Jaws

I had a blast seeing Jaws, the original summer blockbuster, on the big screen in a packed theater at the Broadway yesterday.  It is back in theaters with a 4K restoration for a limited engagement in honor of its 50th Anniversary.  After several suspicious deaths happen in the waters around the island of Amity in New England, Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) believe it to be the work of a man-eating great white shark and want to close the beaches until it can be caught.  However, Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) fears that closing the beaches over the Fourth of July holiday will hurt the economy and refuses to allow it.  After another attack on a crowded beach, Vaughn agrees to hire an eccentric fisherman named Peter Quint (Robert Shaw) and both Brody and Hooper join him on his boat, the Orca, for a perilous hunt for the shark.  The fact that the audience rarely sees the shark but instead hears a menacing score by John Williams featuring the iconic alternating pattern of two notes adds to the unrelenting tension.  The scenes where the shark actually appears are terrifying as a result, especially when it comes up on the deck of the boat to attack Quint, and I admit that I jumped out of my seat multiple times (although the first time was when Hooper dives down to the wreckage of a boat that was attacked by the shark).  I haven't seen this in a really long time, probably decades, and the narrative is much more thought-provoking than I was expecting.  One of the themes that I really noticed is the clash between experience, as represented by Quint, and technology, as represented by Hooper, but I found it very interesting that Brody, the "everyman" character, is ultimately the one who is able to kill the shark (in a dramatic scene that elicited cheers from my audience).  This is such a great movie and I highly recommend seeing it as it was meant to be seen while it is back in theaters.

The Roses

The second movie in the double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was The Roses, another movie we were both looking forward to seeing.  Unfortunately, it was not at all what I was expecting and I found it very disappointing considering the talent of the two leads.  Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a successful and visionary architect and his wife Ivy (Olivia Colman) is a gifted chef who has put her career on hold to care for their children Hattie (Hala Finley) and Roy (Wells Rappaport).  Theo buys her a small restaurant so she can indulge her passion several times a week as he designs a maritime museum in the shape of a sailboat but an unexpected storm reverses their fortunes.  Theo's museum is destroyed, and his design is blamed, while stranded motorists, including an influential food critic, congregate at Ivy's restaurant.  He is fired and her restaurant is a huge success so she decides to work full-time while he cares for the children and indulges his passion by designing their dream home.  This role-reversal leads to dissatisfaction because he feels unappreciated and resents her success while she feels like she is missing out on family time with her children.  These simmering recriminations eventually lead to all-out war between the two of them.  This is definitely not as funny as I thought it would be (I didn't hear any laughter from my audience).  All of the humor is spoiled in the trailer and, even then, when we see these moments in the context of the movie, they do not seem as funny.  However, my biggest complaint is that it isn't dark enough.  I never felt like Theo and Ivy truly hated each other (Cumberbatch and Colman have too much chemistry as lovers and not enough as enemies) because the are always tearfully making up with each other and the final "war" is very rushed and underwhelming (I waited impatiently through the whole movie for the fireworks to finally start and then they were over in fifteen minutes).  The supporting characters do not add much to the proceedings (I have grown weary of Kate McKinnon's schtick as the sexually inappropriate friend and I am struggling to remember if Sunita Mani even had any lines as a sou chef in Ivy's restaurant).  The exception is Allison Janney because she steals the show with her five minutes of screen time as Ivy's aggressive divorce lawyer.  Ugh!  I love both Cumberbatch and Colman so it pains me to say that you should give this a miss.

Caught Stealing

Last night my nephew and I returned to the Broadway for another double feature.  We started with Caught Stealing, which is a movie that both of us were excited to see, and we really liked it!  Henry "Hank" Thompson (Austin Butler) is a former baseball phenom whose life and career were derailed by a car accident that took the life of his friend.  It is now 1998 and he is slumming as a bartender in New York City but still makes a point of cheering for the San Francisco Giants.  When his punk-rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to watch his cat Bud when he is forced to return home to London, his girlfriend Yvonne (Zoe Kravitz) convinces him to do it even though he doesn't like cats.  However, this brings him unwanted attention from two Russian mobsters (Yuri Kolokolnikov and Nikita Kukushkin), their Puerto Rican associate (Benito Martinez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny), and a narcotics detective (Regina King), who are all looking for the money Russ stole from two Hasidic drug dealers (Liev Schreiber and Vincent D'Onofrio) who are also looking for the money.  Hank is beaten, bruised, and chased all over New York but, when his friends and family are threatened, he must finally reconcile his past (and rescue Bud).  This thriller is a lot of fun with some humorous scenes involving a cat who bites, a perpetually annoyed neighbor (George Abud), a black and white cookie, a shabbos dinner (with Carol Kane), and the propitious use of a Giants hat but the tension keeps escalating with stakes that are much higher than I was expecting (the trailer is a bit misleading) because Hank has no idea what Russ has gotten him into or how to get himself out of the mess.  There are some fantastic action sequences, particularly several spectacular chases and car crashes, with epic needle drops (my favorite was "Rock You Like a Hurricane" by the Scorpions).  The ensemble cast is great, especially Schreiber and D'Onofrio who play the most unlikely villains, but Butler is very impressive in both the action scenes and the more poignant moments.  Darren Aronofsky is very hit or miss with me but I think this is probably his most entertaining movie and I highly recommend it.

