August Movies Part 1: Lorne & Miss You, Love You

I was home alone last weekend so I caught up on a bunch of movies I had missed earlier in the year. Here are my thoughts on two very innocuous films that could prove to be of interest when you're lying on the couch.

Lorne: Directed by Morgan Neville, this is a documentary about Lorne Michaels, the notoriously private man who created Saturday Night Live and has been bestowing comedy legends and talk show hosts on us for 50 years. Given how notoriously private he is, however, you can imagine how this documentary turned out. It's a fairly superficial overview of SNL's history and the man, the myth, the legend, and while it is very fun to get behind-the-scenes footage of recent episodes of SNL, you're not necessarily going to learn a whole lot of new information. Though I did discover he was married with three kids. Who would have thunk.

There are lots of talking heads with famous actors and comedy people, and everyone tells their stories and does impressions of Lorne. Everyone seems uniformly shocked that Lorne would even give permission for this documentary to happen, and there's a lot of mystery that even they are reckoning with as they debate...does Lorne have pets? What does he do on his blueberry farm? Wait, his Wikipedia article has been wrong about his origins this whole time? While folks don't seem to know that much about him, the one constant is that they all do love him and credit him for their careers. There is a lot of talk about his loyalty and John Mulaney shares how Lorne called him up when he was in rehab and just said he would stay on the phone as long as he wanted. The man may be a mystery, but he does seem to be a mensch. If you enjoy SNL, you'll probably enjoy this documentary, but don't expect to get much out of it.

Miss You, Love You: Written and directed by Jim Rash, this is a quiet comedy-drama about grief and family that commands two very excellent performances from Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells. Janney plays Diane, a woman whose husband has just died. Instead of her son coming home to comfort her and help make the funeral arrangements for his stepfather, he sends his assistant, Jamie (Rannells), instead. Naturally Diane is prickly about this whole arrangement, but as a PA, Jamie seems very used to dealing with demanding clients, so what follows is a masterclass in managing Diane's sarcastic jibes and eventually gaining her begrudging respect.

This is a movie that mostly runs on vibes. As far as plot is concerned, expect these two to snipe at each other, reluctantly become friends, feel horribly betrayed by revelations, snipe at each other some more, and then reconcile. It's also a wonderful look at what it's like to lose the love of your life, the expectations you have of your family and friends, and what's it like to find your chosen family. It's a movie you marinate in so you can feel all your feelings, and it is at times gentle, acerbic, sweet, and funny. Enjoy.

July Movies Part 3: The Dink & Spider-Man: Brand New Day

July is nearly at an end but I managed to squeeze two more movies in. Want to go to the theater or want to stay on the couch? I've got both options covered!

The Dink: Written by Sean Clements and directed by Josh Greenbaum, this is a very silly and fun movie about what happens when a bunch of pickleball enthusiasts demand more courts at a tennis club. Ed Harris plays Chuck Boyd, the owner of the tennis club, while his son, Dustin (Jake Johnson) is a tennis player who injured his wrist early in his career and now has to make do as a tennis instructor at the club. He still thinks of himself as being an elite player (with a lot of beef with Andy Roddick), but really he's just a sad little man who needs to boost his ego. 

Due to various circumstances, Dustin is forced to start playing pickleball, a sport he regards with the utmost contempt. Further, he is playing with three older women, and his partner is Candace (Mary Steenburgen), a divorcee who has taken up a lot of hobbies to try and get on with her life. My favorite thing about this movie is that there ends up being a little bit of a May-December situation between Distin and Candace, which is amazing, because come on, Mary Steenburgen's still got it. Putting that storyline aside, however, this is ultimately just a movie about a showdown between pickleball and tennis. If you're a pickleball enthusiast, there will be a lot of references and jokes that I'm sure will delight you, but if you only have a passing familiarity with the sport (like me), this movie may seem pretty mid. The actors are fun, the premise is wacky - it's a perfectly acceptable way to pass an afternoon. But it is definitely some serious pickleball propaganda.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day: I don't know why, but I keep forgetting that Spider-Man is from New York (specifically Queens - Let's Go Mets!) but this movie absolutely does not let you forget that fact. It is SUCH a New York movie and has such beautiful shots of the city throughout every amazing action sequence or just those wonderful shots of Spidey commuting around by slinging webs at tall buildings. Even the end credits are this lovely little ode to New York - according to my husband, the only thing missing was a shot of Zohran as Mayor. So yes, I loved this movie immediately, just for that.

But of course, there's a whole story we need to discuss so let's get into that. Written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, this movie picks up after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, so poor Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is no longer remembered by his best friend Ned (Jacob Batalan) and girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya) after Dr. Strange cast a spell to make them forget him (don't question the Marvel logic, I don't remember any of the previous movies either). Now, he's very sad and depressed, working closely with NYPD Detective Jean DeWolff (the delightful Liza Colon-Zayas), and eschewing any work-life balance whatsoever in his unrelentless quest to put criminals away so he doesn't have to think about his complete lack of a personal life. He's also reluctantly working with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), a man with some sort of dark past who is now a vigilante with a lot of guns (apparently this character is the Punisher - a fact that completely blew past me while watching this movie).

