[5] I was sick with bronchitis when I stumbled across this movie’s sequel, Daddy’s Home 2. And that movie succeeded in giving me a few chuckles and smiles when I was feeling down. So now that we’re all in quarantine during the big COVID19 pandemic, I’ve really been needing some good comedies. I decided to dig back and find Daddy’s Home 1. Well, Daddy’s Home …
[4] Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn star as a mother and daughter who get kidnapped while on vacation in Ecuador. While they try to find their way to the safety of the American consulate in Bogota, they reconcile many years of estrangement. The situation itself isn’t funny, but the reactions from Schumer and Hawn are supposed to be. I love both these ladies, but they …
[6] Scarlett Johansson and Jillian Bell lead an all-gal cast in this dark comedy about college friends who reunite for a wild party night that spirals out of control when they accidentally kill a male stripper. It was a little challenging to go along with the movie’s irreverent tone after the stripper dies, but once the ladies begin trying — and failing — to dispose …
[6] The children from It: Chapter One are all grown up when Chapter Two begins with an eye-witness sighting of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) finishing off the victim of a hate crime. Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) summons the group back to Derry, Maine, twenty-seven years after they first vanquished the evil clown creature in the caverns beneath the Derry Lake. But fear gets the better of one …
[8] Writer/director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) and co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns bring us back to the trenches of World War I with the harrowing journey of two British officers tasked with traversing enemy territory to deliver a message that will save 1,600 of their fellow soldiers from certain death — including one of the young men’s brothers. 1917 is compelling on two different levels, infusing …
[7] Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers, the famous host of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, a children’s program that ran on PBS for over thirty years. But this movie isn’t just about Fred Rogers. It’s also the true story of journalist Tom Junod (named Lloyd Vogel in the movie), and the life-affirming friendship he developed while interviewing Rogers for an article. In the beginning, Vogel (played admirably …
[8] If someone is going to pick up Louisa May Alcott’s much-loved literary classic, dust it off, and serve up a retelling, let it be the Oscar-nominated writer/director of Lady Bird. Greta Gerwig is respectably faithful to the material, but bold in her decision to dice the story up and deliver it in non-linear fashion. In Gerwig’s adaptation, we experience the aftermath of the March …
[8] I think one of the hardest stories to tell is a good murder mystery story. That’s why we see so few of them turned into movies. Rian Johnson’s (The Last Jedi, Looper) Knives Out is a beguiling blend of classic and farce, reminding me at times of both Clue and Murder on the Orient Express. Remarkably, its dark comedy never undercuts its dramatic tension. …
[8] I am not a fan of car racing. I couldn’t care less about it, really. But like so many other great sports movies, Ford v Ferrari isn’t really about the sport itself. It’s about the people engaged in the sport. And to that extent, director James Mangold (Logan, Walk the Line) hits a home run with this true story about two men who overcome …
[6] A young boy in Hitler’s youth army (Roman Griffin Davis) finds himself in a moral dilemma after discovering a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding in a secret space behind his bedroom wall. This film written for the screen and directed by Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Thor: Ragnarok) has an off-beat, surreal sense of humor that wears thin over time. It’s …
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