Memorial Day Movies: Top Gun: Maverick, The Duke, Operation Mincemeat

Another long weekend is upon us at last, and more movies are popping into theaters to tempt us away from the heat and into the AC. Today I've got two very British selections for you, or one of the most American movies you can indulge in for some 80's nostalgia. Let's go!

Top Gun: Maverick: This movie is going to offer up exactly what you expected. If you're a fan of the original Top Gun, or are just generally into that 80s Tom Cruise vibe, you will get the fan servicing you require. The film occasionally feels like a shot-for-shot remake of the original but with some fun updates to drag us into the 21st century, including our first female pilot, Phoenix (I will just be using everyone's call signs because who cares about the characters' actual names?), played by the wonderful Monica Barbaro. All the new recruits are great; there's Miles Teller playing Rooster, Goose's son, who has a complicated relationship with Maverick that makes for a nice emotional story arc; Glen Powell playing Hangman, the most cocky asshole every portrayed on screen - I'm sure he is a very nice man in real life, but boy he is the textbook definition of "punchable face;" and of course, the hands down best new character in this franchise is Lewis Pullman as Bob - you'll get it when you see it. 

Tom Cruise is back as Maverick, and this time he needs to train twelve elite Top Gun graduates on what amounts to a suicide mission. He is the only pilot with the real-world experience to teach this group of pilots, but the man still has the wrong attitude and general willingness to bend the rules that means he is going to clash with his US Navy superiors, including a very ornery Jon Hamm, who plays a Vice Admiral who has been forced to recruit Maverick against his better judgment. What follows is a lot of bravado and posturing, and some incredible aerial stunts and dogfighting, all shot in actual F-18 aircraft, oftentimes with the actors themselves having to turn on the cameras strapped to their dashboards as there sure was no room for anyone else to be on the plane to film them. This is not a movie you watch for its plot and corny dialogue - all of that is rudimentary and incidental. This is a movie you strap into for two and half hours of incredible action footage and swooping stunts that make you want to holler and cheer.

The movie opens with that iconic 80s synth music and half way through, there's an incredible beach football scene that is all shirtless sun, sweat, sand, and waves, and oh it's all so nostalgic and fun. Jennifer Connelly plays Penny, a bar owner who has some sort of on-again off-again thing with Maverick - you can guess the status of that relationship by the end of the movie. In fact, you can guess pretty much everything that will end up happening in this movie but who cares? It's a lot of fun, it's grandiose and spectacular to watch, and it's the best possible way to kick off summer blockbuster season.

The Duke: At the risk of giving you whiplash, we now pivot to a funny, sweet British movie based on a real-life story from 1961 when a 60-year old man named Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent) stole Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery and held it as ransom for his pet cause, which was to give free TV licenses to old age pensioners. Yeah, I told you, it's a very British movie.

This movie is charm personified. Broadbent is wonderful as the eccentric but morally upright Bunton, and Helen Mirren is utterly fabulous as his much put-upon wife, Dorothy, who wishes her husband would give up his foolhardy notions and settle down with a proper job. The script by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman is wonderful and gradually doles out information about this couple and their family that helps you piece together all of the complex dynamics underlying their seemingly stoic British personas, and there's also a final twist that I absolutely was not expecting. Matthew Goode also puts in a twinkly-eyed cameo, and nothing is more British than a cameo from Matthew Goode, come on. 

Directed by Roger Michell, this movie is a masterclass in British filmmaking and is the cinematic equivalent of spending the afternoon with a cup of tea and a biscuit. It is cozy, but also tells a really interesting and compelling tale about an extraordinary man. So seek it out in theaters or streaming and prepare to be very entertained.

Operation Mincemeat: This movie stars Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen (i.e. you get two Darcy's in one movie!), Kelly Macdonald, Penelope Wilton, Jason Isaacs, and Johnny Flynn, with Simon Russell Beale popping in for a cameo as Winston Churchill. That is a veritable all-star British cast, and seeing all those actors together was my favorite part of the film. The actual movie though? Leaves a little something to be desired.