There's Michael Mando as Scorpion, but then it turns out there's a different villain who can mind control people, so they become slightly more important to deal with. Just rest assured there's some great action, a lot of emotion, and it will be worth your time. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but also, Instagram has been constantly serving me reels of Holland and Zendaya so I just spent this movie swooning over those two as my favorite Hollywood couple. I don't know if this is a movie that comic lovers and Marvel purists will care for (there ARE some great cameos from certain Avengers), but if you're simply looking for spectacle and good ol' fashioned Hollywood razzle-dazzle, this movie serves that up in spades.

July Binges: Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed & Nemesis

This month I have binged two very different but rather entertaining shows, both of which end on a cliffhanger that promises much more hijinks for a second season. Ready to add yet more shows to your schedule? Follow me!

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: Created by David J. Rosen, this show stars Tatiana Maslany as Paula, a divorced woman in Queens who is going through a messy custody battle with her annoying and hapless husband, Karl (Jake Johnson). She's fighting to get a promotion at work, she's fighting to retain custody of her daughter, so amidst all that stress, the lady naturally decides to have a few online sessions with a camboy named Trevor (Brandon Flynn) to relieve some of that tension. 

Unfortunately, Trevor then gets violently attacked during one of their sessions. Paula records it all on video and reports it to the police (specifically to a detective played by Dolly de Leon, an actress I have loved since I first saw her in Triangle of Sadness, and who continues to be excellent here) and is told that it is probably all just part of a scam. When Paula gets a call demanding money, or else Trevor will be killed, she is mad that she did fall victim to such an obvious scam. But then...turns out Trevor IS dead. So what's going on?

For ten episodes, you're in for a twisty treat, where more and more shadowy characters come into play and the conspiracy around this whole nightmare keeps spiraling into oblivion. In the meantime, she still has to keep up appearances at work and with the other soccer moms. Maslany is an incredible actress and her ability to portray a woman who is holding on by her fingernails as she investigates criminals, coaches kids' soccer, battles with her ex, and dodges murderers is brilliant to behold. And lest I forget, this is a very funny show. It's not all just thrills and murder, so you'll have a nice chuckle as you get swept along for the ride. It's well worth your time, and given how everything ends, it's going to be well worth your time for Season 2.

Nemesis: Created by Courtney A. Kemp and Tani Marole, this is a very twisty cops-and-robbers show about a criminal mastermind named Coltrane Wilder (Y'lan Noel) and LAPD Lieutenant, Isaiah Stiles (Matthew Law), who is determined to arrest Coltrane and put his small gang of co-conspirators behind bars once and for all. Isaiah has been tracking Coltrane's crimes for a few years, convinced that there is one small group of four criminals who have been orchestrating incredible heists in the LA area that all seem unrelated. His boss and partner all think he's crazy, but he knows he's right, and he also has a personal vendetta against them to up the stakes.

There's also a lot of family drama that both men are experiencing with their wives. Coltrane's wife, Ebony (Cleopatra Coleman), recently had a miscarriage and no longer wants to help out with any of his heists, even though her sister is the woman who comes up with these jobs for him and his gang to execute in the first place (yeah, it's really a family affair). In the meantime, Candice (Gabrielle Dennis), is very frustrated with Isaiah's obsessive devotion to his job instead of showing up to his son's basketball games and is seriously contemplating a divorce. And oh yeah, somehow these two women know each other socially and become friends. That's not going to complicate matters at all, right?

It's all very tangled and delicious. It's also a very Black show, so your mileage may vary if you have opinions on how often you want to hear the n-word deployed. Also, the white characters who show up to play cops might be the most hilariously stereotypical white actors I've seen in a while. The whole thing reminded me a bit of a Bollywood movie - a little larger than life, a little too much emotion, but damn if I wasn't thoroughly entertained for eight episodes. If you're looking for something engaging and slightly ridiculous to while away the hours, you may have found your next binge!

June Binges Part 3: Not Suitable for Work & Widow's Bay

Looking for a comedy as your next binge? Well I've got a somewhat classic sitcom that has its pros and cons and then a delicious horror comedy that is currently a critical darling. Pick your poison!

Not Suitable for Work: Created by Mindy Kaling, this is a very Kaling show about a group of twentysomething college graduates who are pursuing their dreams in New York City. AJ and Abby (Ella Hunt and Avantika Vandanapu) are best friends with very different ambitions - AJ is excited to be a high-powered investment banker, while Abby is pursuing a career as a celebrity stylist. Across the hall from them live three men - Davis, Josh, and Kel. Davis is a finance bro who happens to work with AJ at the exact same bank and on the exact same team - what are the odds?! Josh is a rich nepo baby with journalistic ideals who is trying to "make it on his own" with a job as a PA for a famous news anchor, but he certainly did not get that job without a little name-dropping. And Kel is a medical student who actually wants to be an actor...that's gonna be quite the pivot.

