Gideon58's Reviews

Nikki Glaser: Someday You'll Die
Amy Shumer fans will have a head start with comedienne Nikki Glaser's second HBO concert, a 2024 event entitled Nikki Glaser: Someday You'll Die.

This is my first exposure to the woman, but the reason I mentioned Amy Shumer as a point of reference is not only because this woman's style and timing reminds me a lot of Shumer, but she does appear in two of Shumer's films, Trainwreck and I Feel Pretty, both of which I've seen but don't remember Glaser, but this woman's handling of the mic is so much like Shumer that she is either a mentor or her lover.

Taped from the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington, Glaser is already onstage as the special begins, she is dressed in a silver lame' minidress that leaves very little to the imagination, that looked like something the female cast members of Rowan and Martin's Laugh In would wear. This dress was so revealing that I'm pretty sure I could see her black thong right through it and it was obvious that Ms Glaser had to be very careful with her movements because one spontaneous physical bit, this audience would have a completely different show than they had come for. On the flip side, Ms Glaser has the most beautiful pair of legs I've seen since Cyd Charisse.

Glaser broaches a wide variety of topics here, starting off very strongly with a routine about the fact that she has no desire to have children, new territory for a female standup as far as I know. She cleverly begins by stating that she is in the middle of post partum depression because her best friend is pregnant. It was weird hearing a woman talk about not wanting children, but I have to admit to laughing when she talked about how so many woman consider it some sort of noble profession. Unfortunately, this routine did segue into a routine about women with fertility issues that began to walk the line of good taste, but she realized it and got off it pretty quickly.

She made some funny observations about staving off the aging process. I loved when she said that with the right makeup, she could look just like Kristen Bell and faked indignance at the audience laughing at that. There were enough scattered laughs here to keep me interested but Ms Glaser needs to concentrate on developing her own style instead of aping Amy Shumer.

The Fall Guy
After his Oscar-nominated performance in Barbie, I was hoping for a really special project for Ryan Gosling to sink his teeth into; unfortunately, 2024's The Fall Guy, a big budget re-imagining of the 1980's action series with Lee Majors. just isn't it.

Gosling plays a Hollywood stuntman named Colt Seavers, who is working as the stunt double for an action star named Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his current crush, Jody (Emily Blunt) is a camera operator. A dangerous stunt on the film breaks Colt's back and puts him out of commission for 18 months. He is then contacted by a producer (Hannah Waddingham) who sends him to do stunt work on a movie without telling him that Jody is the director. In the middle of Colt and Jody trying to co-exist on the set of this film, Tom turns up missing and Colt has to find him before Jody has to replace him in the movie.

The messy screenplay was co-written by Glen A Larson, who produced the original television series and Drew Pearce, who wrote Iron Man 3 that rambles across the screen raising constant questions along the way. The first one was when Colt arrived on Jody's movie set and he was met with instant hostility. Once Colt receives his assignment, instead of seeking the assistance of a professional, who does he get? The stunt coordinator on the movie! Was never sure how the search for Ryder led all the way to Australia and the 11:00 big plot twist was corny and predictable.

Don't get me wrong...this movie does provide entertainment, per the expected CGI technology, car crashes and explosions as it should since its basically a movie within a movie that provides a nice look into a lot of movie-making techniques like the Peter O'Toole movie The Stunt Man, but the story takes way too long too long to unfold and is about 45 minutes too long. One thing I did like about the movie is that, unlike the TV series, this movie never forgets that Colt is a stuntman. He makes a lot of dumb moves that a cop, or a detective, or a spy wouldn't dream of making, keeping the character human and vulnerable for the most part. The over the top finale will be catnip for that cherished 18-34 demographic. This movie is going to make some money, but high art?

Gosling works very hard at making this seem like something more substantial than a popcorn movie and Emily Blunt seems to be phoning it in as Jody. Hannah Waddingham, hidden under a hideous brunette wig is a bit much as the producer, but I did like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) makes the most of a thankless role, but this is is basically another one of those movies that is a pretty gift wrapped package with nothing inside.

Paris, Texas
The late Harry Dean Stanton spent decades in Hollywood providing solid work in supporting roles, but in 1984, he was finally given a chance to step center stage and crushed it with his performance in Paris, Texas, an enigmatic and moody character study of family, redemption, and forgiveness that is alternately riveting and cringe-worthy from opening to closing credits.

Stanton plays Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter whose family haven't seen him for four years. Travis is found wandering a Texas desert and passes out in a diner, where he is taken to a local clinic, where his ID leads the doctor to contact Travis' brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), who flies across the country to retrieve his brother so that he can possibly rebuild a relationship with his son, who Walt and his wife have been raising for the past four years.

The pedigree of this film is kind of odd. Even though it was filmed in the United States with American actors, the film is a French and West German production and directed by three time Oscar nominated directed Wim Wenders, who is probably best known for directing Wings of Desire, but there seems to be a Ingmar Bergman influence here in the extremely delicate establishing of the canvas and taking its time to tell this story and providing us with precious little backstory or exposition, though we do get backstory later.