Directed by John Madden, and written by Michelle Ashford, based on Ben Macintyre's book of the same name, this is the true story of a 1943 World War II secret operation where the British tried to convince the Nazis that the Allies would be invading Greece instead of Sicily. In order to do this, they dressed up a corpse as a soldier, giving him a false identity and falsified documents, all suggesting the Greece plan, and then dumped him into the ocean to wash ashore in Spain and hopefully get into the hands of the Nazis. 

It's all very convoluted and the brainchild of Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming (yes, he of 007 fame), so this is a movie about all the machinations and plotting and spycraft to ensure everything goes right. It is fascinating at times, but it certainly needs some more judicious editing because it rapidly overstays its welcome. There are a lot of side plots involving interpersonal relationships between some of the officers that all felt very tacked on. This is a movie that would be incredible if it honed in on this insane plot and didn't bother much with fleshing out the personal lives of its characters. Keep it as a spy movie, and lose all the chaff, and you've got a masterpiece. But as it is, this feels like a slightly bloated Netflix movie (and that is where you can watch it). It's great for a lazy afternoon, but go in with tempered expectations. The cast is excellent, but the final product is somewhat lacking. 

May Movie Roundup: Petite Maman, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Downton Abbey: A New Era

May has brought a slew of interesting offerings to the movie theater so here are three different movies to sample. Whether you want French drama, British bombast, or Marvel magic, there's something to tickle anyone's fancy. 

Petite Maman: What a wondrous film. Written and directed by Celine Sciamma, this is a whimsical tale about a little girl named Nelly who is helping her parents clean out her grandmother's house following her death. While playing in the woods, she meets another girl, Marion, and as the movie unfolds, we discover that Marion is actually her mother, when she was a child. It's a weird time travel fantasy, but I can't quite explain to you how poignant and non-gimmicky a way this is to tell a simple tale about coping with grief and getting to know your parents. 

This movie is only 72 minutes long, so I shan't give away much more detail, except to exhort you to watch this film and indulge in the vibes. In a way, it felt like my Licorice Pizza, something that captured what it felt like to be a young girl and not quite understand your mother, and be an only child who has to always amuse yourself and daydream about fantastic situations. Like Sciamma's previous film, the gorgeous Portrait of a Lady on Fire, this movie is also shot beautifully, with every frame having a tactile quality that makes you feel fully immersed in the proceedings. There were scenes where Nelly was eating chocolate cereal or Marion was wearing corduroy pants and I felt like I could taste and feel my childhood. Every scene is shot at the eye level of a young child, so you're always looking up at the adults and feeling how big the world is around you, and for the entirety of this film, I felt like I was eight years old and going on grand adventures. 

This is a movie that captures that transcendent way in which you can turn the ordinary into magic when you are a child. And towards the end, there were some audible sniffs in the theater, as mother and daughter had a moment of reckoning, and we could all acknowledge that the sins of the mother don't have to fall on the daughter. It is a beautiful, heartfelt film, and if you feel like you need some substantive art in your life this week, Petite Maman is what you seek.

Doctor Strange: If what you seek instead is Marvel chicanery, then the Multiverse of Madness is where you should head. In this latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is back, and this time he is paired up with a young woman named America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) who has the ability to travel through the multiverse, but doesn't know how to control her powers. Turns out this ability is just what Wanda, aka the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) has been seeking so she can return to her WandaVision universe and be with her two kids. So what follows is a twisty multiversal battle between Strange and Wanda, with a supporting assist from Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong). Along the way, there are some fun cameos that herald future installments and/or crossovers in the MCU, lots of gorgeous and inventive action set pieces, and the chance for Cumberbatch to play multiple versions of himself, including a bizarre zombie that is reminiscent of his turn as the monster in Frankenstein.

