[7] A burglar evades police by taking a bickering couple hostage in their own home on Christmas Eve in this dark comedy from director Ted Demme (Blow, Beautiful Girls) and co-screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King). The Ref is nothing if not a casting coup. Stand-up comic Denis Leary headlines as the burglar, but the film is really much more of an ensemble piece than …
[3] Saturday Night Live‘s Mike Myers and Dana Carvey turn their recurring skit into a feature-length movie directed by Penelope Spheeris (Suburbia, The Boys Next Door). Rob Lowe co-stars as a television producer who gives the lads a chance to turn their irreverent public-broadcast show into a commercial TV sensation — if they can only bow to the demands of corporate sponsorship. I couldn’t wait …
[4] Chris Columbus (Adventures in Babysitting) directs this John Hughes production about an eight-year-old boy accidentally left at home while his family flies to Paris for the Christmas holiday. At first, the boy (Uncle Buck‘s Macaulay Culkin) enjoys his freedom, but when two burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) target the house, he must find the courage to fend them off. I get why Home …
[4] Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep make one of filmdom’s most curious pairings in She-Devil. The comedy from director Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan) is based on a novel by Fay Weldon, about a belittled housewife (Barr) who plots a years-long revenge on her husband (Ed Begley Jr.) and his wealthy mistress (Streep). The casting works, as does Seidelman’s colorful, dark fairy tale stylings and …
[4] Three furry aliens crash-land in Geena Davis’ swimming pool in the San Fernando Valley. After determining they mean no harm, Davis decides to have her pool drained so they can repair their ship and go home. But in the meantime, she asks her cosmetologist friend (Julie Brown) to shave them down to pass for human. As they party hard and spar with Davis’ lecherous …
[5] Rosanna Arquette stars as a bored New Jersey housewife who becomes infatuated with Susan (Madonna), a nomadic woman she’s never met who uses the newspaper personal ads to keep up with her boyfriend. When one of the ads mentions a time and place to meet up, Arquette spies on them and ends up being mistaken for Susan after hitting her head and getting amnesia. …
[6] Writer/director Colin Higgins (Harold & Maude, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) serves up an office space comedy starring national treasures Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton as three women who enact revenge on their sexist, egotistical boss (Dabney Coleman). The script works best in the early stages, when the women bond over their mutual misery. High points include their pot-smoking chill session …
[8] Hollywood often waters down characters and storylines to make them universally appealing. Filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson with Licorice Pizza, or David O. Russell with Joy and The Fighter, are challenging that notion with stories of tremendous specificity — specificity of character, location, obstacle, and endeavor — that find universal appeal without dilution. In pursuit of that specificity, Anderson casts two unknown actors as …
[5] Bill Murray stars in and co-directs (with screenwriter Howard Franklin) this comedy of errors about a trio of bank robbers who successfully pull off a heist, only to find themselves utterly jinxed in their escape from New York City. Geena Davis and Randy Quaid co-star as Murray’s co-conspirators, with Jason Robards playing the retiring police chief hot on their tails. Quick Change isn’t a …
[7] In this satiric dark comedy from director Adam McKay (Vice, The Big Short), Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence star as astronomers trying to warn the planet of an extinction-level comet headed straight for Earth. Meryl Streep plays a Trump-like narcissistic president who at first doesn’t want news of the comet to tank her presidency, but then ends up using the crisis to try and …
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