Jurassic World Rebirth

After suffering through Jurassic World: Dominion, I vowed that I would never see another movie in the franchise but the trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth looked really intriguing to me (it actually featured dinosaurs!) so I went to see it last night with my sister.  There are definitely some flaws but I think it is one of the best sequels to the original movie and I enjoyed it.  The Earth's environment proves to be inhospitable to the dinosaurs so most of them have either died or relocated to tropical areas near the Equator.  Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a representative of the pharmaceutical company ParkerGenix, recruits covert operatives Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali) as well as paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to retrieve DNA samples from the three largest species of dinosaurs for use in a drug that could potentially prevent coronary disease.  The group is tracking a Mosasaurus in the Atlantic Ocean when they are called to rescue the Delgado family, including Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), his daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda), and Teresa's ne'er-do-well boyfriend Xavier Dobbs (David Iacono), after their boat is destroyed by a Mosasaurus.  The team is able to rescue the Delgados and retrieve a sample but they are also attacked and shipwrecked on an island that was once used as a secret research facility for creating mutant dinosaurs.  Chaos ensues as they attempt to collect the remaining samples and evade the terrifying new dinosaurs created in the lab.  The cast does a great job and, even though the story follows the same beats as all of the other movies in the franchise, I liked the new characters.  The action sequences with the dinosaurs are spectacular!  The scenes showing the Delgados being chased by a Tyrannosaurus rex down a river in an inflatable raft and the team as they are confronted by a Distortus rex when trying to leave the island are absolutely terrifying but I also really felt the awe exhibited by Loomis and Bennett when they encounter a Titanosaurus and the Aquilops befriended by Isabella provides a bit of comic relief.  The biggest problem I had is the pacing because in between all of the dinosaurs there is a lot of dialogue in which the characters learn very important lessons (such as big pharma is bad and Xavier is actually good) and my mind would sometimes wander.  This is not quite as good as the original but is so much better than its predecessor and I recommend it as a fun summer blockbuster.

M3GAN 2.0

My nephew and I had a lot of fun with M3GAN so we were really excited to see the sequel, M3GAN 2.0, last night.  Unfortunately, I found the switch in genre from horror to action thriller to be disappointing.  Cady (Violet McGraw) is still traumatized by the events leading to the destruction of her AI robot M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android) and her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams), inspired by her boyfriend Christian (Aristotle Athari), has become an advocate for the regulation of AI technology.  However, M3GAN's technology is surreptitiously used by a defense contractor to create a military-grade robot named AMELIA (Autonomous Military Engagement Logistics and Infiltration Android).  When AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno) becomes self-aware and goes rogue, Gemma and her coworkers, Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps), are persuaded to rebuild M3GAN to make her faster and stronger so she can stop AMELIA from attempting an AI takeover.  There are endless exposition dumps, convoluted plot twists (you may want to take notes to keep them all straight), derivative action sequences, and cringe-worthy dialogue before the long anticipated show-down between M3GAN and AMELIA culminates in a muddled message about working together with AI to solve the world's problems.  We get the requisite dance break and a song from M3GAN (this time she sings "This Woman's Work" by Kate Bush) but they are ridiculous and random rather than campy and my nephew and I gave each other several looks of incredulity.  M3GAN (portrayed by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) is no longer scary and, as a result, she is no longer interesting but she is still better than the rest of the cast whose performances are surprisingly bland (except for a brief appearance by the always hilarious Jemaine Clement as a corrupt tech billionaire).  The premise is intriguing and I even enjoyed the initial setup with AMELIA going rogue but the execution is flat without the horror elements that made the first movie so iconic.  This is not the upgrade I was hoping for and I suggest waiting for it to stream.