Wenders immediately establishes audience discomfort by putting Travis in the middle of a desert appearing to be lost and provides further cringe when Walt finds his brother and Travis refuses to speak. Like a similar scene in Best Picture winner Rain Man, Travis refuses to get on a plane with his brother, forcing them into a road trip where Walt has to wait a long time for his brother to speak. We suspect that Travis has lost his memory or that he might be autistic, but a little before the halfway mark, Travis does inform us that he bought some land in Texas and wants Walt to see it. Travis attempting to bond with the son he is reunited with burns with tension and we're a little taken aback when Travis reveals a single-minded mission that initiates another road trip.

This Travis Henderson character is so mesmerizing in its mystery. By the time credits roll, we understand Travis a lot better than we did in the opening scenes, but it's never really made clear why he initially refuses to speak to Walt and we understand more as we watch Travis watch home movies of him and his family, which seems to trigger his mission to reunite his family, which leads to another squirm worthy place where hope is provided, but there's no fairytale ending here.

Wim Wender's direction provides a film that is a visual feast (robbed of a cinematography Oscar) in constant conflict with an often ugly and uncomfortable story. Harry Dean Stanton was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his understated and agonized Travis and Stockwell also offers one of his best performances as Walt. Hunter Carson, who plays Travis' son, is the real life son of co-screenwriter LM Kit Carson and the late Karen Black. A must for Stanton and Wenders fans...this one really haunted me.

Celeste and Jesse Forever
The rich performances by Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg in the title roles definitely raise the bar on a standard romantic comedy from 2012 called Celeste and Jesse Forever and make it worth a look.

Celeste is a hard working marketing executive and Jesse is a lazy, daydreaming artist who is not working very hard at anything. Celeste and Jesse were married and have been legally separated for six months, but despite that, they are still the best of friends who spend every moment together. Jesse even still resides in the studio behind the apartment where he and Celeste lived as a married couple. Friends and co-workers think it's weird that the pair get along better now than when they were married, but Celeste and Jesse don't see anything wrong with it until two events change everything: One, Celeste and Jesse have a drunken one night stand and two, Jesse gets another girl pregnant.

Jones actually co-wrote this screenplay with Will McCormack, who also appears in the film as Celeste and Jesse's friend Skillz, that has a real When Harry Met Sally quality to it. This two are such soulmates which is made apparent five minutes into the movie as we watch them in a car singing to a song on the radio. They seem so right together that we are actually shocked to learn that they are divorced. It is eventually revealed that Celeste was tired of being the husband in the relationship and was tired of waiting for Jesse to put his big boy pants on, but the love they have for each other is clear as crystal, as is the fact that Jesse is probably never going to change.

Jones and Samberg create a magical chemistry that keeps the viewer invested in these kind of sad and flawed people who are fighting what's right in front of them. Jones is spectacular in the scene where Samberg tells her that he's going to become a father with someone else. Her shock and sadness are all over her face as she runs to the bathroom to make sure she's not crying. Or watch Jesse, a couple of months away from becoming a father to someone else, waiting for Celeste to come home so that he can tell her he misses her. This is a romantic dance that, at times, makes the viewer want to pull their hair out.

Lee Toland Krieger's direction is just intrusive enough to make us wonder where this is going, because we get no clues regarding a happy ending. The solid supporting cast includes Chris Messina, Elijah Wood, Emma Roberts, Erich Cristian Olsen, and Ari Graynor, but Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg are the ones who really make you care about Celeste and Jesse and whether or not they really are forever.

Once again, I saw Paris Texas last week or so, and I have it the same rating.

Mean Girls (2024)
I had been avoiding the 2024 version of Mean Girls ever since I learned of its existence because I think the 2004 film is pretty much flawless and was pretty sure that a remake would dull its luster. As I finally broke down today and gave the film a shot, I discovered that this film is not a remake of the 2004 film at all.

Fourteen years after the release of the original film starring Lindsey Lohan, the piece was turned into a Broadway musical that premiered on April 8, 2018 and ran for over 800 performances which is a respectable run, but not enough for Hollywood to go into a major battle over the film rights. It wasn't until Janice and Damian began their opening number that I realized that this was a musical. Just as they did when Sweeney Todd was brought to the screen with Johnny Depp back in 2007, the trailers completely disguised the fact that this is a musical. When the musical filmmakers feel they have to market the film by concealing it's a musical, that is never a good sign.

The story is basically the same as it was back in 2004. Cady Heron attempts to fit in during her first year at high school and ends up being torn between genuine friends Janice and Damian and the cool girl clique, the Plastics, led by the bitch Regina George and trying to steal Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels. Needless to say, story has to be trimmed in order to make room for the musical numbers leaving the story a little messy and hard to follow. Questionable casting of leading characters is also a problem here. Angourie Rice, who was so wonderful several years ago as Ryan Gosling's daughter in The Nice Guys, is just lifeless here and doesn't make us care about Cady at all. Bebe Wood and Aventika redefine annoying as the other two Plastics, but I have to admit I found Renee Rapp quite riveting as the nasty Regina George as was Auli'i Cravalho, who provided the lead voice in Moana, as Janice.

The score by Jeff Richmond and Neil Benjamin is nothing special, though I did enjoy Janice and Damian's opening "Cautionary Tale", Karen's production number at the Halloween party "Sexy", and Janice's finale "I'd Rather Be Me."

