August Binges: Ironheart, The Hunting Wives, Adolescence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August Movies Part 2: Together & Weapons

You know what's fun in the summer? Heading into a dark theater and watching a clever and bizarre horror movie. Bonus points if it makes you laugh. This month, we've got two such films, one more comedic than the other, but both great examples of the wild and crazy imaginations of horror filmmakers.

Together: Written and directed by Michael Shanks, this movie stars real-life married couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco as Millie and Tim, a couple who have recently moved away from the big city into a rural area so Millie can pursue a teaching job at a local school. Their relationship is a little rocky, with Tim being extremely apathetic and indecisive, while Millie is clingy and trying to get their lives on track. One day they get lost on a hike in the woods, it starts raining, and then they fall down a hole and discover a mysterious cave. They drink the water from a pool in the cave, and that was their biggest mistake. Because that water has magical properties and they are now in for a wild ride.

What follows is a very funny and weird body horror film about what happens when a couple starts to literally become one. Initially it's just little things where they wake up to find their legs are stuck together and they need to pull them apart - they blame mildew. Then one night they wake up and Tim is eating Millie's hair and choking on it, and it is all chalked up to being some sort of crazy sleep terror. But of course, things keep escalating and eventually, it becomes clear that there are forces that are trying to get them to fuse into each other, in the ultimate expression of co-dependency. The movie is a great treatise on couples who think that they have to be just like each other, to such an extent that they become indistinguishable from one another, and it's a deliberation on whether that is truly the point of true love. Of course, it's not actually that profound, and it's mostly just extremely hilarious. If you need a 100-minute diversion, this is exactly the kind of thing you should seek out on a summer afternoon.

Weapons: Written and directed by Zach Cregger, who directed the 2022 movie Barbarian that I loved, this is a twisty and compelling movie about the people of a small town who all wake up one day to find out that a bunch of children all got out of their beds at 2:17 am, walked out of their houses, and have now completely disappeared. All of the children were in the same third-grade class, and their teacher, Ms. Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) is under attack by all the parents and townspeople, who think she had something to do with this. Meanwhile, she has no idea what happened, and why Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher) is the only student in her class who didn't disappear that night. No one will let her talk to Alex, and she is paranoid and helpless. The action picks up one month after the incident and we will follow five different characters to see how their lives intersect with one another over the course of a few days until we eventually solve this mystery.

The script is tight and has a Rashomon feel as you get the perspective of these different characters and their lives in this town. I won't go into too much detail because the delight of this movie is in watching it unfold and finding out who are the key characters in this tale and how their lives will intertwine to produce the insanely dramatic conclusion. There are so many jump scares, and you will spend a lot of time peeking through your fingers as you anticipate something extremely creepy about to take place on screen. But there's also a lot of humor sprinkled throughout, especially as events start to get increasingly bizarre and the characters are just absolutely baffled at what is happening to them. It's great storytelling and perfect summer entertainment, so head to the theater, as long as your nerves are up to the challenge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July Movies Part 1: Jurassic World Rebirth & Superman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 2: Fight or Flight, Final Destination Bloodlines, Novocaine, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

I've had a very busy few weeks at the movie theater as well as catching up on streaming, so if you need suggestions for Memorial Day viewing, here are my thoughts on some action films, a very gory horror comedy, and a gentle British musical movie. There's something for everyone!

Fight or Flight: Written by Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona and directed by James Madigan, Josh Hartnett stars as Lucas Reyes, a disgraced Secret Service agent who has been disavowed by the US government and stranded in Bangkok for several years. However, he then gets a call from his ex-girlfriend and former partner, Katherine (Katee Sackhoff), who needs his help on an urgent mission. She needs Lucas to get on a plane flying to San Francisco and find out who on board is the Ghost, an elite hacker who has been responsible for numerous cyberattacks around the world and has evaded capture at every turn. No one has any information on who the Ghost is or what they look like, so this is already going to be a very difficult mission. However, once Lucas boards the flight, he also learns that a slew of assassins are also passengers. They are all determined to kill the Ghost and reap the many bounties that have been offered on this kill. So, Lucas not only has to find the Ghost, but also protect them from a plane full of deadly killers. 