F1

Last night my nephew and I went to an early access IMAX screening of F1 and it is an adrenaline rush from beginning to end!  Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) is a nomadic driver for hire after a promising career in Formula 1 racing was cut short by a near fatal crash.  Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), a friend and former F1 driver who now owns APXGB, lures him out of retirement to mentor Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the hotshot prodigy who drives for him, in order to stave off calls from his board of directors to sell the team.  Without winning any points all season, APXGB has just nine races to improve their record but Sonny and Joshua immediately clash over training methods and racing strategy and get off to a disastrous start.  However, with help from Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), an innovative technical director with something to prove, they eventually start to respect each other and work together to foil the plans of Peter Banning (Tobias Menzies), a duplicitous board member, during the final race of the year.  The story follows similar sports movie tropes (an experienced veteran looking for redemption and a cocky and arrogant rookie eager to make his mark join forces as underdogs who ultimately triumph) but it is also full of heart and the relationship that develops between Sonny and Joshua is very touching (I loved seeing Joshua slowly incorporate all of Sonny's training methods).  I do not know anything about F1 racing and, honestly, I have never really understood the appeal but I found the behind the scenes look at the sport to be fascinating, especially all of the strategy involved (although I suspect that some of the methods used by Sonny to disrupt the races in order to give himself an advantage are a bit far-fetched).  The racing sequences are exhilarating and incredibly immersive (seeing the track from the perspectives of the drivers is really intense).  It is also impressive that the actors actually drive the cars with footage from real races and that many current F1 drivers make cameos (the only driver I recognized was Lewis Hamilton but my nephew recognized a lot of them including the actual coach, or principal, of Scuderia Ferrari).  The propulsive score by Hans Zimmer adds tension to these thrilling scenes and the needle drops are fantastic (when a movie starts with "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin you know it is going to be awesome).  Finally, Pitt brings his movie star charisma to the role and Idris is a movie star in the making.  This movie is the definition of a summer blockbuster and I had so much fun watching it with my nephew!  Go see it in IMAX!

Elio

Last night I spontaneously decided to see Elio and I loved the dazzling animation and the touching message.  Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) is sent to live with his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldana), an Air Force Major, after the death of his parents but he feels like he has interrupted her dream of becoming an astronaut and that she would be better off without him.  He is also bullied by the other kids on the Air Force base because of his obsession with life in space and he feels very lonely.  Elio overhears an analyst named Gunther Melmac (Brendan Hunt) tell Olga that a message has been received in response to the Voyager 1 space probe and he contrives to answer it which results in his abduction by an alien ship.  He is thrilled when he is welcomed to the Communiverse, an intergalactic organization where aliens share information about their home planets, as a candidate to be the Earth's ambassador.  However, he must first prove himself so he volunteers to negotiate with Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a warlord who is threatening the Communiverse.  He tries various methods to appease Grigon but they fail so he decides to use his more peaceful son Glordon (Remy Edgerly) as a bargaining chip.  Eventually, Elio and Glordon bond with each other because they both feel alone and misunderstood but will they ever find where they really belong?  This is absolutely adorable and I loved the world-building for the Communiverse and the character design for all of the aliens because everything is so colorful and luminous.  I especially loved Glordon as a character because he is incredibly endearing.  My favorite moments are when clones are made of Elio and Glordon to take their places and both Olga and Grigon realize the switch and prefer the originals (I enjoyed Olga and Grigon's character arcs as parents who are overwhelmed and make mistakes but learn that the most important thing is to show acceptance and love for Elio and Glordon).  The message that you are never alone is a powerful one the comparison between searching for life in space and searching for connection on Earth really works.  I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would and highly recommend it.