Relay

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was Relay.  This is an old-fashioned thriller with a clever premise that kept me invested until the final twist and I really liked it.  Ash (Riz Ahmed) is a clandestine fixer who specializes in brokering deals between whistleblowers and corrupt corporations.  He is also a recovering alcoholic with complicated reasons for doing what he does. In order to maintain his anonymity, he communicates with his clients through a relay service used by the deaf and hard of hearing to make and receive phone calls because they have strict rules regarding confidentiality and do not keep records.  He goes to extreme lengths to keep himself and his clients safe by establishing elaborate rules and procedures and insists that they be followed explicitly.  He is contacted by Sarah Grant (Lily James), a woman in possession of documents implicating Cybo Semantis Research Institutes in a cover-up of the toxic side effects found in their genetically engineered wheat, because the company has been intimidating and harassing her ahead of a lucrative merger.  He helps her elude a team led by a man in the company's employ named Dawson (Sam Worthington) and arranges for a document handoff with the CEO but, when the plan goes awry, he breaks his own rule and contacts her directly to protect her.  The first half of this movie involves a slow and steady build-up involving surveillance, counter-surveillance, hidden cameras, disguises, and other elements of spycraft but it is strangely compelling because Ahmed gives such a gripping performance.  The action ramps up in the second half, including a suspenseful dead drop in the middle of Times Square and a tense chase sequence during a symphony performance, with lots of twists and turns to keep the audience guessing (I did predict a big twist early on but I was still surprised by the motivation for it).  I thoroughly enjoyed this and I recommend seeking it out as it is another movie that seems to be flying under the radar.

Honey Don't

Even though I was not a fan of Drive-Away Dolls (to put it mildly), I decided to see Honey Don't, the second in Ethan Coen's proposed lesbian trilogy, with my nephew as the first in a double feature at the Broadway last night.  Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this movie, either, and I will definitely not be seeing the third one.  Honey O'Donahue (Margaret Qualley) is a tough-as-nails private detective in Bakersfield, California who visits the scene of a fatal car crash after she discovers that the victim had scheduled an appointment with her for later that day.  She begins investigating and discovers that her death may not have been an accident.  Honey is a compelling character because she is a throwback to the famous private detectives in classic noir thrillers and Qualley does a good job embodying her world-weary, cynical, and stoic attitude but there is not much for her to do because the central mystery is so underdeveloped.  There are lots of fun and eccentric characters, including Drew Devlin (Chris Evans), a sleazy reverend who uses his church as a front for trafficking drugs, Chére (Lera Abrova), a fixer in town to keep Drew in line for his mysterious bosses, Marty Metakawich (Charlie Day), a police detective who propositions Honey every time he sees her despite the fact that she likes girls, MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), a troubled police officer involved with Honey, Heidi O'Donahue (Kristen Connolly), Honey's sister who struggles to keep her many children under control including her rebellious daughter Corinne (Talia Ryder), Honey and Heidi's estranged father (Kale Browne) who wants to reconnect with them, and Shuggie (Josh Pafcheck), Drew's incompetent henchman, but most of these characters are involved in random subplots that go nowhere.  The resolution is very abrupt and unexpected and the killer's motivation makes absolutely no sense.  Finally, there are many continuity errors and, even though this is a very minor point, they really bugged me.  Honestly, the only point of this movie seems to be to show as much gratuitous sex as possible.  I was really hopeful that I would like this because the opening credits are some of the best I've seen but it is a jumbled mess and I recommend that you don't watch it.

Note:  I think Ethan Coen should stop collaborating with his wife and start collaborating with his brother again.