Over the course of nine episodes, you will follow the career drama and romantic entanglements of these five people, and while some of it is very fun and engaging, some of it definitely has a yikes, #MeToo factor that had me shaking my head. It's very clear that this show is being written by a bunch of TV people who haven't actually held a job in finance or most other industries, so their depictions of the workplace tend to be painted with a rather broad, stereotypical brush. And the romance plots are classically Austenian (there is actually a lot of discussion of Jane Austen's novels at one point, in typical Kaling fashion), where there's a supposedly handsome and perfect suitor, but of course, he's not the right one.

This show is frothy and bingeable, and the actors are very likable. There are plot twists galore, and it's a mindless romp if you want to unplug your brain for a weekend afternoon. Also, NYC has never looked more beautiful - the final two episodes set in Christmas in the city captured all of my favorite places and made me so happy. But if you're looking for substance over style, move on. There's nothing to see here.

Widow's Bay: If you're looking for both style and substance (and are not a scaredy-cat) start bingeing this show immediately. I had no idea what I was getting into when I began, but two days later I was watching the finale and telling everyone that this was the best show in the world. Created by Katie Dippold, this is the story of a quiet New England island called Widow's Bay, and its mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), who is desperately trying to sell this place to tourists and help the town prosper. Unfortunately, he has no help from the locals, a bunch of dour and pessimistic folk who also believe in ghost stories and think the island is a haunted and miserable place that no one can escape. Naturally, Tom thinks all these people are ridiculous, but then...creepy things start happening. And before long, even this skeptic has to acknowledge that maybe all those ghost stories had some truth to them after all.  

Is this show scary? Sure. But is it also absolutely hilarious? My God, yes. After all, it did start out as a spec script for Parks & Recreation - Leslie Knope would absolutely adore this show. Rhys' face is comic perfection, veering from disdain to confusion to horror to miserable acceptance in the space of a minute. The supporting cast, featuring comic geniuses like Jeff Hiller, Dale Dickey, and Stephen Root are all people you will recognize from TV comedies over the years, and they are a murderer's row of talent in this show. Kate O'Flynn in particular, is amazing as Patricia, Tom's assistant who really wants to help him with his agenda but also has her own horror story from when she was a teenage girl on the island; watching her shine in Episode 8 was delightful.

I never knew horror comedy was a genre I would be able to watch on TV - I assumed it was restricted to a few movies a year. The writing is incandescent, the performances are brilliant, the production design and cinematography is atmospheric and creepy - it's really firing on all cylinders. This show has been an absolute revelation; I ate it all up and am ready for seconds. More please!

June Binges Part 1: The Boroughs & Spider-Noir

Another month is flying by, and there's still so much new TV to watch! I recently had surgery, and unfortunately, I've been using all my recovery time to nap instead of bingeing and blogging as I anticipated. But, I am now on the mend, which means it's time for me to finally tell you about all these epic shows you should be watching. Let's dive right in.

The Boroughs: Created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (with an executive producer assist from Stranger Things' Duffer Brothers), this is a very bizarre and fun show about a group of older folk in a retirement community in the middle of nowhere who discover that maybe something rather sinister is going on. Something sinister that may involve...aliens? 

Frankly, that's about all I want to tell you about the plot. There are only eight episodes, and you'll have to figure out how things unfold from there. The cast boasts people like Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters, and Denis O'Hare, who are all people I have been watching for long enough that I was a little startled to realize that they are now old enough to be playing retirees. But these are all impeccably excellent thespians and man are they having fun. Older actors rarely get the chance to showcase their chops like this, and at one point I realized this show felt like The Goonies but for sixty-somethings. It has that crazy Spielbergian vibe of a group of people going on an adventure, and something weird and wonderful is afoot, and they're gonna band together to solve the mystery despite all the obstacles in their way.

The sci-fi element means that this show is probably not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but the plot is compelling, the actors are brilliant, and it's just so unique and unusual that I was riveted throughout. It's a quick and dirty binge that should keep you enthralled for the entirety of its runtime, so give it a shot. There's a lot of fun lurking in those boroughs!

Spider-Noir: Developed by Oren Uziel, this show is set in the 1930s New York in an alternate universe where Spider-Man is the alter ego of a world-weary hard-boiled detective named Ben Reilly. Who is played by Nicolas Cage. What more do you need?!

My husband and I watched this show in black and white as God intended. There is also a color version available for heathens; we did watch a few minutes of that version and begrudgingly accepted that it was still shot in an old-timey technicolor kind of way that still made it feel retro. But, come on. The show is called Spider-NOIR, what are you even doing if you watch it in color? The cinematography and production design is truly out of this world and it's an immersive and dazzling experience if it's been a while since you last watched a classic movie.

Cage is hamming it up brilliantly in this role, complete with a Cagney/Bogart-esque accent that is cleverly explained in the script. Karen Ruiz is wonderful as his weary secretary, Janet, while Lamorne Morris is his trusty friend and journalist, Robbie. There's a mystery involving a sudden rash of folks with superpowers who are taking over Manhattan and committing crimes, and of course, our hero has a tragic backstory and doesn't ever want to don his spider costume again but will eventually have to. There's some romance, beautifully choreographed action set pieces, and a whole lot of humor. It's an absolute vibe from start to finish, and even if you're not a superhero person, you should watch this show if you're simply a cinema person who wants to indulge in this world for a little while.