28 Years Later

I took my nephew to 28 Years Later at the Broadway last night and, as a fan of the first two movies in the franchise, I was excited to see it.  Even though it is very different from what I was expecting, I really loved the exploration of how to live in the midst of death.  Twenty-eight years after the spread of the rage virus, the UK is still heavily quarantined and survivors have been left to fend for themselves.  A group of these survivors, including Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife Isla (Jodie Comer), who suffers from a mysterious illness that causes hallucinations, and his 12-year-old son Spike (Alfie Williams), have found refuge on an isolated island separated from the mainland by a fortified causeway that is only accessible during low tide.  Jamie takes Spike to the mainland to initiate him in hunting the infected but they soon become overrun by a large group that has mutated to become stronger and faster and they are forced to take shelter in the attic of an abandoned cottage.  Spike sees a large bonfire in the distance and, when they return to the island, he learns that it was most likely lit by Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), an eccentric who burns the bodies of the dead in a ritual of remembrance.  Spike is disillusioned by Jamie's exaggeration of their exploits on the mainland and by his behavior towards Isla so he decides to take her in search of Kelson so he can cure her.  The main narrative is bookended by Jimmy (Rocco Haynes as a child and Jack O'Connell as an adult) who survives an attack by the infected and then reappears twenty-eight years later with his cult to help Spike fight another group that has mutated.  Jimmy provides the chaos I was expecting but I loved the more meditative (relatively speaking) hero's journey taken by Spike as he learns how to reconcile himself to death (and new life) and become what his father pretends to be.  I also really enjoyed a montage showing images of war throughout the years accompanied by Rudyard Kipling's poem "Boots" read by Taylor Holmes (which is used very effectively in the trailer) because it establishes the idea that people have always had to survive the consequences of savagery.  Fiennes gives an incredibly moving performance but I was most impressed by Williams and I am very much looking forward to the continuation of Spike's story in the sequel(s).  I recommend this to fans of the franchise who are willing to set aside their expectations because it is definitely more haunting than frightening but I think it is brilliant.

Materialists

I loved Past Lives so much I named it as my favorite movie of 2023 so I was very eager to see what writer/director Celine Song would do next.  My nephew and I saw her latest movie, Materialists, last night as part of our double feature at the Broadway and, while it doesn't quite have the same emotional impact as Past Lives, I really enjoyed it.  Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a successful New York City matchmaker responsible for nine marriages using her own unique algorithm for compatibility.  At the wedding of one of her clients, she meets the groom's brother Harry (Pedro Pascal) and, because he is tall, handsome, charming, well educated, and incredibly wealthy, he fits the algorithm for her perfect match.  However, she also encounters her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor working as a waiter for the company catering the wedding.  The two of them split five years earlier because of their incompatible attitudes towards money but they still clearly have feelings for each other.  Harry, who believes that Lucy is also the perfect match for him, pursues her with extravagant dates but she contrives to find ways to keep in contact with John.  Eventually, she must decide if she belongs with the one who is perfect for her based on what she thinks she wants or the one she loves in spite of his imperfections.  There is also a subplot involving one of Lucy's clients (Zoe Winters) who has a terrifying experience with a man who is matched to her using the surface-level specifications in Lucy's algorithm and this ultimately helps her make her decision.  As with Past Lives, Song explores what it means to find your soul mate but this time love miraculously overcomes all complications (which is certainly less heartbreaking but also feels a bit unearned).  Nevertheless, I loved the witty banter between the characters and the honest, if sometimes harsh, observations about dating and marriage.  I also loved the performances.  Johnson is hit or miss with me because I think she is the kind of actress who needs a good director to pull a good performance out of her and this is one of her best.  Pascal is incredibly charming and Evans is endearing (one of the things that makes this so compelling is that it is entirely plausible that she could end up with either of them).  This may not be as strong as Past Lives (how could it be?) but I definitely liked it and would recommend it.