Tina Fey was actually allowed to collaborate on her original screenplay with Rosalind Wiseman, which actually gets watered down to the point of muddiness here. Fey also gets to recreate her original onscreen role as Ms Norbury as does Tim Meadows as the Principal. Busy Phillips redefines annoying as Regina's mother and Jon Hamm makes the most of a tiny and pointless role as a teacher. And yes, Lindsey Lohan does make the expected cameo appearance as the Mathletes Moderator. It didn't ruin the original film for me, but I definitely feel like I didn't miss anything when I didn't see the stage musical.

Down to Earth (2001)
Loves me some Chris Rock, but he really missed the boat when he tried his own take on some very familiar cinematic territory with 2001's Down To Earth.

Rock plays Lance Barton, a bike messenger and aspiring stand-up who is looking forward to participating in a contest at the Apollo before they close their doors forever. Unfortunately, before the contest takes place, Lance is hit by a truck and dies. We see Lance arrive at the pearly gates and learn that he was taken prematurely and informed that he can return to life in a different body that is already dead but he has to take possession of the body before anyone discovers it. Lance finds a temporary home in the body of a ruthless billionaire named Charles Wellington, who has been murdered by his wife and his private secretary.

If this premise sounds familiar it should. The first version of this story came to the screen way back in 1941 in a film called Here Comes Mr. Jordan, where the protagonist wants to be a professional boxer. The film was remade in 1978 by Warren Beatty and retitled Heaven Can Wait where the principal character wants to become a pro football player. This version of the story received 9 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture The film was written by Warren Beatty and Elaine May, who actually receive onscreen credit for this film, though I don't know why they would want to claim association with this film. The really messy and illogical screenplay for this film was a collaboration of Rock, Ali LeRoi, the head writer for Everybody Hates Chris, and Louis CK.

In a nutshell, this story just doesn't work with the soul of a 30 year old black man entering the body of a 60 year old white guy. Once Lance enters Wellington's body, all story credibility goes out the window as Lance makes absolutely no attempt to act like a 60 year old white man and not a single character in the movie questions the changes in Wellington. The scenes where Lance holds a press conference regarding the hospital Wellington was planning to shut down and the scene in the comedy club where he actually tells jokes to a black audience that, as a white man, should have gotten him killed, are borderline offensive. One thing I did like that the 1978 film didn't do was we would get occasional glimpses of the original Wellington with Rock's voice coming out of him, which actually reminds us how ridiculous the whole premise is with a black man entering a white man's body.

Rock tries to make us believe what's going on here, but he never really does. Ironically, he does create chemistry with Oscar winner Regina King as his love interest, but in context of the movie, the romance just doesn't make sense. Jennifer Coolidge and Greg Germann are very funny as the duplicitous wife and secretary though. Chazz Palminterii is fun as this film's version of Mr Jordan and Wanda Sykes steals every scene she's in as Wellington's maid, but this film is rife with enough political incorrectness that I'm not sure it could even be made today.

Love Lies Bleeding
Thelma and Louise meets Bound in 2024's Love Lies Bleeding, a stylish and gritty crime thriller that provides consistent surprises along the way and had this reviewer talking back at the screen.

Lou is a gym manager who makes extra money selling steroids to her patrons. She also has serious daddy issues, who owns an operates a gun rang nearby. Jackie is a body builder who is passing through town on her way to a body building competition in Vegas, but she is delayed when she begins a steamy affair with Lou. Jackie convinces Lou to accompany her to Vegas because she wants Lou to see her win, but a tragedy involving Lou's family might tear them apart permanently as they go into self-preservation mode.

Director and co-screenwriter has crafted a story that starts off as an almost erotic love story between two women, making the viewer think we're getting a story of star-crossed female lovers, but the story makes a complete 180 as the women are neck deep into something that could put them behind bars for a long time, but there's nothing predictable or safe here. No one in Lou and Jackie's orbit is to be trusted. Once they decide not to go to Vegas, all bets are off as to exactly where this story is headed.

The viewer is initially confused when the girls don't just take off to Vegas together and are confused when Jackie actually makes it to Vegas, but it is no guarantee of her safety from the horrific crime that she and Lou are involved in. The motivations of other characters in the movie, including Lou's father, seem to change from scene to scene and it's not long before we realize that Lou and Jackie can't trust anyone. The story keeps tearing them apart and shoving them back together, but with no guarantee of an outcome except for the fact that we want to see them come out of this alive and together. The uncompromising reality of what we've been drawn into is interrupted with a couple of dips into illogical fantasy, but it's not enough to take us completely out of the dirt we've seen up to that point.

Kristen Stewart completely invests in the complex Lou and Katy O'Brien is a revelation as Jackie. Mention should also be made of Dave Franco as the slimeball JJ and the always reliable Ed Harris as Lou's father, a role in which I kept picturing Christopher Walken. If you've got the stomach for it, this is, for the most part, unapologetic and dangerous moviemaking.

The Trouble with Girls
It is not only the nadir of Elvis Presley's hit and miss movie career, but 1969's The Trouble with Girls just might be one of the worst films I have ever seen and am wondering what the hell Elvis was thinking.