May Movies Part 1: Mother Mary & The Devil Wears Prada 2

Anne Hathaway is set to have five movies come out in 2026, and two of them are currently in theaters. Sadly, the Hathassaince is off to a rocky start. Let's dive into my reviews.

Mother Mary: Written and directed by David Lowery, I was very excited for this movie, given how much I loved his 2021 film, The Green Knight. I was expecting something similarly surreal and visually spectacular but unfortunately this movie is weird and unsettling, not in a good way. Hathaway stars as a pop icon named Mother Mary, who sings haunting dance music while wearing elaborate costumes and a halo. She is staging a comeback tour after she had an accident, but is unhappy with the costumes being proposed by her team. She heads to England, where her former collaborator, Sam (Michaela Coel), is working at a remote country estate, trying to prepare designs for an upcoming show. Sam is initially reluctant to work with Mary to prepare a new outfit, but after a lot of mysterious dialogue hinting at their past and Mary's clear desperation for someone who can interpret her artistic vision, Sam agrees.

What follows is a bizarre film where two women talk at each other and work out their creative differences and hostilities, but also, there's a ghost? Eventually there's an exorcism? And throughout there are flashbacks to Mary performing various songs, so the whole thing has a slightly surreal feel of a concert film? Listen, I did not get this movie at all, and I did not like it all. I'm sure there are high-minded people out there who thought this was a bold work of art, but to me it was a thought experiment that was better suited to being a 20-minute short film than a meandering two-hour extravaganza. Coel and Hathaway are two great actresses, and I would love to see them in another film where there's some actual plot. And maybe just make it a fun comedy, so we don't have to watch these two women weep at each other when they are capable of so much more expressive silliness. As far as I was concerned, this movie was an unfathomable waste of time.

The Devil Wears Prada 2: I am tempted to write "Electric Boogaloo" after that title, because unfortunately, this is a terrible sequel to the much-beloved 2006 movie. Directed by David Frankel and written by Aline Brosh McKenna (who were also responsible for the first film), Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are all back to reprise their roles. This time, Andy (Hathaway), who has successfully spent the past twenty years building out a journalism career, finds herself unexpectedly fired and in need of a job. Well, turns out Runway, the magazine still led by Miranda (Streep) and her consigliere, Nigel (Tucci), is in need of a features editor, so Andy is back into the world of high fashion, trying to craft meaningful articles alongside puff pieces on chemical peels. Meanwhile, Emily (Blunt) now works at Dior, who is a main advertiser for Runway, so Andy is reunited with another former colleague. 

I won't get into the plot - there is a lot of drama around ownership of the magazine and evil billionaires (you'll get to see Justin Theroux chewing the scenery for all its worth, with an assist from BJ Novak who just has the same expression on his face throughout), and there are a LOT of cameos from random people that help to jolt you awake while you fade away into boredom. For a movie that is concerned about how magazines and creative pursuits could be replaced by AI, it's ironic how the script and hapless editing make the proceedings feel like abject AI slop. All of the plot points feel tropey, and no amount of valiant acting from this all-star cast can rescue the film from feeling completely unnecessary. It's the curse of high expectations - having just rewatched the original, which was so iconic, I wanted more of the same, and the sequel simply could not deliver. I do know folks who have thoroughly enjoyed this film as a likable piece of nostalgia, but if you were expecting quality cinema, steer clear.

January Movies Part 1: Marty Supreme, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Mrs.

I'll be honest, I saw two of these movies in December. But hey, it's hard to blog over New Year's. If you're interested in an awards contender, a blockbuster, and a quiet Hindi movie, this blog post will satisfy all your desires.

Marty Supreme: Directed by Josh Safdie, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein, this movie stars Timothee Chalamet as Marty Mauser, loosely based on the real-life Marty Reisman, who was a US table tennis champion. Set in 1952, we follow Marty's utterly chaotic life in New York City, as a man who doesn't have anyone believing in him, but that's OK, because he sure does believe in himself. The man is a hustler, figuring out any angle he can use to scrape up some cash so he can fly around the world to participate in table tennis tournaments and make a name for himself.

I genuinely wanted this to just be a table tennis movie. There are two sequences in this film, one towards the middle, another towards the end, when you get to watch Marty play table tennis against some of the best players in the world, and those sequences brought me so much joy. But the sport is secondary. This is Chalamet's Oscar vehicle, and he is going to do some Acting! This character is frenetic, whiny, always on the move, and always trying to scam someone out of something. He also gets an assist from the great Odessa A'zion who plays his childhood friend and eventual baby mama, Rachel, a woman who seems very sympathetic at the beginning, but then you realize she might be Marty's equal. Gwyneth Paltrow also stars as an actress who has an affair with Marty for her pleasure and his gain. Does this movie pass the Bechdel test? Of course not. 

I didn't love or hate this film. Chalamet is a powerhouse, but the story felt overwrought and never managed to win me over. It often felt like we were getting a bunch of hyper-intense set pieces that Safdie was struggling to string together into a coherent narrative. Also, 150 minutes tends to breach my tolerance for watching a man who is full of himself. It's a good movie, but in my opinion, certainly not a great one.