The Life of Chuck

Last night my nephew and I had a double feature at the Broadway starting with The Life of Chuck.  I absolutely loved this and I find it even more meaningful the more I think about it!  In Act One, Charles "Chuck" Krantz (Cody Flanagan as a 7-year-old, Benjamin Pajak as an 11-year-old, and Jacob Tremblay as a 17-year-old) spends his formative years with his accountant grandfather (Mark Hamill) and free-spirited grandmother (Mia Sara) and becomes involved with an extracurricular dance club run by the gym teacher (Samantha Sloyan).  In Act Two, Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) demonstrates how the people in his life have influenced him during an encounter with a busker (Taylor Gordon) and a woman reeling from a recent breakup (Annalise Basso).  In Act Three, a high school teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a nurse (Karen Gillan), and a mortician (Carl Lumbly) discover the influence Chuck has had on them at the end of his life.  This is told in reverse chronological order with narration from Nick Offerman and an elaborate conceit in Act Three that is both brilliant and thought-provoking (I haven't read the novella by Stephen King, upon which this is based, so I gasped out loud when I finally realized what was going on).  I loved all the recurring images that tie the three different acts together, especially the use of Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" (which eventually provides a powerful message).  I also really loved Hiddleston's performance (he's got some serious moves) but I was really surprised by how little screen time he actually has.  In fact, I was surprised by the number of people who essentially have cameos (my favorites involve David Dastmalchian because his is very amusing and Matthew Lillard because his is incredibly profound) but this serves to emphasize the tremendous impact that one ordinary person can have in a lifetime.  This is a moving, and surprisingly optimistic, exploration of existence and I cannot recommend it enough!

How to Train Your Dragon

Yesterday I went to a matinee of How to Train Your Dragon and, as a fan of the animated movie, I was a bit nervous about this live action remake but I really enjoyed it.  The Vikings on the island of Berk are regularly attacked by dragons but Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (Mason Thames), the son of the chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), is deemed too weak to fight them.  He is apprenticed to the blacksmith Gobber the Belch (Nick Frost), instead, but he wants his father to be proud of him so he makes a mechanical device which he uses to shoot down the rare Night Fury dragon during an attack.  When he discovers that the dragon was only wounded, he can't bring himself to kill him and sets him free.  He eventually befriends the dragon, naming him Toothless because of his retractable teeth, and makes a prosthetic for his wounded tail fin so he can fly again.  Hiccup ultimately discovers that everything the Vikings know about the dragons is wrong and that they must join together to face an even bigger threat.  The visuals are absolutely gorgeous and I especially loved the breathtaking scenes where Hiccup rides Toothless through the clouds, in between rock formations, into the ocean waves, and then to the Northern Lights with Astrid Hofferson (Nico Parker), his rival turned ally. The cast is fantastic and I love that Thames and Parker as well as the dragon-fighting recruits, including Julian Dennison as Fishlegs Ingerman, Gabriel Howell as Snotlout Jorgenson, Bronwyn James as Ruffnut Thorston, and Harry Trevaldwyn as Tuffnut Thorston, embody the key traits of their characters, even if they don't look exactly like their animated counterparts, while adding a little spark to make them fresh.  The rendering of Toothless is extremely well done.  He is very obviously a reptile but he is still recognizable as the adorable character we know and he is able to show emotions, unlike the photorealistic versions of animals in other live action remakes (I am looking at you The Lion King).  The scene where Toothless begins to trust Hiccup is incredibly affecting and I admit that I had a few tears in my eyes when he is captured and restrained.  Finally, the score is epic (John Powell embellished the themes from his score of the original movie) and I loved all of the booming brass and percussion during the action sequences as well the strings and piano in the quieter moments.  My only complaint is that, because it is an almost shot-for-shot recreation of the original, it is not quite as compelling as it could be (since I knew everything that was going to happen my mind started to wander during the third act).  I do, however, think this is one of the best live action remakes I have seen and would definitely recommend it.