Set during the roaring 20's, Elvis plays Walter Hale, the manager of a traveling carnival troupe called The Chatauqua that arrives in a small town to hold auditions for a talent show, that is the springboard for multiple storylines including a smarmy local storekeeper who can't keep his hands off a single mother, whose daughter wants to be in the show. Walter's talent scout, who apparently is fighting some sort of attraction to Hale, and a poker game occurring on the outskirts of town that somehow has resulted in a murder.

First of all, don't be misled by the title...this film has absolutely nothing to do with Elvis' magic with the ladies and how they fawn all over him. Yes, there are various female characters that are part of this bizarre screenplay, but most of them are kept at arm’s length of our hero. Second, the other thing that made this film a strain for viewers, is that there's just not enough of Elvis. Elvis only appears in about one third of the movie and he doesn't sing until thirty-one minutes into the running time and only sings one more song after that. I have to wonder if Elvis agreed to do this movie without reading the script because I don't understand why he would accept a role where he is basically playing emcee to a bunch of talented character actors in tiny, thankless roles. Not only does Elvis appear to be phoning it in here, there are several moments throughout where he seems to be working very hard at not breaking character and not always succeeding.

This movie is like a Fred and Ginger movie where they don't dance or a Judy Garland movie where she doesn't sing. When we watch an Elvis film, there are certain things we expect...lots of songs, lots of pretty girls, and our hero front and center singing a song every fifteen minutes, but we don't get that here, making this film a very long, very boring experience.

Peter Tewksbury's unimaginative direction doesn't offer much help. including some really headache-inducing film editing. Familiar faces do pop up in Elvis' supporting cast though. Marlyn Mason, one of the busiest actresses of the 1960's and 70's. is, sadly, like nails on a chalkboard here and the usually reliable Sheree North has to work extra hard to keep our attention. The recently deceased Dabney Coleman had one of his earliest smarmy roles as the storekeeper and veteran Edward Andrews is fun as Walter's partner. There are also appearances from two child stars from the era, one at the beginning of her career (Susan Olsen, who became Cindy on The Brady Bunch) the same year, and one near the end, Anissa Jones of Family Affair who would overdose on drugs seven years after this film. Even hardcore Elvis fans are going to find getting through this one agonizing.

The Great Lillian Hall
A fragile and heartbreaking performance by two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange is at the heart of an enchanting drama called The Great Lillian Hall, which had this reviewer fighting tears for the majority of the running time.

Lange plays the title role in this HBO original, a legendary Broadway actress who has been treading the boards for decades, never dropped a line, and never missed a performance. Lillian has just begun rehearsals for a revival of The Cherry Orchard and a few weeks into rehearsals, starts having trouble remembering her lines. She pretends it's nothing in front of the company. but quietly goes to see a doctor and learns that she is developing dementia. Not wanting to give up the show, Lillian attempts to continue rehearsals without telling anyone about her diagnosis, which eventually leads to the producer postponing the previews.

The screenplay by Elisabeth Seldes Annacone is loosely based on the screenwriter's real life Aunt, Broadway legend Marian Seldes, who is perhaps best known for creating the role of Myra Bruhl in the original Broadway production of Deathtrap. This film beautifully brings the spirit of live theater to the screen, featuring some inspiration from film and theater classics like All About Eve, The Country Girl, and A Streetcar Named Desire. As a matter of fact the relationship between Lillian and her assistant reminded me a lot of the relationship between Margo Channing and Birdie Coonan in All About Eve. Lillian's assistant is actually given an exact line that Thelma Ritter had in All About Eve, and Lillian gets to lift a couple of lines from Blanche DuBois, a role Lange actually revived on Broadway during the 1990's.

In addition to Lange's rich work in the title role, we are also lucky to have her assistant played by her American Horror Story co-star, Kathy Bates, who works with Lange like a well-oiled machine. One of the strongest scenes in the movie is when Bates finds out about Lillian's diagnosis and blows up at her because she didn't tell her Another American Horror Story castmate, Lily Rabe, does some impressive work as Lillian's daughter, who always felt she took second place in her mother's heart, followed by her career. Loved the scene where Lillian first drops a line and comes up with seven instant excuses as to why and the scene where she gets in a cab and has to look at her driver's license to tell him where she's going.

Director Michael Cristofer, whose work has primary been in television, provides nuanced and sensitive direction to the proceedings and gets a performance out of Lange that could add another Emmy to her trophy case, Bates as well. Also have to give a shout out to former Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams as the sensitive and charming director of the production. For Lange and Bates fans, appointment television.

Moneyball
A ferocious, Oscar-nominated performance by Brad Pitt anchors a riveting, fact-based 2011 sports drama called Moneyball, placed in the world of professional baseball, but is really a character study of a real life icon in the business and his mastery of the business behind baseball.

Before getting into specifics, a couple of things I should clarify, especially for anyone new to my review thread. First of all, you couldn't fill a thimble with what I know about sports, but I LOVE movies about sports. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I attempted to watch this movie a few years ago and turned it off after about 15-20 minutes. But like the similar experiences I had with Gravity and The Social Network, the film grabbed me this time and boy did it hold on tightly.

Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's who is tasked with rebuilding the losing baseball team. He initially thinks the problem is money that's keeping him from purchasing the talent he thinks he needs. When it becomes clear that Billy is getting no assistance from the front office, he goes out and poaches Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) a player consultant with the Cleveland Indians, who doesn't have a lot of baseball knowledge but knows a lot about economics and statistics,

The screenplay by Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin scores points for painting Billy Beane in fascinating, if not very flattering light. As he is presented here, Beane is seriously passionate about his job and what is best for the team. Unfortunately, what he thinks is best for the team isn't always best for the players themselves and he doesn't really seem to care. Beane is seen building a concrete wall between himself and the players that he claims makes it easier for him to trade players when necessary. My jaw dropped at about the halfway point of the film where Billy revealed to Peter he doesn't actually watch the games. There's a great scene where Billy makes Peter rehearse having to tell a player that he is being traded and about ten minutes later in the film, Peter actually has to do it. We also meet Billy's ex-wife (Robin Wright) and his daughter (Kerris Dorsey), who were obviously casualties in Billy's obsession with his job, but they have come to be able to survive amicably in the same orbit.

Pitt is the real story here, completely sinking his teeth into a character who does a lot of wrong for all the right reasons. Love that scene in the locker room where he catches a player dancing after a loss. On the positive of Billy Beane, I did love of his fierce defense of Peter, whose hiring Beane apparently took a lot of flack for. I also like that after hiring Peter, Billy actually listened to what he said and trusted that he hired this guy for a reason and that he knows what he's talking about.

Director Bennett Miller, who directed the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman to an Oscar in Capote, employs first rate production values and rich motivations for the characters for most of this cinematic canvas. In addition to Pitt's Best Actor nomination, the film received five other nominations including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Hill, and for Adapted screenplay. The supporting cast shines, with standout work from Chris Pratt as Scottie Hatteberg, Hoffman as Art Howe, Glenn Morshower as Ron Hopkins, Reed Diamond as Mark Shapiro, and Stephen Bishop as David Justice. The movie runs over two hours, but I didn't even feel the length. Everything works here, especially Pitt, who once again, documents that he is more than a pretty face.

Wish
Disney's 2023 film Wish is an animated adventure mounted in the form of a Broadway musical, that, despite some interesting characters, a handful of fun songs, and some first rate voice works, falters do a confusing story that this reviewer was unable to get a complete handle on.

The story takes places in a mythical place called Rosas, where we meet a teenage girl named Asha who is being interviewed for a job as an apprentice to Magnifico, Rosas' king who is a wizard and apparently has complete control of all the wishes of every citizen of his kingdom. He keeps all the wishes in his palace and there are inside bubbles and Magnifico decides, at his leisure, which wishes are going to be granted and which won't. Asha errs during the interview and asks for a wish by her 100 year old relative to be granted. When Magnifico refuses and banishes Asha from the castle, she eventually makes a wish on a star that actually comes down to earth and promises to help Asha get all of Rosas' wishes away from Magnifico.

It might have been nice if director and co-screenwriter had put a little more effort into a comprehensible screenplay because I just couldn't figure out what was going on here. What's the deal with a kingdom where all the people give their wishes to the king amd he keeps them and decides which ones will be granted and which wont? Even more confusing was when it was revealed that the citizens don't know what the wishes are. How do they give up wishes not knowing what they are and why should they care so much about them not knowing what. Magnifico's all-consuming power is then suddenly by a single star falling out of the sky that gives all the non-human characters in the movie voices but doesn't speak himself.

On he positive side, the characters have some individuality to them that I didn't see coming, especially the villain, Magnifico. I found every moment this character (brilliantly voiced by Chris Pine) had onscreen riveting because he wasn't straight up evil for the most of the story. He had a smarmy quality that reminded me of the late Dabney Coleman. He didn't motivate outright hostility from this reviewer, but I did want to punch him in the face.

The songs written by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice served the story, a couple of them having a real Lin Manuel-Miranda quality to them. Highlights for me were "At All Costs", "Knowing what I Know", and the huge production number where all the non-human characters come to life called "I'm a Star."

The film is gorgeous to look at and, in addition to Pine, there is standout voicework from Oscar winner Ariana DuBose as Asha, Angelique Cabral as Amaya, and Alan Tudyk as Valentino, but I never felt like I had a clear grasp on exactly what was going on here.

Mona Lisa
The late Bob Hoskins, an actor who rarely, if ever, made a false move onscreen, received the only Oscar nomination of his esteemed career for his performance in 1986's Mona Lisa, a gritty and unapologetic love story set on a disturbingly original canvas that doesn't spoon feed the viewer and allows us our own insights on exactly what might be going on here.

The setting is London's lower West End where we meet George (Hoskins), a man who has just been released from prison after seven years who, after an unpleasant reunion with his ex-wife and daughter, goes to the underworld figure who had a hand in his going to prison for help in securing employment. George is less than thrilled when the only job he is offered is working as a chauffeur to a high class call girl, who seems just as unenthused about his hiring as he is, but as his attraction to her becomes apparent, she decides to use it in order to help her locate someone from her not so recent past.