The Lord of the Rings Marathon

Yesterday I went to another movie marathon at the Megaplex and this time it featured the extended versions of the three The Lord of the Rings movies.  I love these movies so much (I saw all three of them in the theater on the first day they were released) and I had a lot of fun spending the entire day seeing them on the big screen again!  In The Fellowship of the Ring, a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) is accompanied by eight companions, including the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), the hobbits Samwise "Sam" Gamgee (Sean Astin), Peregrin "Pippin" Took (Billy Boyd), and Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck (Dominic Monaghan), the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), the warrior Boromir (Sean Bean), and the ranger Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), on a journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom after the Dark Lord Sauron (Sala Baker) threatens to use it to conquer Middle-earth.  They are betrayed by the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) when he creates an army of orcs that attack them and break the fellowship. In The Two Towers, the remaining members of the fellowship split into three groups and continue to fight against Sauron.  Frodo and Sam form an uneasy alliance with Gollum (Andy Serkis), a former ring-bearer whose mind has been poisoned by the One Ring and wants to get it back, after he promises to take them to Mount Doom.  Merry and Pippin escape from the orcs and then convince the ents to join the fight against Saruman at Isengard.  Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli rally the kingdom of Rohan, including King Théoden (Bernard Hill), his nephew Éomer (Karl Urban), and his niece Éowyn (Miranda Otto), in an epic battle against the orcs at Helm's Deep.  In The Return of the King, Pippin mischievously looks in the defeated Saruman's palantir and sees that Sauron plans to attack the kingdom of Gondor next.  While Frodo, Sam, and Gollum reach Mordor and begin their final perilous journey to Mount Doom, the others travel to Minas Tirith in Gondor to rally the steward Denethor (John Noble) and his son Faramir (David Wenham) in another epic battle.  Aragorn, the true heir to the kingdom of Gondor, leads a final charge at the Black Gate in Mordor to distract Sauron so Frodo can destroy the One Ring.  I really love Aragorn and Frodo as characters because they both go on a hero's journey as they ultimately recognize and embrace their destinies.  I also love Sam because he is the embodiment of friendship.  I love all of the locations (I actually went on a tour of many of the locations when I was in New Zealand), the sets, especially the harbor in Rivendell and the courtyard in Minas Tirith, the creature design, my favorites are the ents, and all of the battle sequences, particularly the siege warfare in the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Battle of Minas Tirith.  The large crowd wasn't as spirited as I thought they would be but I cheered when Gandalf is rescued from Isengard by an eagle, when Galdalf suddenly appears on Shadowfax at Helm's Deep, when the beacons are lit to call for help from Rohan, when Galdalf strikes Denethor (the crowd cheered with me when this happened), when Elrond (Hugo Weaving) gives Aragorn the reforged sword that belonged to Isildur, and when Éowyn kills the Witch-king.  I had tears in my eyes when Boromir sacrifices himself to save Merry and Pippin, when Sam carries Frodo up Mount Doom, and when Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and I laughed out loud when Gimli and Legolas have a drinking contest.  I had such a great time!  These are some of my favorite movies so this is definitely my favorite marathon so far even though no one in my family wanted to go with me!

Note:  Megaplex has announced marathons for The Hunger Games in January and for Harry Potter (again) in August next year.

East of Wall

My second movie set in the state of South Dakota last night was East of Wall.  I was excited to see this because it got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year (it won an Audience Award at the festival) and I mostly enjoyed it.  Tabatha Zimiga plays a fictionalized version of herself in a semi-autobiographical story about how she comes to terms with her grief by training horses on a ranch in South Dakota (this docudrama format reminded me a lot of The Rider).  After the suicide of her fiance John, Tabatha struggles to keep the 1,200-acre ranch he left to their three-year-old son Stetson.  She lives there with Stetson, her mother Tracey (Jennifer Ehle), her older son Skylar, her daughter Porshia, her new partner Clay, and a group of wayward teens who have found a home with her.  She has an affinity for communicating with horses and is just able to keep her head above water by rehabilitating rescue horses and selling them on TikTok and in sale barns but she has less success communicating with her daughter Porshia who blames her for John's death.  She encounters Roy Waters (Scoot McNairy), a wealthy rancher from Texas, at a sale barn after he buys one of her horses for an exorbitant price.  He also offers to buy the ranch but, while this will solve her financial difficulties, she eventually realizes that the horses, her daughter, and the other teens in her charge need her.  The story is really thin (this may have been better as a documentary) and it takes a long time to get going with a resolution that doesn't necessarily feel earned.  I also struggled to keep track of all the many different characters, the majority of whom are people who actually live on the ranch with Zimiga and play themselves, because they mostly appear in random slice-of-life sequences without a lot of exposition.  However, I did enjoy getting an immersive and authentic glimpse into what life is like in the American West, especially for women, and I really admire Zimiga's fierce determination in rehabilitating horses and providing refuge for her found family (she gives an incredibly powerful performance).  I also really enjoyed the beautiful cinematography showcasing the rugged landscape of the Badlands as well as the horses in motion (I especially loved the rodeo sequences) although the use of actual footage from TikTok is jarring in comparison.  I personally found this to be compelling enough to recommend but it might not be for everyone.