The Phoenician Scheme

I am a big fan of Wes Anderson (I think The Grand Budapest Hotel is a masterpiece) so I took my nephew to see The Phoenician Scheme at the Broadway last night.  Those who are not already fans of Anderson's quirky and idiosyncratic style will probably not enjoy this but I absolutely loved it!  Wealthy business tycoon Anatole "Zsa Zsa" Korda (Benicio del Toro) has a near death experience during the latest of several assassination attempts on his life in which he is forced to defend his worthiness to enter heaven.  Shaken, he decides to make contact with his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a novitiate nun, and proceed with a plan to improve the infrastructure of Phoenicia.  However, Agent Excalibur (Rupert Friend) and a consortium of other government agents from around the world attempt to disrupt his plan by manipulating the cost of building supplies.  Korda enlists Liesl and Bjorn Lund (Michael Cera), a Norwegian etymologist acting as his tutor, to accompany him as he meets with all of his business partners in order to coerce them into covering the gap in funding.  These include Prince Farouk (Riz Ahmed), the crown prince of Phoenicia, Leland (Tom Hanks) and Reagan (Bryan Cranston), brothers from Sacramento, Marseilles Bob (Mathieu Amalric), a gangster and nightclub owner, Marty (Jeffrey Wright), a fast talking businessman from Newark, Hilda Sussman-Korda (Scarlett Johansson), his second cousin, and Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch), his estranged half-brother.  Along the way, Korda survives an attack by a revolutionary guerrilla (Richard Ayoade), several more assassination attempts, and an attack by Nubar before deciding to fund the scheme himself, which will bankrupt him, in order to retire and live a simple life with Liesl.  I listed the usual characteristics of a Wes Anderson movie (a specific color palette to denote a mood, symmetrical shot composition, stylized production design, long tracking shots, elaborate title cards, deadpan delivery, an ensemble cast with recurring actors, and melancholy themes about dysfunctional families) for my nephew and he said he found all of them!  However, I found this to be one of Anderson's most philosophical movies with an incredibly touching redemption arc (I loved the black and white scenes in heaven with a hilarious cameo by Bill Murray as God).  I loved the relationship that develops between Korda and Liesl as he slowly realizes how amoral his business practices are and she comes to understand that he loves her the only way he knows how (Threapleton's performance is brilliant).  This is really funny but, as always, the humor is subtle and I was sometimes the only one in the audience laughing (a lot of the comedy comes from Cera's performance and I propose that he be in every future Wes Anderson movie).  I thoroughly enjoyed this (The Grand Budapest Hotel is still my favorite but this is one of his best) and recommend it to fans of the director.

Dangerous Animals

Last night I went to a late screening of Dangerous Animals and it is a very intense mash-up of the survival and serial killer genres.  Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) is a free spirited surfer in Australia on the run from a difficult past.  She hooks up with Moses (Josh Heuston) after helping him jump-start his car but leaves early the next morning without saying goodbye.  She plans to surf that morning but is abducted by Tucker (Jai Courtney), an eccentric boat captain who survived a shark attack as a child, and is taken aboard his boat.  She discovers another tourist (Ella Newton) being held captive and is horrified when Tucker lowers her into a group of circling sharks that have been lured to the boat by chum.  Tucker films her being devoured by the sharks and adds the VHS tape to a large collection of similar tapes.  Meanwhile, Moses attempts to find Zephyr so he can surf with her and becomes alarmed when he sees her van being towed.  Zephyr realizes that she will be next and takes extreme measures to escape while Moses continues to try to find her.  However, they both have more to fear from Tucker than the sharks.  The tension is almost unbearable and I was on the edge of my seat holding my breath every time Zephyr gets away only to be captured once again by Tucker (which happens so many times).  The action sequences are very dynamic because Zephyr is forced to use whatever is at hand, including the broken handle of a bucket, a grappling hook, and a harpoon, to fight with and the booming score adds to the frenzy.  The underwater cinematography featuring the sharks is equal parts terrifying and mesmerizing.  Courtney is incredibly unsettling (I knew immediately that the tourists who hire him for a cage dive were in danger before they even got on the boat) and I think he should play the villain more often while Harrison gives a ferocious performance that is easy to cheer for.  This is a lot better than I was expecting and I recommend it as a fun, but grisly, summer movie.