Neil Jordan, who would win an original screenplay Oscar for The Crying Game, is the director and co-screenwriter of this edgy and unconventional love story that establishes its credentials in an original and efficient manner. Of course, we have a story set across the pond, but we're placed in London's red light district, a canvas that provides an eye opening look at a subculture that hasn't been explored in a lot of British films. Jordan also forces his central character back into this frightening world with the frightening and heartbreaking fight he has with his ex and daughter and we are relieved when it appears that his daughter still wants a relationship with him, but once George begins his new job with Simone the call girl, we seriously wonder if these two can ever be a real father and daughter again.

Jordan and co-screenwriter David Leland also do a nice job in establishing a three-dimensional character in this call girl, Simone, who is far from the accustomed cinematic hooker with a heart of gold. It is made clear from the beginning that this girl is the property of someone with a whole lot of power and money who has plucked her off the streets where she was just another hooker and has taught her how to be someone in her profession who is possibly unattainable but worth the money. Love when she makes it clear to George that he is going to have to clean up his act if he's going to work for her and she actually gives him money to buy clothes, sort of a role reversal Henry Higgins/Eliza Doolittle thing.

The story gets hopelessly complicated though when finding the girl for Simone puts George into all sorts of danger without realizing for a good chunk of the running time who is behind all of the danger he is in. The viewer must accept the fact that George is willing to walk through fire for Simone, who is definitely using the man, but George doesn't realize it or doesn't care.

Hoskins' Oscar-nominated performance is an acting class all in itself and the chemistry he creates with Cathy Tyson (whatever happened to her?) is inexplicable and anchors this uncomfortable story. Also loved Michael Caine, playing a character who morphs into the most evil character Caine has ever played A cinematic love story that almost gets mangled beyond recognition and doesn't promise a happy ending.

IF
After his triumph a few years ago with A Quiet Place, I expected a lot more from director and screenwriter John Krasinski than 2024's IF, an impressive technical achievement that is buried under a convoluted and confusing story that takes an interminable journey to what we were supposed to believe was a foregone conclusion.

Bea is a vivacious and intelligent 12 year old who recently lost her mother and is now freaking out because her father is now ill and has to have surgery. Right before Dad's surgery, Bea is confronted by Blue (voiced by Steve Carell) and Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who seem to be under the control of Cal (Ryan Reynolds) who reveals that Blue and Blossom are imaginary friends who are lost because their kids are now grown, which leads Bea on a journey to Coney Island, where she finds an institution full of imaginary friends and is asked to assist in finding them new places to inhabit.

Director and screenwriter Krasinski (who also appears onscreen as Bea's dad) has a nice basic premise here...what happens to children's imaginary friends after they grow up. However, we're confused that these IF's approach a child. Initially, it seems like they want to distract her regarding her father's surgery, but that doesn't turn out to be the case when Cal, Blue, and Blossom invite Bea back to IF headquarters and ask for her assistance in finding an imaginary friend for a little boy in the hospital with two broken limbs but that plot point doesn't pan out either. Eventually we do get to see Blue reunite with his kid, who is now an adult (Bobby Moynihan), but we're wondering why we had to wait until the final third of the film for this to happen. we're also wondering why Cal is fighting everything that is happening throughout the story.

Krasinski puts a lot of imagination into the physicality of the IF's...they are animal, vegetable, and mineral and are presented in imaginative fashion. It was fun seeing a small group of them presented in the form of an AA meeting and the auditions for the little boy in the hospital are funny, but there's no rhyme nor reason to the events that make up the story and they take so long to get where they finally go, but by this time, we just don't care, including a sequence with Bea's grandmother that almost brings the film to a screeching halt. .

Krasinski puts a lot into the look of the film. It's a feast for the eyes and ears and there is some impressive voice work bringing the IF's to life, especially Krasinski's wife Emily Blunt as a unicorn, George Clooney as the Spaceman, Bill Hader as a banana, Bradley Cooper as an ice cube in a glass, Sebastian Maniscalco as the Magician Mouse, and the late Louis Gossett Jr. as Lewis, but this story is just a little all over the place to keep the viewer engaged.

The War Between Men and Women
The humor and cartoons of the legendary James Thurber are at the heart of a plesant if unremarkable cinematic battle of the sexes called The War Between Men and Women.

The 1972 satire stars Jack Lemmon as Peter Wilson, a fictinalized version of Thurber, a nearsighted confirmed bachelor who keeps women, children, dogs, and anything resembling commitment at arm's length untl he meets Terry Kozlenko, a sweet-natured divorcee with three children who somehow manages to get under Peter's skin and gets him to put a ring on it.

Director and co-screenwriter Melville Shavelson, who directed a lot of Bob Hope and Danny Kaye comedies. collaborated on the screenplay with Thurber and Danny Arnold, which attempts to interweave this unconventional love story with Thurber's writing and animation, though iI'm not sure how smooth the mix is, making the journey for the two prinicipals a lot longer than it needs to be and the consistent complaining by various characters about the way Thurber draws his female characters doesn't really do anything but make the film longer than it need be.