Americana

Last night I went to a double feature at the Megaplex with two movies set in South Dakota.  I began with Americana and it was a big surprise to me because I really enjoyed it!  Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex), a sleazy black marketeer, Dillon MacIntosh (Eric Dane), a petty thief, Mandy Starr (Halsey), MacIntosh's abused girlfriend, Cal Starr (Gavin Maddox Bergman), Mandy's younger brother who believes that he is the reincarnation of Chief Sitting Bull, Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser), a lonely veteran, Penny Jo Poplin (Sydney Sweeney), a waitress who dreams of becoming a country singer, and Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), the leader of a militant Native American group, all become embroiled in the theft of a valuable and sacred Lakota Ghost Shirt in a small South Dakota town.  All of their stories eventually converge in an epic shoot-out on a ranch in Wyoming owned by Mandy's father Hiram Starr (Christopher Kriesa), a radical fundamentalist.  I liked the nonlinear structure featuring chapters that focus on individual characters and it was fun to see how the different narratives come together.  The tone is all over the place because it is really funny with quirky characters, snappy dialogue, and outlandish situations (that get more and more outlandish as time goes on) but there is also an undercurrent of sadness and desperation as the characters attempt to improve their situation and it is quite violent.  However, I think the tonal shifts work and the neo-Western genre serves the story very well (the cinematography is very striking, particularly the wide shots of the vast landscape).  I loved all of the performances, especially the interactions between Sweeney and Hauser because they are so charming together, but the standout for me is Halsey because her character has the biggest transformation and she portrays this arc very convincingly.  I had low expectations for this movie and I ended up being very entertained by it.  I encourage people to seek it out because it seems to be flying under the radar.

Highest 2 Lowest

Last night my nephew and I went to see Highest 2 Lowest at the Broadway.  We both had been looking forward to this for weeks and we couldn't have been more disappointed.  David King (Denzel Washington) is a successful music mogul trying to structure a deal to take back control of the music label he founded.  However, these plans take a back seat when his son Trey (Aubrey Joseph) is kidnapped and a $17.5 million ransom is demanded.  When he realizes that Kyle (Elijah Wright), the son of his driver Paul (Jeffrey Wright), was mistakenly taken instead of Trey, things become more complicated because now he doesn't feel obligated to pay the ransom.  He needs the money to save his record label but ultimately agrees to pay because he doesn't want to be cancelled on social media.  Kyle is eventually released but the police lose track of the money during the handover which puts King's deal in jeopardy.  He decides to search for the kidnapper himself and discovers that the culprit is a disgruntled rapper named Yung Felon (A$AP Rocky) who wanted to be signed to his record company.  After several confrontations with Yung Felon, he relinquishes control of his company to get away from the business and get back to the music.  The plot is an incoherent mess with a very muddled message about class inequality.  There are lots of editing and pacing issues and it features some of the most cringe-worthy dialogue I have heard in a long time.  I still don't know how I feel about Washington's performance because, while it is often very melodramatic, there is no denying that he is a compelling presence.  Wright is absolutely brilliant (one of the few highlights of this movie) and I did like A$AP Rocky (even though he is essentially playing himself) but all of the other performances are almost laughably bad.  Ilfenesh Hadera, as King's wife, and Dean Winters, as a police detective, are the worst offenders.  There are lots of cameos but most of them feel shoehorned in (Ice Spice is on screen for about a minute).  The score is particularly egregious (which is ironic in a movie about the music business).  It feels like it belongs in a completely different movie and it undercuts the tension in every scene because it is so incongruous.  The only reason this isn't the worst movie I've seen this year is because of an incredibly dynamic sequence on a subway filled with Yankees fans and on the street in the middle of a Puerto Rican Day festival but this is not enough for me to recommend it.  You can definitely wait until it streams.

Note:  The only message I got from this movie is that Spike Lee hates sports teams from Boston!

Nobody 2

I really liked Nobody so I was excited to see the sequel, Nobody 2, at a matinee yesterday.  It is not quite as good as the first movie but I enjoyed it.  Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is still going on missions for "The Barber" (Colin Salmon) to repay the debt he owes after burning the Russian mob's money and his wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) feels that he is neglecting his family as a result.  He decides to take a break so he can take Becca, his son Brady (Gage Munroe), his daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath), and his dad David (Christopher Lloyd) to the same amusement park in the small town of Plummerville that he once visited as a child with his dad and brother Harry (RZA).  Hutch eventually runs afoul of Abel (Colin Hanks), the corrupt sheriff, and Wyatt (John Ortiz), the owner of the amusement park who runs a bootlegging operation for the notorious crime boss Lendina (Sharon Stone).  He must ultimately break his promise to Becca to leave the violence behind in order to protect his family from Lendina's henchmen.  The non-stop action sequences, particularly those in an arcade, on a duck boat, and the final confrontation in a booby-trapped amusement park, are really fun, violent, and chaotic and I loved the use of ordinary objects in the fight choreography.  Odenkirk, once again, does most of his own stunts and he is very kick-ass in the role.  I enjoyed all of the humor, especially the needle drops because they are hilariously on the nose, but the villains are so ridiculously evil that it often verges on parody.  What is missing in this sequel is the novelty of an ordinary suburban dad who also happens to be an assassin.  In this version, an assassin tries to be an ordinary suburban dad and, in my opinion, it is not as compelling because it is not as unexpected.  I still had fun with it and fans of the genre will definitely love it.