Ballerina

I am a huge fan of the John Wick franchise so I have been looking forward to the latest installment, Ballerina, for what seems like a really long time.  I went to see it with my nephew last night and I think it is a great addition to the series.  A young Eve Macarro (Victoria Comte) witnesses the death of her father Javier (David Castaneda) by assassins bearing the mark of a cult led by the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne).  He wants her back after her father fled the cult to give her a normal life but Winston Scott (Ian McShane) finds her and takes her to the Ruska Roma where the Director (Anjelica Huston) trains her as a ballerina and an assassin.  Twelve years later, while working as an assassin, Eve (Ana de Armas) recognizes the mark on her victim and wants revenge.  She asks the Director for information but she refuses to help her because the Ruska Roma has a truce with the cult.  She then turns to Winston and he leads her to an assassin named Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus) who is on the run from the cult and has claimed sanctuary at the Prague Continental.  When she confronts Pine, she finds an even greater motivation for finding the Chancellor.  She eventually tracks him to the village of Hallstatt in the mountains of Austria and, when she proves difficult to capture, the Chancellor threatens war with the Ruska Roma so the Director sends John Wick (Keanu Reeves) to stop her.  I really enjoyed Eve's character arc because, even though it seems to be her fate to become an assassin, she still has a choice about whether to destroy or protect (two sides of the same coin) and I think this is portrayed very well through Eve's interactions with Pine's daughter Ella (Ava McCarthy).  The narrative does take a while to get going because it includes Eve's backstory and training, which go on a bit too long in my opinion, but once Eve sets out on her quest for revenge it is so much fun to watch!  As you would expect from an entry in the John Wick franchise, there are some epic and innovative action sequences in which Eve must improvise in order to compensate for her small stature.  My favorites include the use of a pick axe in a nightclub made of ice, a fight involving dinner plates in a restaurant, and a duel between a flamethrower and a firehose in the village.  I think Ana de Armas does a great job with the fight choreography (I really liked her in No Time To Die) and I also liked her performance in the more emotional moments.  Reeves doesn't have much to do but it was fun to see him return as John Wick (it was also fun to see some of the other returning characters but it was bittersweet to see Lance Reddick play Charon for the final time).  This does not feature the same dynamic cinematography or dazzling locations as the other movies in the franchise but I enjoyed it and would definitely be interested in seeing a sequel.

Karate Kid: Legends

My sister and I are fans of the original movie (it was incredibly popular the summer after my sophomore year in high school) and my nephew is a big fan of the reboot so we obviously had to see the latest installment in the franchise, Karate Kid: Legends, together last night.  I think it is a lot of fun and all three of us really liked it.  Li Fong (Ben Wang) has been secretly studying kung fu with his great-uncle Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) in Beijing but his mother (Ming-Na Wen) forbids him to continue because her son and Li's older brother was killed by an opponent after a tournament.  She takes a job in New York to get Li away from kung fu and hires a tutor (Wyatt Oleff) to encourage him to focus on his studies, instead.  However, he soon befriends Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley) and her father Victor (Joshua Jackson) and learns that he owes a great deal of money to a loan shark named O'Shea (Tim Rozon) who owns a dojo.  He also runs afoul of Mia's ex-boyfriend Conor Day (Aramis Knight), a karate prodigy who trains with O'Shea.  Li eventually decides to enter the Five Boroughs Tournament, an epic mixed martial arts competition, so he can give the prize money to Victor and so he can confront his demons over his brother's death.  Mr. Han comes to New York to help train him and he also enlists Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to train him in karate.  Li makes it to the finals but he has to fight Conor, who has bested him in several skirmishes, and it all comes down to the "dragon," a flying kick that he learned from his brother.  The story follows the exact same formula beat for beat as the previous movies and the outcome of the tournament is a foregone conclusion but Wang is so appealing in the role that he is easy to cheer for.  There are some emotional themes but, for the most part, the tone is light and the action moves very quickly with dynamic and colorful titles and a bombastic score.  I loved all of the fight sequences, especially when Li becomes the mentor in Victor's attempt to make a boxing comeback, when Han and Daniel try to demonstrate who has the best moves with Li as their unwitting victim, and Li's final stand-up-and-cheer move in the tournament.  I also enjoyed all of the callbacks to the previous movies, especially a fun reference at the end.  Fans of the franchise will definitely have a great time with this (audiences seem to be enjoying it more than the critics).