Avatar: Fire and Ash: Speaking of men who are full of themselves, writer-director James Cameron is back with yet another installment of the Avatar franchise. Do I remember anything that happened in the previous movies? No. Do I remember anything that happened in this movie despite having seen it just a few weeks ago? Barely.

At 3 hours and 15 minutes, this is yet another bloated extravaganza, that increasingly feels like I'm watching a video game, rather than a movie. This time we are introduced to the Mangkwan, an aggressive Na'vi tribe that live in a volcano and want to partner with humans to dominate the rest of the Na'vi. They are led by Varang (played by Oona Chaplin), and it's just more of the same with the Na'vi tribes having to battle the exploitative humans, environmentalism vs. ruthless capitalism, and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) having to manage his wife and children and save all the Na'vi all over again.

These movies feel like they could just be AI-generated at this point, and obviously I do not care for them. Are they visually spectacular? Of course. But is that enough to sustain that runtime with clunky dialogue and actors who feel like they're just phoning in a performance so they can make bank? Nope.

Mrs.: Every Christmas, I meet a bunch of my relatives on Long Island. And this year, they were all shocked to discover I had never watched the Hindi movie, Mrs. (that is a remake of a 2021 Malayalam film called The Great Indian Kitchen). Naturally I had to go home immediately and watch this film. 

Written by Harman Baweja and Anu Singh Choudhary and directed by Arati Kadav (shoutout to female directors!), the movie stars Sanya Malhotra as Richa, a vivacious woman who enters into an arranged marriage with a seemingly nice and attentive doctor named Diwakar (Nishant Dahiya). As is custom, she moves into his house to live with his parents, and quickly discovers that the daughter-in-law is expected to spend all her time either helping her mother-in-law prepare mountains of food for the men of the house, or cleaning the house and ensuring it is clean enough to meet her father-in-law's exacting standards.

Richa starts out happy and excited about her new married life, but as the daily routine grinds her down, she realizes that her husband expects her to be nothing better than a housemaid and cook. Oh and of course, to have his babies, which turns sex into an increasingly dreaded activity. There's nothing particularly novel about this film, as it comments on the usual patriarchal bullshit that women wade through in traditional Indian households. But what is refreshing is Malhotra's commanding performance as a woman who is slowly driven to despair. You can see the light dimming from her eyes over the course of this movie: but don't worry. She does eventually fight for herself and reclaim her autonomy. It's a sad movie with a happy ending and packs an emotional wallop. Seek it out if you can.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

June Movies Part 3: Karate Kid: Legends & F1

What better way to end the month than with some sports movies? If you want to stand up and cheer for the underdog, have I got the films for you!

Karate Kid: Legends: This movie really scratched an itch I did not know I had. As someone who watched Cobra Kai all the way through to the end, I guess I was already invested in the Karate Kid universe, but then they came up with this movie that has a ridiculously great cast and is all set in New York, which we all know is my absolute catnip. 

Directed by Jonathan Entwhistle and written by Rob Lieber, in this installment, we follow teenager Li Fong (the wonderfully charismatic Ben Wang who was last starring in American Born Chinese), who was studying kung fu with his uncle Han Sifu (played by Jackie Chan!) in Beijing but then has his life upended when his single mom (played by Ming-Na Wen!) decides they need to move to New York.

Once they get to the Big City, Li strikes up a friendship with a girl named Mia (Sadie Stanley) who works at a local pizza parlor owned by her father, Victor (played by Joshua Jackson!) who used to be a fighter but is all washed up now...but not for long. And obviously Mia's ex, Conor Day (Aramis Knight) is a nasty bully who is ready to pick fights with Li. This movie features a lot of karate, a lot of callbacks to Mr. Miyagi and his legacy, and a lot of well-choreographed fights in locations all around the city. The soundtrack was banging and I had a supremely great time from start to finish. This movie was a perfect piece of popcorn entertainment, and I happily scarfed it all down.

F1: Directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, this is a movie that is sure to delight all fans of Formula One racing. I do not know anything about F1, but I still enjoyed this film. It's a classic sports movie that hits many familiar beats, but the actual race sequences are wonderful, the music is always pounding away in your ears, and the cast is charming AF, even if I am Team Jolie and must state outright that while I liked this movie, that does not mean I support the continued whitewashing of Brad Pitt's reputation. Particularly with this movie's inclusion of a thoroughly unnecessary romantic subplot that feels like it came straight out of an 80s movie.

Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, an excellent driver who doesn't like to commit to one thing for long and has some sort of tragic past in F1 racing. His friend Ruben (Javier Barden) now owns an F1 team that is dead last in the rankings and he begs Sonny to join his team as a driver and win them some points. Sonny joins, but there are instant clashes with the team's young rookie driver, Joshua (the excellent Damson Idris), who is desperate to improve his career prospects and has been continually hampered by this failing team. Kerry Condon plays Kate, the first female technical director in F1, who is responsible for designing the cars that they will drive. Like Joshua, she is also annoyed by Sunny's demands and unconventional behavior. But of course, the cocky American has many schemes and stratagems up his sleeve and eventually wins over all these disbelieving Europeans with his racing tactics. 