It's a bonkers plot executed to bonkers perfection. The identity of the Ghost was truly a surprise to me, and what followed was a very hilarious bloody action film, where more and more people were creatively killed on a plane. If that sounds like the kind of thing you would enjoy, go forth. It's good, mindless, long weekend fun.

Final Destination Bloodlines: I have never seen any of the Final Destination movies, but this one was certainly a great introduction to the franchise. Written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor and directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, the film stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana as Stefani Reyes, a young woman who keeps having a recurring nightmare about her grandmother, Iris, in 1968, going through a deadly experience in a restaurant where everyone keeps getting killed in increasingly elaborate ways. Stefani decides to find Iris and ask her what this dream might mean. Well, turns out that dream is actually identical to a premonition Iris had when she was a young woman at that restaurant, and because she warned everyone about what she had seen, she saved them all from a certain death. Except, you can never evade Death. Over time, she realized that everyone who didn't die at the restaurant was getting killed, in the order in which they died in her premonition, and she subsequently became a recluse, trying to evade death at every turn.

Well, spoiler alert, Iris dies after meeting Stefani, and now Stefani realizes that everyone in her family is going to die in hereditary order, because they were all never supposed to be alive in the first place. What follows is a series of deaths via intricate Rube Goldberg-like chain reactions of events, which are insanely gruesome, but utterly comical. Your eyes will be wide open trying to figure out how each person is about to get killed, and let me tell you, these deaths are so convoluted that you will never see it coming. It's a silly, laugh out loud reminder that yes, Death comes for us all.

Novocaine: If you need even more blood and gore, perhaps you will enjoy this bizarre little tale written by Lars Jacobson and directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. Jack Quaid stars as Nathan, a man who has an extremely rare (but real!) genetic disorder that means he cannot feel any pain. While this may sound like a good thing, it's extremely dangerous, because pain is a vital biological response that protects us every day. As an example, Nathan needs to set an alarm to remind him to pee every few hours, else his bladder might explode. 

One day, some robbers burst into the bank where he works, steal a bunch of money, and kidnap Sherry (Amber Midthunder), the girl that he really likes. The police are delayed, and Nathan decides he needs to singlehandedly chase down these men and rescue Sherry. What follows is an extremely violent but funny action caper, where Nathan's body is battered and bruised in a myriad ways that he cannot feel. There's a lot of body horror here, so you're not gonna be able to stand this movie if you're squeamish, but much like Final Destination Bloodlines, all of this is played for laughs rather than horror. This movie should have been edited down to a tight 90 minutes, but Quaid is a charismatic lead (playing a role that is the polar opposite of his character in Companion), so this is a very entertaining way to spend an afternoon. As long as you don't mind a LOT of torture.

The Ballad of Wallis Island: Don't want any action at all? Then how about this quiet British comedy written by Tim Key and Tom Basden and directed by James Griffiths. Key stars as Charles, a man who won the lottery twice and lives on remote Wallis Island. His wife is now deceased, but when she was alive, the two of them were big fans of a folk duo called McGwyer Mortimer. So, Charles decides to invite Herb McGwyer (Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carrie Mulligan) to the island for a private concert. Except the duo split up ages ago after a romantic breakup, and Herb has no idea Nell was invited. 

This movie is heavy on the vibes, with gorgeous shots of this craggy, wild island and lots of melancholy and beautiful folk music. None of the story beats will strike you as particularly surprising or innovative, but Charles is quite funny as a hapless man who is just trying to get his favorite band back together, while Herb is grumpy and angsty, and Nell is just trying to make some money and sing some beautiful harmonies. It's a somewhat forgettable film, but it's quite pretty and poetic while you're watching it, and sometimes that's all you really need to be content.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning: If you want to celebrate Memorial Day like a true American, then head over to the theater for the latest Tom Cruise blockbuster. The final film in this franchise is here at last, written by Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie, who also directed. While I absolutely loved Dead Reckoning last year, this film needed some sharper editing and a lot more humor. The first hour was interminable, with a lot of talking and scene-setting and discursions on the AI known as The Entity, that is the main villain of the piece. The only reason I come to a Mission: Impossible movie is for the action set pieces, so I was terribly bored in the beginning.