It's all very campy and convoluted, and I wondered why they even bothered calling it Doctor Strange when it felt like it could just as easily be called Scarlet Witch instead. I have never thought it was vital to watch any of the Marvel TV shows, but you will be very lost if you haven't seen WandaVision. Overall, this was a rather bland entry into the Marvel lore, full of random tidbits and storylines that I'm sure made die-hard fans weep, but left a casual fan like me confused. It was pretty to look at, but nothing substantive, and I was hard pressed to remember much about it the second I left the theater. Watch it if you like being a completist, but you can probably skip it without missing much in the Marvel machine.

Downton Abbey: A New Era: I must caveat this review by saying that my mom and I got the chance to watch this movie at the New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. It was introduced by the director, Simon Curtis, producer, Liz Trubridge, writer and creator, Julian Fellowes, and a slew of cast members, and then we proceeded to watch the movie accompanied by much applause and delight from a crowd full of die-hard fans. So I watched this movie in the best way possible, feeling very fancy and fortunate, and I had a thoroughly marvelous time.

What's to say? The whole crew is back and up to their usual shenanigans, with a lot of romances afoot downstairs, and some scandals brewing upstairs, and there's a brief jaunt to the south of France to investigate what exactly the Dowager Countess Grantham (Maggie Smith) got up to aeons ago that led a Frenchman to leave her his villa in his will. Meanwhile, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is rallying the troops at Downton when a film company arrives to shoot a silent film there for a month, which leads to some very Singin' in the Rain-type complications, and a great deal of hilarity as the staff all give in to their fascination with Hollywood and the movies. It's a lovely bit of meta commentary about actors and the horribly sordid business of filmmaking and it's all farcical and fun in that light-touch way that is Downton at its best.

If you're a fan, this movie will satisfy all your Downton cravings. There are myriad storylines to cater to your every whim, all your old favorites get their chance to deliver a killer line, and the new characters offer up interesting opportunities for change. I certainly had the sense that Fellowes was signaling the end of the franchise, but who knows? If enough of us pour into the theater to watch this installment, we may keep watching the antics of the Crawley family and their servants for many years yet.

Escapist TV: Moon Knight and Is It Cake?

Are you tired of watching meaningful and earnest television? Well, it's your lucky day because today I bring you two recommendations of fairly escapist fare. You can either watch a swashbuckling Marvel show that features lots of Egyptian lore, or you can watch a ridiculous Netflix competition show where people bake hyper-realistic cakes. It's a win-win. 

Moon Knight: For six episodes, you will get to watch Oscar Isaac play a man with dissociative identity disorder. When we begin, he is Steven Grant, a mild-mannered Englishman who works at the gift shop at the British Museum in London and is fascinated by Ancient Egypt. However, he keeps falling asleep and ending up in bizarre situations, and eventually realizes that he has another personality, that of Marc Bishop, an American mercenary who has made a deal with the Egyptian moon god, Khonshu, to be his avatar, and therefore assume the superhero identity of Moon Knight.

Ethan Hawke plays the baddie, Arthur Harrow, who is a cult leader that worships the goddess Ammit, and believes in a kind of precog justice where people must be killed before they can commit heinous crimes. So what follows is a tricky six episodes involving multiple identities, a whirlwind of travel, getting acquainted with an Ancient Egyptian pantheon, and teaming up with Marc's wife, Layla (played by the fabulous May Calamawy) to battle gods, humans, and monsters. And lest you think this is only a series of fights and fantasy, Episode 5 features a rather brilliant mind-bending series of twists where we explore the nature of death, reality, and existence. 

Moon Knight is quite the hodgepodge, but every episode is entertaining and fast-paced, and it offers up solid entertainment, with a dose of philosophy for the more serious-minded viewer. It's a quick binge, or perfectly good to parcel out in weekly installments if you need a more sustained hit. Plus, you know you could always stand to have more Oscar Isaac in your life right?