Freakier Friday

To be honest, I was not very excited about a sequel to Freaky Friday but I eventually decided to see Freakier Friday at a matinee yesterday and, to my surprise, I actually really enjoyed it.  Twenty-two years after Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her daughter Anna (Lindsay Lohan) swapped bodies, Anna is now a single mother to Harper (Julia Butters) with lots of support from Tess and has a job as the manager of a pop star named Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan).  When she becomes engaged to British chef Eric Reyes (Manny Jacinto), both his daughter Lily (Sophia Hammons) and Harper, who have had several confrontations at school, are against the marriage.  On the night of Anna's bachelorette party, all four of them get their palms read by Madame Jen (Vanessa Bayer) and this leads to a four-way swap.  Tess and Anna swap with Lily and Harper, respectively, and mayhem ensues as Lily and Harper try to stop the wedding by reviving Anna's relationship with her high school boyfriend Jake (Chad Michael Murray) and by disrupting an immigration interview for Eric.  Lily and Harper ultimately discover that they are more alike than they are different and that their parents truly love and belong with each other and this realization returns everyone to their own bodies.  There was not a lot for Butters as Anna and Hammons as Tess to do but there are some fun scenes where they rebel during detention (I loved the cameo by Stephen Tobolowsky), ride scooters, and eat as much junk food as they can.  However, Lohan as Harper and Curtis as Lily are absolutely hilarious and so much fun to watch, especially when Curtis attempts to play pickleball and gets lip filler for a passport photo and when Lohan goes to a dance lesson and tries to flirt, but there are also some really poignant moments when they acknowledge that they were wrong, particularly about how much their parents love them.  The two of them have a palpable chemistry with each other and look like they are having a blast in their return to these iconic roles.  The plot does get really convoluted, particularly the subplot involving Ella (although, without it we wouldn't have the reunion of Pink Slip performing "Take Me Away" on stage), with too many characters (many actors are reprising their roles from the first movie).  I also wish that Hammons and Curtis would have switched their British and American accents because I think it would have made their swap easier to follow since their characterizations don't really match.  These criticisms didn't really detract from my enjoyment and I liked this a lot more than I was expecting.

The Bad Guys 2

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed The Bad Guys so I decided to see the sequel last night as part of my double feature at the Megaplex.  The plot is a little bit silly and farfetched but it is funny and I loved the dynamic animation.  The Bad Guys, including Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell), Mr. Snake (Marc Maron), Mr. Shark (Craig Robinson), Ms. Tarantula (Awkwafina), and Mr. Piranha (Anthony Ramos), are finding it difficult to fit into society after giving up their criminal ways so, on the advice of Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), they attempt to help the newly promoted police commissioner Misty Luggins (Alex Borstein) capture the Phantom Bandit.  However, they soon realize that the Phantom Bandit is really a criminal gang of Bad Girls, including a snow leopard named Kitty Kat (Danielle Brooks), a raven named Doom (Natasha Lyonne), and a wild boar named Pigtail Petrova (Maria Bakalova), who eventually blackmail them into helping with one final caper.  They steal a smartwatch that controls the MOON-X rocket from the billionaire inventor Mr. Moon (Colin Jost) so the Bad Girls can hijack it to use a substance known as MacGuffinite (this Alfred Hitchcock reference made me laugh out loud) to steal the world's gold from space.  Will the Bad Guys choose the allure of power offered by the Bad Girls and join them or will they choose to be respected rather than feared and stop them?  The story is surprisingly convoluted for an animated movie for children but it has a great message about not being defined by past mistakes and there are a lot of hilarious references to each animal's defining characteristics (I laughed out loud again when Mr. Snake accuses another character of being duplicitous).  I really enjoyed the vivid animation, particularly in the action sequences (which pay homage to the Mission: Impossible franchise and other heist movies).  My favorite scenes include a high-speed chase through the streets of Cairo after stealing a car and a stealthy infiltration into a high security society wedding.  The voice cast is outstanding with the back and forth banter between Rockwell and Brooks as the highlight.  I enjoyed The Bad Guys 2 and I recommend it to fans of the first movie.