The live action romance does work for the most part, thanks to gifted farceurs like Lemmon and Harris who play beautifully off of each other They also get a strong assist from the always reliable Jason Robnards playing Terry's long lost ex who shows up at Peter and Terry's wedding just in time to stir the pot. Peter adjusting to be a stepfather provides scattered laughs as well, even if he is a little hard on the kids at first. Was especially impressed with the relationship Peter develops with Terry's son (Moosie Drier), who is afraid of everything.
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Terry's daughters are played by a very young Lisa Eilbacher, who would grow up to star with Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman and with Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop and Lisa Gerritsen, who not only played CLoris Leachman's daughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show but also played William Windom's daughter on the James Thurber inspired sitcom My World and Welcome To It, but Lemmon, Harris, and Robards keep this one humming, even if it gets a little heavy-handed toward the end, fans of the stars and Thurber wll want to take a look.

Brats
Andrew McCarthy, who burst onto the Hollywood scene with films like Class, St Elmo's Fire and Pretty in Pink, is the director and writer of a 2024 documentary called Brats, which is allegedly an in depth look at the young group of actors during the 1980's who became labeled "the Brat Pack", but what we get here is a pretentious, angry, and pointless 90 minute therapy session for McCarthy, trying to blame this label for the slow fade of his career and his inability to get others in his orbit at the time to validate his feelings.

First of all, it was important to establish what actors were actually part of the Brat Pack, but for some reason, this subject isn't tackled until two thirds of the way into the documentary. It is finally determined that the real members were McCarthy, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and of course, Emilio Estevez. The title was bestowed on this group after a scathing article was published in New York magazine on June 10, 1985 by David Blum which basically called the actors spoiled, not really interested in their careers, but obsessed with being famous and partying. It was also determined that Tom Cruise, Jon Cryer, Sean Penn, Lea Thompson, and Oscar winner Timothy Hutton were all, as Thompson put it, "Brat Pack Adjacent", but not actually in the pack.

The distance put between McCarthy and the viewer is uncomfortable from jump, deliberately created by McCarthy. Not sure whether it was to keep the audience from seeing how pointless this all is, or an artsy directing technique, but this reviewer found it cringe-worthy that neither McCarthy nor anyone else in the documentary ever looks directly at the camera. It's almost like McCarthy knows what is happening here is deeply personal and how likely it is that no one is really going to care. There's a very telling moment near the final third of the film where McCarthy stops at a fast food restaurant for something to drink and the worker serving him (not seen on camera, only heard) asks what McCarthy is filming and when he mentions the Brat Pack, the person says, "I think I've heard of them." Needless to say, the worker did not recognize McCarthy.

McCarthy is eventually able to connect with fellow members Estevez, Moore, Sheedy, and Lowe, but these people, though admitting that the label might have been troubling at the time, they have gotten over it and moved on with their lives, unlike McCarthy. He made every attempt to get these actors angry and over to his way of thinking but it never really happens. The silliness of what McCarthy is trying to do here is further documented by the fact that both Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson refused to appear in the film.

My feelings about exactly what was going on here were brought home near the end of the film when McCarthy sat down with David Blum, the writer who wrote the article that caused the firestorm and pulled out every trick he could think of to get the guy to admit that the article was wrong, that he shouldn't have written it, or at least should have some remorse about it now, but I wanted to cheer as Blum refused to do any of that and basically told McCarthy to get over it. Which is exactly how I felt when the movie was over. Get over, it Andrew.

Hard Eight
Before his direct bullseyes with Boogie Nights and Magnolia. director and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson had a near bullseye with a sometimes chilling crime drama called Hard Eight that definitely proves Anderson was a filmmaker to watch.

The 1996 film takes place in Vegas where we meet Sidney (Phillip Baker Hall), a professional gambler who meets a not so professional gambler named John (John C Reilly) sitting outside a diner and offers to buy him a cup of coffee. For some reason, Sidney offers to loan John $50, take him to a casino and teach him how he can turn that $50 into a hotel room and a meal. John listens to everything Sidney tells him and acquires a tidy little bankroll for himself. Sidney and John begin to form a tentative friendship that is complicated by cocktail waitress named Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow) who gets the guys in the middle of a very messy situation.

Anderson's screenplay is initially a little vague because we don't understand why Sidney would want to help teach this stranger how to make money, but we also know there's some backstory regarding Sidney that's being hidden from us. We don't understand why he's helping a stranger make money or why he's keeping a very low profile in the casino. We just know this guy is hiding something, but Anderson doesn't tell us a thing. As our imaginations run rampant, we do notice that the guy is definitely in possession of a moral compass and has a great deal of respect for the fairer sex. There's a wonderful moment where Sidney gets furious because someone uses the word "pussy" within Clementine's earshot.

Until the halfway point of the film, we think we're getting sort of a dual character study as we watch this relationship between two virtual strangers develop but still unsure of where it's going...we're not sure if Sidney is setting up John for something because the way he approaches John at the beginning of the film doesn't make sense. But things start to come into focus at the halfway point when it is revealed that, among other things, both Sidney and John have history with Clementine that occurred before this film.

