalgia watch that guaranteed a Gladiator rewatch is very much in my not-too-distant future. 

Wicked: Part I: After the marketing blitz we have endured for several months, this movie is finally here! And it's great! Directed by Jon M. Chu, with a screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, this is the movie about Galinda (Ariana Grande) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), two classmates at Shiz University who want to study sorcery and will ultimately go on to become the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West that we all know from The Wizard of Oz. This is an adaptation of the Broadway musical, so do not expect it to be as dark and ponderous as the original novel by Richard Maguire. Instead, prepare yourself for a spellbinding tale about friendship, deceit, and how people can be oh-so-misunderstood when they are not the ones in power. Also, if you need a handsome man to look at, you've got Jonathan Bailey as Prince Fiyero, but really, all the focus is on Erivo and Grande who fully understood the brief and are perfectly cast as this iconic duo.

This is only Part I, so you will still have to endure the onslaught of more marketing for Part II next year. But this part is iconic and incredible all on its own. My ears perked up when I heard the opening strains of the few songs I knew, and oh man, when we get that final "Defying Gravity" number in the end, it is absolutely what you wanted and more. The production design by Nathan Crowley is unbelievable, and the lavish costumes by Paul Tazewell are sure to garner him an Oscar nomination. The actors are phenomenal, the music is perfect, and my eyes were glued to the screen from start to finish. It's exactly what fans expected from this movie, and even I, an extremely casual fan, cannot wait for the next installment.

Red One: Written by Chris Morgan and directed by Jake Kasdan, this is a supremely goofy and delightful holiday action movie about what happens when Santa Claus (played by a surprisingly ripped J.K. Simmons) gets kidnapped. The head of his security detail, Callum Drift (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), has to team up with the world's best hacker, Jack O'Malley (Chris "Captain America" Evans), who also happens to be a man who is on the "naughty list" and doesn't believe Santa is real. Well, he's in for a shock.

This movie is exactly what it says on the tin. It is silly and fun, there are lots of great action sequences where The Rock and Captain America are whaling on snowmen, North Pole security apparently has portals through toy stores worldwide, Lucy Liu is in charge of an organization called the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority, and there's an extended cameo from freakin' Krampus (Kristofer Hivju). What more could you want?! This movie is like a perfect little snow globe that shakes up Christmas lore, chase sequences, and spy thrillers into one thoroughly entertaining little diversion that is a perfect way to kick off your holiday movie watch. Merry Christmas everyone!