Sketch

Last night I saw the movie Sketch as part of another double feature, this time at the Megaplex, and I was very surprised by how much I loved it!  Taylor Wyatt (Tony Hale) is a recent widower who believes the best way for his children Jack (Kue Lawrence) and Amber (Bianca Belle) to move on from their mother's death is to remove all traces of her.  However, Amber begins acting out because she is suppressing her grief.  The school psychologist suggests that she channel all of her feelings into her drawings and she gives her a sketchbook which Amber uses to create terrifying monsters, some of whom specifically threaten a bully at school named Bowman (Kalon Cox) and her father after he disciplines her.  Meanwhile, Jack discovers a mysterious pond in the woods behind their house and, when Amber accidentally drops her sketchbook in the water, all of her drawings come to life.  The siblings must find a way to save Bowman, Taylor, and the rest of the town from Amber's monsters.  I loved the animation of the monsters because they accurately reflect the medium used to create them in the sketchbook (colored pencils, crayons, markers, and embellishments such as glitter and googly eyes) and the images look so cool.  I also really loved the way in which the children ultimately defeat the monsters because, without spoilers, it emphasizes the very powerful theme that one of the best ways to confront the bad is to remember the good (this is definitely one of the best explorations of grief that I have seen).  The performances are fantastic and I was especially impressed by how well Belle is able to portray Amber's simmering rage and Cox made me laugh out loud.  I also think Hale gives one of his very best performances as a father who thinks he doing what is best for his children but must learn to listen to what they really need.  I was really moved by this and I highly recommend it!

Note:  Every year I make the goal to see 100 new releases in the theater and I reached that milestone with this movie a month earlier than last year.

Cloud

Last night I decided to see a double feature at the Broadway and I began with Cloud because the trailer was so intriguing to me.  It is an intense and compelling psychological thriller and I honestly had no idea what would happen next at any given moment!  Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) has a menial job in a Tokyo factory but he also has a side gig as an internet reseller.  After he scams a couple (Masaaki Akahori and Maho Yamada) desperate to sell their health devices and makes a massive profit after marking them up on his resell site, he decides to quit his job, even after his boss (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) offers him a promotion, and cut ties with the friend (Masataka Kubota) who introduced him to the resell business.  He moves to a large and luxurious house in a suburb, which angers the locals, with his girlfriend (Kotone Furukowa), who soon grows bored and leaves, and hires a personal assistant (Daiken Okudaira), who he eventually fires for snooping into his business.  As Yoshii becomes more and more unethical in his dealings, several of those with grievances against him are able to connect through an online forum created by his disgruntled customers in order to dox him and this culminates in an epic shootout in an abandoned warehouse.  The first two acts are a very slow burn as Yoshii antagonizes the people in his life in an attempt to create a better life for himself but then the final act turns into a tension-filled action sequence with so many twists and turns that it is almost impossible to keep track of anyone's motivations (there were audible gasps from my audience).  The character of Yoshii is absolutely fascinating because I initially found him to be unsympathetic, especially when he is ambivalent about selling knock-off designer products to unsuspecting customers for exorbitant prices, but then I questioned the extreme response of those with grievances against him and actively rooted for him to succeed in the ensuing battle but then found the ambiguity of his fate to be strangely satisfying (Suda's performance is understated but riveting).  I also found the cautionary tale about digital actions having analog consequences to be fascinating because people often hide behind seemingly anonymous user names to say and do things online they wouldn't have the courage for face to face.  I was captivated by this (even more than I was anticipating) and I highly recommend it!

Weapons

Last night my nephew and I went to see Weapons at the Broadway with a large and enthusiastic crowd and we both really enjoyed it.  Seventeen children from the same third-grade class at Maybrook Elementary School wake up at the exact same time in the early hours of the morning and disappear from their homes.  This event is viewed from the perspectives of Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), the teacher of all of the children who disappeared, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), the grieving father of one of the missing children who blames Justine for his disappearance, Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich), a troubled police officer involved with Justine, James (Austin Abrams), a homeless addict arrested and then assaulted by Paul, Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong), the principal of Maybrook Elementary School, and Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the only student in Justine's class who did not disappear.  All of their disparate stories converge with Alex's great-aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) when she comes to stay with his family.  This is not as scary as I thought it would be but it is very unsettling and the use of different POVs that continually reframe the information creates an escalating sense of dread.  It is more like a mystery thriller with elements of horror and dark comedy (my audience laughed out loud multiple times) thrown in but the central mystery is incredibly compelling because I really wanted to know what happened to the children and I wanted to know how all of the characters were connected to their disappearance.  Unlike other recent horror films that come undone in the third act after slowly building an atmosphere of unease, the resolution of the mystery really worked for me and the final sequence is both disturbing and oddly satisfying.  The theme that collective trauma can be weaponized to cause even more violence is extremely thought-provoking and I was particularly struck by the need to find a scapegoat.  Everyone in the ensemble cast is outstanding but I especially enjoyed the intense and unhinged performance from Madigan and I was also very impressed by Christopher because he has such a haunting presence.  The hype for this is real and I definitely recommend it to fans of the genre (try to see it with a crowd).