This film feels very old school and could have certainly used some judicious editing at the end. But Lewis Hamilton serves as a producer and did a great job of helping the filmmakers make the racing scenes feel immersive and electric: most of the time, I felt like I was sitting in the car and whooshing down the racetrack. Based on the way the camera lingered in some scenes, I believe there are lots of cameos from actual F1 legends in this movie, but apart from Lewis Hamilton, I didn't recognize a soul. So, if you've binged all of Drive to Survive, this movie is definitely going to provide excellent fan service. Full speed ahead!

June Comedy Binges: Adults & #1 Happy Family USA

Need to delve into some comedy for a bit? Depending on whether you're interested in Gen Z or Muslim families, I've got you covered!

Adults: All the marketing basically posits that this is Friends for Gen Z. Which, fine? As a millennial, I have never felt more like a boomer than when watching this show and shaking my head at how incomprehensibly silly these twentysomethings seem to be. But as with all comedies, the show managed to win me over by Episode 3. There was a line of dialogue that struck me as being so brilliant and hilarious, that I instantly knew the show had found its groove. And once you love the writing on a comedy, you can forgive any number of flaws.

Created by Rebecca Shaw and Ben Kronengold, the show follows a group of five friends (played by Malik Elassal, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen, Amita Rao, and Owen Thiele) who live in Queens (very exciting for me, as I also live in Queens, though it was quickly apparent that this show was shot in Toronto, because the subways looked different, booooo). They all live in Samir's (Elassal) childhood home while his parents are off traveling, which is convenient as none of them seem to have jobs that would enable them to really live in NYC otherwise, except for Billie (Freyer) who loses said job pretty quickly. Over the course of eight episodes, the series follows the usual story arcs - there are work anxieties, sexual anxieties, romantic anxieties, and just the general anxiety of being a Gen Zer. The overall impression you get is that being a twentysomething is always the same, where you're perpetually struggling with your career or your love life, and the only thing that makes this Gen Z is that everyone's a little bit queer and everyone's deeply unprofessional. Give this show a chance - I was all set to cross my arms and declare that I was too old for this show, but it really won me over in the end. 

#1 Happy Family USA: Well, we're back to having another war in the Middle East, so I guess watching this show would be pretty timely? Created by Pam Brady and Ramy Youseff, who also voices the main character, this is an adult animated show about a 12-year-old Egyptian boy named Rumi Hussein who lives in New Jersey with his parents and older sister, Mona. The show begins on September 10, 2001, and we get a glimpse into Rumi's life and ordinary teenage struggles with school and family life. Adolescence is painful enough, but then, September 11 happens. And now Rumi's life is upended by the fact that he is a Muslim teenage boy.

The show is very funny but also very astute. In particular, I love how it deals with the ways in which Rumi's parents deal with the aftermath of 9/11. His mother decides she wants to don the hijab and embrace her religion and Muslim community, while his father is desperate to prove that he loves America...to the point of going on Fox News to prove he's "one of the good ones." If that made you groan and then chuckle, welcome to the vibe of this entire show. It's incisive and wonderful, a dark comedy about one of the most painful moments in America's history and the immigrants who suffered because of it. Which sadly is all too relevant today.

June Movies Part 2: Materialists and Lilo & Stich

Do you want a family-friendly live-action remake of a classic animated movie? Or a grown-up romcom about the perils of dating in the big city and having to choose between money or love? If the answer is both, keep reading!

Materialists: Writer-director Celine Song is back with another love triangle, this time between Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker in New York City, her ex-boyfriend, John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor/cater-waiter still waiting for his big break in his late thirties, and Harry (Pedro Pascal), a handsome, rich man who meets Lucy at his brother's wedding, which Lucy is responsible for as she was his brother's matchmaker. Talk about a meet cute.

Lucy and John broke up years ago because they were always broke and fighting about money. So naturally Lucy is intrigued by Harry, a man who seems to be a "unicorn" in the NYC dating world and has everything she thought she wanted in a partner. But as the movie progresses, it's clear that while financially, Harry may have everything to offer, emotionally, John is the person she turns to. Who will she choose in the end?! That's for you to watch and discover.

While Song's previous film, Past Lives, was my #1 movie of 2023, this movie is not as polished and the story beats and dialogue oftentimes have a feeling of black box theater. I love this cast, I obviously love anything set in NYC, and the score by Daniel Pemberton is lovely. But this screenplay is throwing too much at the wall and nothing quite sticks. You'll probably learn a lot about yourself in terms of your reaction to Lucy's final choice of partner, so that's a fun introspective exercise. But there's a side-plot involving one of Lucy's clients that a lot of people are up in arms about because it comes out of nowhere and then is dealt with in a rather messy fashion that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Ultimately, I enjoyed this movie as a parable about the horrors of dating in NYC in your thirties - there are some great montages when Lucy is interviewing her clients and cataloguing their increasingly insane demands. All of that stuff makes for great comedy, but ultimately, I was not sold on the romance.