Thankfully, the second half kicks into high gear, and we get all the trademark Cruise insanity. The stunt work is off the charts, with all manner of shenanigans on land, underwater, and up in the air. The plan is terribly elaborate, with multiple moving parts where every member of the team gets to contribute in some fashion to Ethan Hunt's hare-brained scheme, and they pull it all off with aplomb. Despite the shaky start, the film is ultimately quite satisfying, but it also makes it clear that it is time for this franchise to end. There are plenty of montages of events from the prior films, and nothing could serve as a starker reminder that while Cruise might be a perfect physical specimen, he really is getting too old for this shit. The man needs to quit while he's ahead, and this film is a perfect swan song.

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.

April Movies Part 2: Sinners

It feels like the only movie out right now that everyone is talking about is Sinners, so let's get into it!

Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, this movie in set in 1932 and stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twin brothers nicknamed Stack and Smoke, aka the Smokestack twins. The twins have returned to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi after spending some time in Chicago, presumably doing nefarious things with gangsters. They are a bit of a mystery, and they have a reputation for being bad boys in this town. They also have some romantic entanglements with women played by Hailee Steinfeld and Wunmi Mosaku to deal with over the course of the film. But most importantly, the twins have arrived with a ton of cash and buy up the old sawmill, looking to turn it into a juke joint so the Black folk have some place to unwind every weekend after a long week's toil in the plantations of the Jim Crow South. 

Their cousin, Sammy (Miles Caton, in a debut role that will certainly not be his last), is the son of a preacher, but the twins gave him a guitar before they left town, and he is now an aspiring musician. So, the twins pick up Sammy, against his father's wishes, and recruit him to play the blues in their fine establishment. They also hire a number of other former associates to help with music, food, liquor, and security. It's a lot of work, but everything in this movie takes place over the course of one day, which is rather startling when you sit back to consider what happens over the course of those 24 hours.

If you've heard anything at all about this movie, or seen the trailer, you're aware it's technically a horror film and involves vampires. If you're really into that genre (like my husband), this movie will be an absolute dream for you. If you're mid on vampires, perhaps tread with caution? But again, with this cast and Coogler at the helm, even people who don't care for horror will be pleasantly entertained. The vampires are like some additional seasoning on an already delicious meal.

When the end credits rolled, I was a little surprised to see that the composer, Ludwig Goransson, was listed as an Executive Producer. But then I realized it made complete sense. Visually, this movie is the complete package, with impeccable production design by Hannah Bleacher, sumptuous costumes by the incomparable Ruth E. Carter (I wanted every dress I saw in this film, particularly an astonishingly slinky one worn by Hailee Steinfeld), and gorgeous cinematography by Autumn Durald Arkapow. But the most unsettling and unique aspect of this film is its score, a weird and often discordant jumble of genres that leads up to this film's supernatural reveal. It would be spoiling too much to discuss further but just pay attention to that score when you go see this movie.

Sinners is a bold, weird, innovative, original movie amidst a sea of adaptations and sequels. "Weird" really is the word that kept coming to me when trying to describe it, and I can't say that this was my absolute favorite movie of the year. But did I have a whale of a time watching two Michael B. Jordans running around attacking vampires? Of course, I did.

March Movies Part 1: Mickey 17 & The Monkey

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

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

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

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

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

March Binges Part 1: The Agency, Paradise, Running Point

Now that the Oscars are over, do you need recommendations of some new shows to binge? Well don't fret, I've got you covered!

The Agency: Created by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, the cast of this show is a veritable who's who of Hollywood, featuring folks like Michael Fassbender, Jodie Tuner-Smith, Jeffrey Wright, and Richard Gere. With the occasional cameo from other famous folk. Fassbender stars as Brandon Colby (though he usually is only referred to by his CIA code name of Martian). He was deep undercover in Africa for six years, but when he is suddenly recalled back to London Station, he has to abandon the woman he has fallen in love with, Dr. Samia Zahir (Turner-Smith). He becomes a senior case officer, dealing with various shenanigans involving a missing agent in Belarus and a new field officer who could be deployed to Iran. But when Samia shows up in London, Martian is desperate to somehow win this woman back, under the guise of his old cover. As you can imagine, trying to juggle his undercover love life with all of his important case work proves to be a challenging task. Particularly as Samia starts to get mixed up in something the CIA might want some intel on.