Is It Cake? The title tells you everything you need to know. Nine bakers have been gathered together to bake hyper-realistic cakes - these are cakes that are designed to look like actual objects, but when you approach them with a knife...they're cake. It's dumb, it's goofy, it's incredibly impressive. My boyfriend and I have a joke (OK, maybe I am more amused by it than he is) where I will just scream, "Is it tacos? No, it's cake!" because in the pilot episode, someone cut into a plate of tacos, and even though they were demonstrably cake, I still was like, "but those are tacos!"

Each episode features three bakers competing against each other so there are convoluted machinations in play to determine how bakers get picked and how we will go through the round-robin selection to ultimately crown a winner. These contestants do grow on you, and by the end of the eight episodes, there is a Great British Bake Off vibe where you can tell they have all bonded after these many hours of cheering each other on as they bake. Hosted by SNL's Mikey Day, a man who knows nothing about baking and is charmed by the word "fondant," this is a silly, fun, harmless way to spend an afternoon. Except by the end of it, you might really be craving some cake. Or tacos.

Quiet Comedy: Somebody Somewhere and Rothaniel

I have been spending a lot of time catching up on TV shows and have a slew of recommendations headed your way. To ease you in, let's start with two small, wonderful, heartfelt comedy gems. One is a sitcom, and one is a stand-up special, but both will find ways to make you laugh and break your heart.

Somebody Somewhere: Set in the small town of Manhattan, Kansas (not my Manhattan), for seven episodes you will follow Sam (the brilliant Bridget Everett) who moved back to her hometown to take care of her sister, but is now at loose ends following her death. She is a little bit aimless, going through a midlife crisis in her 40s and frustrated that she doesn't quite know what she should be doing with her life, but as the series progresses, she slowly starts to discover people and things that make her happy. There's her wonderful friendship with co-worker Joel (the marvelous Jeff Hiller) and her tenuous relationship with her sister, Tricia (Mary Catherine Garrison), and her parents, Mary Jo and Ed (Jane Drake Brody and Mike Hagerty), which go through peaks and valleys as she tries to sort out what exactly she wants and needs from these people.

This show is quietly funny and quietly devastating, a look at how people can be both kind and cruel to each other but are essentially just stumbling along trying to do the right thing. Created by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, it is also produced by the Duplass brothers, with Jay Duplass directing some episodes. It reminded me so much of watching their movie Jeff Who Lives At Home, which was also a sweet surreal film about finding your place and discovering your purpose. These are difficult questions that I wrestle with daily, so any time I can find pop culture that deals with it in a deft and funny way, I'm sold. The familial relationships are all tangled up in keeping secrets and keeping things private, but there's a wonderful throughline about chosen family and getting the right people around you so that you finally know how to ask for help when you need it. Given how short and sweet this show is, I can't give away much plot, but all I can say is that you need to let it wash over you.

Rothaniel: Settle in for a topsy-turvy hour of secrets and revelations. Comedian Jerrod Carmichael sits down on a stage and tells us a captivating story about his family, how he was raised, secrets he has kept, and secrets he will no longer be keeping. If you have seen or heard anything about this special, it's probably about how this is the hour in which Carmichael comes out as gay, but that revelation is only the beginning of what makes this show so special. Instead, what's more important is how that news is received, by his family, by his friends, and even by this audience that he is currently telling this story to. 

The special is directed by Bo Burnham (who made the devastatingly great Inside), and despite it featuring a man on a stage telling "jokes" to a room full of strangers, it feels intimate and personal. Audience members routinely talk to Carmichael, asking him how he feels, if he wishes he had done things differently, or offering up words of encouragement and reassurance. The show doesn't quite feel like comedy, it feels like catharsis; it reminded me of Hannah Gadsby's groundbreaking Nanette, which was yet another show where a comedian came to grips with who they were and took the audience on a sometimes uncomfortable but thoroughly revelatory ride. So check out Rothaniel. It's a wise, moving, funny, and eye-opening hour.