Lilo & Stitch: My husband loves the original 2002 animated film, and we even went to Kauai for our honeymoon and took a picture next to the Lilo & Stitch mural in Hanapepe. If you're that kind of fan, this movie will certainly delight you. As a more ambivalent fan, I still found reasons to enjoy this movie, particularly the excellent choices made by the casting director. 

Maia Kealoha, who plays Lilo, a young Hawaiian girl who finds the alien Stitch and adopts him as her dog, is deliciously charming, though over the course of two hours, hearing her scream out loud did remind me of why I don't want to have children. And Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, who plays Lilo's older sister and guardian Nani, who is struggling to take care of the bills and provide for her sister after the untimely death of their parents, is simply wonderful, a stoic, loving presence in the face of much insanity. But my favorite casting choice was Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen as the two aliens sent to Earth to capture Stitch. Magnussen in particular is always excellent at goofy physical comedy and I couldn't help but grin every time he was on screen.

Of course, one is always forced to ask when reviewing a live-action remake, does this movie need to exist? My answer is mostly, no. But there are a few intriguing deviations from the original script, and again, this cast is so charming that they make it worth it your while. Despite the title of this film, the only character I truly empathize with in this story is Nani, a woman who is trying so hard to be a responsible and good person but keeps getting thwarted by her sister and her "dog." So, I was glad to see how this film dealt with her character and ultimately let her be the hero of the story. Justice for Nani!

May Movies Part 1: Thunderbolts*, Another Simple Favor, All We Imagine as Light

It's only the first week of May but I've already enjoyed three movies in the theater and on streaming. Whether you're into anti-superheroes, foreign film, or wacky thrillers, one of these films is bound to whet your cinematic appetite.

Thunderbolts*: Marvel is back, baby! After a recent series of lackluster films, I left this movie with a decided spring in my step. Written by Joanna Calo and Eric Pearson and directed by Jake Schreier, this outing gathers up a ragtag crew of burnouts that you may or may not remember from prior movies and assembles them into a motley crew that will eventually call themselves the Thunderbolts. And yes, there's an asterisk on the title for a reason, that you'll get to at the very end of the movie, though it's certainly not a major spoiler.

Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen, and Sebastian Stan are all excellent as they play somewhat existential superpeople trying to figure out what their next steps should be. They are reluctantly united when they have to deal with Bob (Lewis Pullman), a dangerously unstable man who underwent an experimental trial to become invincible and is now (unsurprisingly) causing some major problems. The best part of this movie is that while Bob is purportedly the "villain" of the piece, this is actually a movie about mental health and tackling depression and trauma, topics that are the especial forte of these particular superheroes. There are some great set pieces, including a return to New York that reminded of the first time I watched The Avengers with awestruck glee in 2012, and foolishly declared that no one even needs to make a superhero movie again because we had reached the pinnacle. Marvel has gone through a lot since then, and while this movie is now treading through well-worn grooves that are no longer so novel as they once were, this is a well-crafted and fun film that genuinely tugs at your heartstrings and perfectly sticks the landing. This is the Marvel we all love, and this movie represents an excellent return to form before we launch into the millionth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Another Simple Favor: Written by Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis and directed by Paul Feig, this is a sequel to A Simple Favor, a movie I loved in 2018 but no longer remembered anything about. So, after doing a quick readthrough of the plot in Wikipedia (which was not so quick because, damn, that plot was twisty and insane), I pushed Play and settled in for a truly wacky sequel.

Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are both back as Stephanie and Emily, women who started out as best friends in the last film and then quickly had a bit of a falling out after Emily turned out to be a murderer. Oops. Now, Stephanie has written a book about all the drama that went down in the first movie and has moved on with her life, but then Emily shows up on bail from prison and asks Stephanie to be her maid of honor since she's getting married to a wealthy Italian. So, we all whisk off to Capri, where, of course, some murders happen, and Stephanie has to figure out what on earth has gone down again. The costumes are simply stunning, the scenery in Capri is gorgeous, and the script is ridiculous and will make you roll your eyes so hard they might fall out. But listen, this movie is only on streaming, so just sit back on the couch, relax, and gaze at all the beauty on the screen while sparing your brain from the actual plot. There are worse ways to spend a weekend!

All We Imagine as Light: Written and directed by Payal Kapadia, this movie won the Grand Prix at Cannes last year and I was devastated when I couldn't figure out how to catch it in the theatres. Thankfully it's now available on streaming, and I ate it up with a big ol' spoon, like I knew I would. Set in Mumbai, this movie follows two Malayalee nurses, Prabha and Anu (the remarkable Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha). They are roommates who work at the same hospital, but Prabha is older and wiser, while Anu is more of a starry-eyed youngster who hasn't had the hope knocked out of her yet. Over the course of the film, we follow these two women's love lives, or lack thereof, as well as their friendships and adventures in this bustling and bewildering city. 