Anderson's direction is atmospheric, staying away from the glitz and glamour associated with Vegas and focusing more on its underbelly. His camera work is superb, with a couple of superb tracking shots. Phillip Baker Hall is Oscar worthy in a performance that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and John C Reilly is solid, as always, as John. Paltrow is a little one note as Clementine, but Samuel L Jackson is a lot of fun as Jimmy and there is a pointless cameo by Anderson rep company member Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It's not grade A Anderson but it's better than Licorice Pizza.

White Bird
Fans of The Diary of Anne Frank will definitely have a head start with 2023's White Bird, a breathtaking take on an ugly disturbing time in world history that makes a time that threatened millions extremely personal and provides lessons on the consequences of hate and random acts of kindness.

I love the false start of the first film. We meet a young man named Julien who has just begun school at a new prep school. We learn later that he had been expelled from his previous school but we don't why it appears he thinks what happened was unfair or unjustified. Julien comes home from school and is reunited with his grandmother, Sara (Oscar winner Helen Mirren, nailing a French accent), who, without saying it, reveals that Julien's expulsion was justified and tries to explain to him why through telling him about her heartbreaking and dangerous teenage years growing up in Nazi occupied France.

Sara reveals that she is one of the few students at her school who shows any kindness to a crippled student named Julien and Julien doesn't forget this, because when the Nazis arrive at the school one day to take away all of the Jewish children, Sara somehow manages to escape capture, but still has nowhere to go until Julian offers her refuge in her parents' barn where she is forced to hide for over a year.

Mark Bomback's screenplay, based on a book by RJ Palacio, is not technically a factual story but characters and certain storylines are are fictionalized versions of real people involved during this awful period of world history. What I loved about the way the story that's presented here is its intimacy, the fact that the story really only focuses on a handful of characters, making it easier for us to empathize and the slow burn of the events...it starts with Sara's mother losing her job and by the end of the movie, Nazis are literally hunting down and killing any and all Jews for no other reason than their existence.

I also loved the way there were certain things that happen in one part of the film that we don't understand at the time, but they come into play later. There's a scene early on where Sara's father warns her to keep her winter boots but she takes them off when she gets to school, which turns out to be a big mistake. Or when Julien is visiting the school and takes it upon himself to steal back Sara's sketchbook when he sees it in the principal's office. The film is rich with scenes that had me holding my breath or on the edge of chair and tears. The scene where the children are rounded up at the school, that shoot out in the movie theater, that final chase with Sara with the soldier who she thought she had a crush on in school. Also loved the addition to the canvas of a Nazi soldier who definitely has conflicting feelings about what the Nazis are doing.

Marc Forster, whose other directorial credits include Monster's Ball and Finding Wonderland, might have created his masterpiece with this sweeping, visually stunning epic, beautifully photographed and some exemplary camerawork, not to mention some terrific performances especially Gillian Anderson as Julien's mother, Ariella Glaser as young Sara and especially Orlando Schwerdt, whose Oscar-worthy performance as young Julien is extraordinary and just about carries the movie. If you have the stomach for it, this is appointment movie viewing.

The End (1978)
The late Burt Reynolds scored a bullseye as the star and director of a slightly over the top black comedy called The End that provides pretty consistent laughs thanks to a smart screenplay, a terrifc support cast and one of Burt's richest performances.

The 1978 film finds Burt playing Sonny Lawson, a real estate agent who learns that he has a toxic blood disease and has about a year to live. Sonny decides he wants to control his impending death, so h decides to commit suicide via a bottle of sleeping pills. He then decides to tell his girlfriend, ex-wife, his daughter, and his attorney about his prognosis. His lawyer doesn't believe him, his ex-wife doesn't seem to care and he just can't bring himself to tell his daughter the truth. The suicide attempt fails and lands Sonny in a psychiatric hospital where he meets a fellow patient named Marlon who is more than willing to help Sonny end it all.

The screenplay is by veteran writer and producer Jerry Belson, whose writing credits include The Odd Couple and The Tracy Ullman Show and actually mines a lot of humor around the subject of suicide, but most of it is centered around the fact that even though Sonny keeps telling everyone he wants to kill himself, he really doesn't and a lot of the humor in the story involves us waiting to see how long it's going to take Sonny to figure this out.

There is a lot of nutty physical comedy here, that mostly involves Sonny and wingnut Marlon, played by Dom De Luise, who garners major laughs here. Though if the truth be told, the most pleasant surprise in this film isthe superb performance that director Reynolds gets out of actor Reynolds. I have rarely enjoyed Reynolds onscreen more a beautifully modulated performance that gets laughs but never goes over the top. For this reviewer, trhe best scene in the film is when Sonny tries to tell his daughter Julie (the fabulous Kristy McNichol) what's going on and he just can't get the words out. She knows something's wrong but can't put her fingeron it. This scene seriously had me fighting tears. I also loved the scene where Sonny is disappointed because girlfriend Mary Ellen didn't have an orgasm during their alleged final roll in the hay.

Sally Field is sexy and fun as Sonny's girlfriend, Mary Ellen and Joanne Woodward seems to really be enjoying herslef playing Sonny's ex-wife. Mention must also be made of a hilarious cameo by Robby Benson as a priest named Father Dave Benson, a scene which prompted my favorite line in the film: "Bless me, Dave, for I have sinned." Burt Reynolds did a lot of mediocre movies in his long career, but I really enjoyed this one.