This show is twisty and complex and will always keep you on your toes. There are multiple threads and characters that don't always seem to be interrelated, and by the end of the ten episodes, you do get the sense that maybe what you've watched is a very long prologue to set up a more satisfying Season 2 climax. But it's well worth a watch if spy thrillers are your thing, and this cast is firing on all cylinders. John Magaro offers up a lot of comic relief as a junior case officer who always seems to be in over his head, while Jeffrey Wright and Richard Gere are fascinating as Martian's bosses who have to maneuver through all the bureaucracy of managing the CIA. Fassbender's accent is definitely questionable (I had to remind someone multiple times that he was meant to be American in this show), but overall, this is quite an indulgent, high-budget TV treat if you're looking forward to a long, riveting binge. 

Paradise: For a truly riveting binge, however, might I introduce you to Paradise? Created by Dan Fogelman, this show stars Sterling K. Brown as Xavier Collins, the lead Secret Service agent on the President's detail. The President is Cal Bradford (James Marsden), and spoiler alert, he dies in the very first episode. What follows is a murder mystery, with plenty of flashbacks so we get to spend more time with Marsden. But, if that's not enough, there's a whole other twist to this show that is revealed at the very end of Episode 1. I absolutely refuse to spoil that, so you're going to have to watch to find out what the more mind-blowing aspect of this show is that makes every subsequent episode of its eight-episode run so fun to watch.

There are some great performances from Julianne Nicholson, Krys Marshall, and Sarah Shahi, but I won't get into any details about who they're playing as you need all of that to unfurl over time. Suffice to say, this show has a thoroughly engaging and intriguing premise that never gets stale, and with Sterling K. Brown at the helm, how could you possibly take your eyes off the screen? The production design is also spectacular, for reasons that will become apparent. This is a high-concept and highly entertaining show that I eagerly watched week to week, but now you can gobble up the first season in one fell swoop and wait with me desperately for the second.

Running Point: Speaking of gobbling up a season in one fell swoop, I devoured the ten episodes of this show over two days and it was utterly delicious. Created by Elaine Ko, Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and David Stassen, this show stars Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon, a woman who unexpectedly becomes the CEO of the professional basketball team her family owns, the LA Waves, when her older brother (played by Justin Theroux!) has to step down to go to rehab. She has her other brothers Sandy and Ness (Drew Tarver and Scott MacArthur) beside her as the CFO and general manager, respectively, as well as her best friend and fiercely competent chief of staff, Ali Lee (Brenda Song). And she's engaged to a lovely man, played by Max Greenfield! I mean, the number of charming actors in this show just keeps growing and growing. If that's not enough, Chet Hanks plays one of the obnoxious basketball players on the team, and it is by far the most exquisite casting I could have ever imagined for that singular man.

This show is absolutely chock-full of plot and every single episode ends with an insane cliffhanger that is designed to have you hitting Play Next Episode on repeat. Isla's work life is an endless barrage, but there's also plenty of relationship drama to go around for everybody, and it's impossible to get bored for a second while you watch this engaging cast of characters play off of each other in increasingly wild and wonderful ways. It's like a big bag of candy that has something for everyone, and the impeccable costumes and production design certainly make it easy on the eyes as well. This is a gem of a comedy; the only thing wrong with it is that it's all over too soon and we now have to wait for Season 2. Alas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

January Binges: Black Doves, The Sticky, Laid, St. Denis Medical

I didn't just watch a bazillion movies in January. I also watched a bazillion TV shows. So if you're looking for your next great binge, might I tempt you with the following?

Black Doves: Written and created by Joe Barton, this is a splendid show starring Keira Knightley as Helen, a deep undercover spy who happens to be married to the UK's Defense Secretary. She is in a prime position to spy on the government and pass along critical information to her handlers, who run a mysterious organization called the Black Doves. This organization is not affiliated with any government - instead, they just sell their information to the highest bidder. Talk about a spy agency that is best suited to our capitalist times. Unfortunately, when Helen has an affair and her lover is subsequently murdered, she goes off on a vengeance spree to unravel what happened to him and deliver justice. All of which is tangled up in some other plots that might involve the Chinese, the Americans, and the British.