This is not a Bollywood movie - nothing is glamorous about their lives, and throughout the film, we get multilingual voiceovers from the ordinary working-class people who make up the bulk of this city, all struggling to make a living and who talk about Mumbai like it's a fantasy. This is a city of dreams - people come here in the hopes of making some money to send back to family members in rural villages, and to make a better life for themselves. But so many of them are reduced to just anonymous, miserable lives, and even after decades of living here, they are chewed up and spit out without a care in the world. In the midst of all that, it's a wonder to watch how Prabha and Anu navigate their lives, and the final shot of this movie, which tellingly does NOT take place in Mumbai, is truly one of the most beguiling and beautiful scenes portrayed on cinema. This is not the kind of Indian movie I'm used to seeing, but it reminded me a lot of Dhobi Ghat, another Mumbai-centric movie I adore. Movies about the "ordinary" people of Mumbai always end up being the most extraordinary, and this film is a true masterpiece.

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.

November Movies Part 1: Woman of the Hour & Anora

It's time to watch some movies that feature amazing leading ladies. And have I got a treat for you.

Woman of the Hour: Anna Kendrick stars in this film, which also happens to be her directorial debut (yay we love women directors!). Written by Ian McDonald and based on true events from the 1970s, this film tells the story of Sheryl Bradshaw (Kendrick), a struggling actress in Los Angeles, who booked a gig on The Dating Game, a show where a woman asks questions of three male suitors that she cannot see, and then picks one of them to go on a date with. It turns out Bachelor #3, who she eventually picked to be the winner, was Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), a serial killer who had systematically been raping and murdering women and children for several years prior to getting on this TV show.

I read a lot of spoilerific reviews of this movie before watching it, but will spare you so you can go into it without knowing exactly what happens. What's key to note, however, is that this is a movie about how social institutions are set up to disadvantage women at every turn. At the beginning of the film, Sheryl is grabbing drinks with her neighbor, a man she thought was her only friend in LA. Well, surprise, the man wants to be more than friends. And you can see the shock and then resigned ambivalence that flits across her face before she leans into doing the inevitable. That scene is mirrored later on when she gets drinks with Alcala after their Dating Game episode, and the tension is ratcheted up this time because you know she is now having to make the choice about whether or not she will go home with a serial killer, rather than just her loser neighbor. It's a very literal take on the classic survey where men said what they feared most on a blind date was that the woman would laugh at them, while women said, "being murdered."

This is also a movie about how women stick up for each other and join ranks in the face of the patriarchy. The only people who listen to Sheryl and support her standing up for herself are other women. The hair and makeup women on the show are the ones telling her to have fun and ignore the sexist machinations of the show's host. A hostess at a restaurant is the one who sees her pleading gestures and ensures that she isn't served more drinks so she can cut short her date with the creepy Alcala. Meanwhile, male police officers ignore everything they are told by a female witness, and Alcala continues to prey on single women who make the mistake of thinking he's one of those rare good guys who actually want to help them out.

There is a "happy" ending of sorts - Alcala does eventually get caught. The manner in which he gets caught is particularly chilling and incredible, owing to the quick thinking and tenacity of one of his victims, a woman who deserves a thousand medals for bravery. But when you read the final few sentences on the screen, you will feel sick to your stomach about how society let this man continue to destroy so many lives with impunity.

Anora: Let's pivot to a more "feel-good" film. Written and directed by Sean Baker, and winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year, Mikey Madison stars as Anora "Ani" Mikheeva, a stripper at a midtown Manhattan club, who is asked to entertain a young, rich man, who wants someone who can speak Russian. Ani speaks Russian because of her grandmother, but her accent isn't great. However, Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) doesn't mind a bit and is eager to go to the VIP room with her for a lap dance. And thus begins a whirlwind romance. 

Vanya is 21 and his parents are Russian billionaires, so he is living in style in a mansion in Brooklyn. His parents are off in Russia, however, and his minder is his Armenian godfather, Toros (Karren Kalagulian), who has decided not to micromanage Vanya so much. So for two weeks, Vanya and Ani have the time of their life, with Vanya paying Ani to be exclusive with him, and eventually taking her to Vegas, where he proposes. And she accepts. 

As you can imagine, news of this marriage doesn't go down so well in Russia, and Toros is enlisted to fix the matter. He shows up at the mansion with his brother, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and a henchman, Igor (the brilliant Yura Borisov), and much comedy ensues after Vanya runs away and these three men must now track him down with Ani's extremely reluctant help.

This movie has been touted as a modern Cinderella story, and that is a fair descriptor, up to a point. I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone how the story ends, but in classic Sean Baker fashion, this is a story about working class folks who have to cater to the whims of the rich, and all of them are just inherently decent people trying to hustle in the big city and make a living. Mikey Madison is sublime as the defiant and demanding Ani, fighting to get what she's due and scrambling to get the upper hand, while Borisov, Tovmasyan, and Kalagulian are hilarious as the weary bodyguards who just want to solve this problem for their employers and move on with their lives. 

Billionaires are the only villains in this story, and that is as it should be. This movie would make an excellent double feature with The Florida Project, and this film is yet another example of what a great character study Sean Baker can offer up, with engaging dialogue and a whirlwind tour of the Russian side of Brooklyn that is probably a mystery to most people, even those who live in New York City. And the final scene is genuinely a little bit heartbreaking and a little bit hopeful. So flock to the theaters and watch this film. It'll be one of the best experiences you have at the cinema this year.