Note:  I loved the use of "Beware of Darkness" by George Harrison in the opening sequence.

The Naked Gun

Yesterday my nephew and I went to a matinee of The Naked Gun because we both needed a laugh.  It definitely delivered because we both had a lot of fun with it.  Lt. Frank Drebin, Jr. (Liam Neeson) engages in some questionable police tactics while investigating a bank robbery so he is pulled from the case by Chief Davis (CCH Pounder), head of the Police Squad, and is sent to investigate a fatal car crash involving Simon Davenport (Jason MacDonald) instead.  He accidentally discovers that both cases lead to Richard Cane (Danny Huston), a tech billionaire with a nefarious plan for world dominion using a P.L.O.T. device.  Drebin enlists the help of Davenport's sister Beth (Pamela Anderson) and his sidekick Capt. Ed Hocken, Jr. (Paul Walter Hauser) to conduct a sting operation at a WWE match on New Year's Eve.  Hilarity ensues.  Neeson is absolutely brilliant because he delivers all of the comedy with the seriousness and gravitas of his recent action roles and that makes everything even funnier.  Huston looks like he is having a blast as a sneering villain (all that is missing is a mustache for him to twirl) but it is Anderson who is the biggest surprise because she steals every scene she is in as a vampy femme fatale, especially in a hilarious montage of a romantic weekend getaway and a jazz performance at a night cub.  There are some fun callbacks to the original series and, even though the pratfalls, word-play, and sight gags didn't always make me or the rest of the audience laugh out loud, I did spend most of the movie chuckling to myself (pay very close attention to the names of everything).  There is definitely enough zany humor to make this a fun time at the movies and I recommend it to fans of slapstick comedies.

Together

I was actually in line for a screening of Together at Sundance but I was really tired and decided to skip it so I could be well rested for the four films I had scheduled the next day (festival fatigue is real).  I knew that it would eventually come to the Broadway and my nephew and I were able to see it there at a matinee yesterday.  It is pretty wild!  Tim (Dave Franco), an aspiring musician, and Millie (Alison Brie), a teacher, are a longtime couple whose relationship now lacks intimacy and connection.  They decide to leave the city and move upstate when Millie is offered a job teaching at a small rural school but, instead of a new start, their relationship further deteriorates when Millie proposes and Tim is unable to commit and when Tim starts to feel like a prisoner without a driver's license.  However, after an usual incident in the forest near their house, they become inexplicably drawn to each other and, over time, they start to become physically fused together (in scenes that escalate in intensity).  As they attempt to figure out what is happening, they must ultimately decide if they really do belong together.  Franco and Brie are a real-life couple so their depiction of two people who have been in a codependent relationship for a long time feels very authentic, especially their petty bickering over things of little consequence.  I was also very impressed by their physical performances, particularly in a scene where they contort their bodies while holding on to various objects in order to keep apart as they are literally pulled together like magnets.  The body horror is not as gory as I was expecting but it is very disturbing and unsettling (it features one of the most uncomfortable sex scenes I have ever seen) and there were moments when I had to look away from the screen.  The practical effects are amazing as is the ominous sound design (the less you know the better) but I do feel like the final sequence is a bit rushed because I wanted to know more about what was actually happening and why.  It is really weird but I liked it and would recommend it to fans of body horror.

Note:  The use of "2 Become 1" by the Spice Girls during a key scene made me laugh out loud!

Sorry, Baby

I really liked quite a few movies at the Sundance Film Festival this year but if I had to pick just one as my favorite it would be Sorry, Baby.  I was happy for the chance to see it again at the Broadway with my nephew last night and I loved it even more upon a second viewing.  Agnes (Eva Victor) lives in an isolated farmhouse with her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) while the two of them attend graduate school at a small New England university.  She and Lydie belong to a cohort, including Natasha (Kelly McCormack), Devin (Cody Reiss), and Logan (Jordan Mendoza), led by literature professor Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi) and, much to the disappointment of Natasha, she is the obvious favorite.  She enjoys the praise she receives from Decker so, even though it is ill-advised, she meets with him at his house to discuss her thesis after he is forced to stay home with his sick child and he sexually assaults her.  She tries to move on from what she calls the Bad Thing by beginning a casual relationship with her neighbor Gavin (Lucas Hedges) but she can't commit and periodically suffers from panic attacks.  It is only when Lydie, who now lives in New York and is married and pregnant, comes to visit four years later that Agnes, who still lives in the same farmhouse, is teaching at the same university, still has the same rivalry with Natasha, and even has the same office that Decker used, realizes that she is stuck and must finally process what has happened to her.  This is a meditative, but often very funny, character study about surviving a traumatic experience and I found the non-linear timeline to be incredibly compelling (even more so the second time around) because the audience sees the effect before the cause.  This is a stunning debut for Victor (who wrote, directed, and starred) and I was particularly impressed by a powerful scene which features a long tracking shot following Agnes walking to Decker's house, then a shot of the house showing the passage of time, followed by another tracking shot of Agnes leaving the house and walking back to her car.  The direction and performance is absolutely brilliant because you can see that something devastating has happened by just the change in body language alone.  I was also very moved by an intense monologue in which Agnes apologizes to Lydie's baby for being born into a world where bad things happen because it is such a turning point for Agnes (I haven't stopped thinking about it since Sundance).  Finally, I really loved that Lydie simply shows Agnes that she is stuck instead of getting her unstuck because it is so empowering.  I am sure that this will be among my favorite movies of 2025 and I highly recommend it.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