Ben Whishaw also stars as Sam, an assassin who returns to London to help Helen in her current predicament. The two of them have a lot of history; over the course of six episodes, you will slowly piece together their backstory and watch these two figure out if they have dug themselves in way too deep or if they truly can salvage the lives they built for themselves whilst still being elite spies. It's the ultimate test of work-life balance, and the show is an incredibly dark comedy, dealing with serious themes but approaching them with a deftly comedic touch that will always prompt an unexpected laugh from you. All the events of this first season take place during Christmas, so if you're still seeking a return to the holiday cheer of December, this could be a wonderful holiday watch. Though perhaps with a little bit more gore than Santa would recommend.

The Sticky: From 2011-12, the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist took place, when 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup were found to have been stolen from Quebec's Maple Syrup Producers Reserve. This syrup was worth millions of dollars, and this theft was the most Canadian crime ever. Well now, creators Brian Donovan and Ed Herro bring us a comical series inspired by that heist that does not purport to be a true story in the slightest.

Margo Martindale stars as Ruth, a maple syrup farmer who is feuding with Leonard (Guy Nadon), the man who runs the Quebec Reserve and has imposed all manner of arduous regulations and limits on the local farmers to curb their supply and reduce how much money they can make. Ruth is struggling financially, so when she is approached by Mike (Chris Diamantopoulos) with a scheme to steal some syrup from the reserve, she reluctantly agrees. Mike is a member of a Boston crime family, desperately trying to prove himself, and he got the idea from Remy (Guillaume Cyr), the lone security guard of the Reserve who has his own reasons for lashing out against Leonard embarking on this heist. What follows is a six-episode series that is kinda silly but perfectly entertaining and will probably end with you making yourself a big stack of pancakes and waffles. Settle in for a delightful brunch!

Laid: Developed by Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna, based off an Australian series, this is a supremely weird but charming show about Ruby (the delightful Stephanie Hsu), a woman who is shocked to discover that all the people she has slept with suddenly seem to be dying. Her best friend, AJ (Zosia Mamet), is a true crime afficionado who starts to investigate what's happening and realizes that these people seem to be dying in the order in which Ruby slept with them. What follows is a desperate scramble to figure out whether this is just a coincidence, and if not, why this is happening, and what on earth can be done to stop it.

Obviously, I don't want to spoil what happens over the course of eight episodes, but let me reassure you that there is in fact a twisted logic to everything, and also a bit of a cliffhanger towards the end that was sufficiently intriguing for a second series. Ruby is an interesting lead, because she is charming but also quite terrible, a selfish woman who has to learn how to put her own neuroses aside to actually think about others for a change. Her friendship with AJ is heartwarming, though complicated, and it's fun to see the two of them banter and evolve over the course of the series. Because of the cliffhanger, you are definitely left wanting more, but the journey is well worth a watch, even if we're still waiting to get to the destination.

St. Denis Medical: Created by Erid Ledgin and Justin Spitzer, this show is currently airing on NBC as a weekly sitcom. So, I binged the first six episodes in a week but can now enjoy a weekly dose of this charming comedy every Tuesday. Set in a small hospital in Oregon, this is a mockumentary where we follow the doctors, nurses, and administrators as they deal with the daily trials and tribulations of their jobs. 

Allison Tolman is charming as Alex, a dedicated nurse who has recently been promoted and is feeling overwhelmed with her new supervisory responsibilities. Wendi McLendon-Covey plays Joyce, a former oncologist who now runs the hospital and is constantly trying to come up with ways to make the hospital more prestigious so it can make more money (alas, that's the capitalism of the American healthcare system for you). You've got David Alan Grier and Josh Lawson, as the cranky emergency physician and blustering trauma surgeon, and Mekki Leeper as a newly-minted nurse who really does not know what he's doing, while Kahyun Kim plays Serena, a confident nurse who also has a bit of a social media obsession. And if you were a fan of Superstore, you will see plenty of supporting actors from that show pop up in this one as part of the Justin Spitzer Television Universe.

It's always hard to come up with a competent network sitcom, but when you do find one that's excellent, you want to ensure it stays on TV for a good long while. So please start watching this show - I need more regular weekly comfort watches in my life and this promises to be a good one. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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