My nephew and I finally had a chance to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps last night and I really enjoyed it.  On Earth 828, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), his brother-in-law Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and his best friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) travel to space in 1960 and experience a cosmic anomaly that gives them superhuman abilities.  They become Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing, respectively, and use their powers to protect Earth.  Four years later, Reed and Sue announce that they are expecting a much longed for child when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), a herald for a world-eating cosmic being known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson), appears to announce that Earth has been targeted for destruction.  The Fantastic Four return to space to negotiate with Galactus and learn that he is willing to spare Earth if they give him the child Reed and Sue are expecting because he believes that the child will have immense abilities.  Reed and Sue consider it to be a price too high to pay but face backlash for choosing their child over the fate of Earth.  Will the Fantastic Four find another way to stop Galactus?  I liked that narrative foregoes the origin story and jumps right into the action and, as someone who does not know much about the Fantastic Four as characters (I haven't seen any of the previous movies), I found it very easy to understand each of their arcs and motivations without it.  I also liked that the story is a simple one about the importance of family and that it is very self-contained.  I absolutely loved the 1960s retro-futuristic aesthetic in the production design, especially with the technology and the spaceship, the costumes, and the score by Michael Giacchino.  The action sequences are great and I particularly liked all of the cool visuals in the space battle and the climactic battle.  Finally, the performances are both fun (a scene involving a car seat in the Fantasticar made me laugh out loud) and poignant with opportunities for every character to have a moment of reckoning.  My favorite was that of Kirby as a fierce mother willing to do whatever is necessary in order to protect her child and I loved her chemistry with Pascal.  I was also strangely moved by Moss-Bachrach's motion capture performance (he has some wonderful scenes with Natasha Lyonne who plays a teacher in his old neighborhood).  Admittedly, the bar is a bit low with recent MCU projects but, between this and Thunderbolts*, my interest has been reignited and I am actually looking forward to Avengers: Doomsday (there is a mid-credits scene teasing the appearance of Victor von Doom/ Doctor Doom).

Eddington

My nephew and I are fans of Ari Aster so we were both excited to see Eddington at the Broadway last night.  I can certainly understand why this has divided critics but I found it to be incredibly thought-provoking.  In the small town of Eddington, New Mexico at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) clashes with the mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) over the latter's implementation of a lockdown and enforcement of a mask mandate.  Cross views Garcia's policies as a violation of personal choice (as an asthmatic he finds it difficult to breathe while wearing a mask) and eventually decides to run against him in his bid for re-election.  Soon, Garcia's son Eric (Matt Gomez Hidalka) becomes involved in a series of Black Lives Matter protests which creates havoc for the sheriff's department and Cross makes an allegation about the possible misconduct of Garcia towards his wife Louise (Emma Stone).  This contributes to the escalation of tensions between the sheriff and the mayor leading Cross to take matters into his own hands with unexpected consequences for all involved (the final scenes are quite satirical and had the audience laughing out loud, albeit uncomfortably).  There is a lot of social commentary to unpack beyond the obvious, including perceived government control, performative social justice, the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories, and the rise of dubious internet celebrities (I wish Austin Butler's character had been explored more fully), and I sometimes found the narrative to be very bloated and messy (Aster could use an editor).  However, he very effectively portrays the anxiety, confusion, mistrust, and division felt during this period through the changing relationship between Cross and Garcia.  I was particularly struck by the juxtaposition between an early scene in which they confront each other on the street but maintain civility and a later scene in which they challenge each other at a fundraiser and come to blows. I also enjoyed the use of the neo-Western genre to tell the story, particularly the climax which literally features a gunfight in the town square!  Phoenix is absolutely brilliant in this role because he is increasingly ridiculous as he unravels before our eyes.  Pascal is also very good but some of the other big name actors do not have much to do (particularly Stone and Austin).  Aster does not offer much in the way of explanations or solutions but I honestly have not been able to stop thinking about this movie.  I recommend it with the caveat that it will definitely not appeal to everyone.