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

Last night I went back to the Broadway to see Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.  I am not a big fan of romantic comedies but if Jane Austen is in the title I will be seated and I really enjoyed this.  Agathe (Camille Rutherford) is a struggling writer in Paris who has put her life on hold after a traumatic car accident that took the lives of her parents several years ago.  Her best friend Felix (Pablo Pauly) wants to give her a spark so he sends some of her previous work to the Jane Austen Residency run by descendants of the author in England and she is accepted.  Felix convinces a reluctant Agathe to go and, because she is secretly in love with him, she spontaneously kisses him as she leaves and sends him a provocative text when she arrives which confuses him.  She soon meets Oliver (Charlie Anson), the arrogant son of the proprietors, and they take an immediate dislike to each other.  However, she is still unable to write so she spends most of her time with Oliver and develops feelings for him before Felix arrives to surprise her.  She eventually realizes that she needs to resolve the trauma in her life before she can write or decide which man is meant for her.  This is a slow burn but it is so charming that it will win you over.  The cinematography is gorgeous and I enjoyed all of the locations, especially Shakespeare and Company where Agathe works.  I loved the scene where Agathe compares herself to Anne Elliot in Persuasion because she is letting life pass her by and Felix to Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park because he is a cad who is unwilling to commit (I also loved that Oliver is obviously modeled on Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice).  There are lots of other moments that put a smile on my face but I definitely swooned during the Regency costume ball when Agathe dances with Felix and then with Oliver because it is so apparent who she belongs with (I wrote a paper in college about the importance of dancing in Jane Austen's works).  Rutherford and Anson are very appealing and have tremendous chemistry but I really appreciate that this focuses just as much on Agathe's journey to find herself as a writer as it does on finding a romantic partner.  This is a lot more subtle and thoughtful than Austenland and The Jane Austen Book Club but it is a lot of fun and I recommend it.

Bring Her Back

As a huge fan of Talk to Me, I was really eager to see what Danny and Michael Philippou would do next.  Their latest, Bring Her Back, is now playing at the Broadway so I went to see it last night and, like their first movie, it is incredibly gory and disturbing but it is also a powerful exploration of grief.  After their father dies, Andy (Billy Barratt) and his visually impaired step-sister Piper (Sora Wong) are temporarily placed with Laura (Sally Hawkins) and her other foster child Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips).  Laura overtly favors Piper but Andy believes it is because she had a visually impaired twelve-year-old daughter named Cathy (Mischa Heywood) who accidentally drowned in the backyard pool so he tries to make the best of the situation.  However, Andy is soon disconcerted by strange goings-on, especially the erratic behavior exhibited by Oliver, who is frequently locked in his room and denied food, and the demonic ritual shown on a grainy VHS tape that Laura obsessively watches at night.  Laura turns Piper against Andy with the hope that she will stay with her permanently so he goes searching for answers and discovers Laura's plan to implement the strange ritual with Piper and Oliver in order to bring her daughter back to life.  The escalating dread is almost unbearable because the characters are unpredictable and keep each other (and the audience) off balance.  Laura is often sympathetic and almost debilitated by her grief over the death of her daughter but then she becomes increasingly unhinged as time goes on while Andy is volatile with unclear motivations until they are slowly revealed.  Hawkins gives a powerful and unsettling performance as she transitions from warm and caring to evil and manipulative and back again (she is so scary).  The young actors are also outstanding and I was particularly impressed with Phillips because he matches Hawkins in intensity.  The visuals add to the unease because the camera angles are disorienting and the focus is sometimes distorted to mimic what Piper is seeing inside the house.  Finally, this is not for the faint of heart because the scenes involving the ritual (which feature elaborate prosthetics worn by Phillips) are so grisly that I averted my eyes several times (and I have a strong tolerance for body horror).  This might be a brutal watch but fans of the genre are sure to find it as riveting as I did.

Final Destination Bloodlines

I am a casual fan of the Final Destination franchise at best (my favorite is the third one but they all kind of blend together because they are so formulaic) but I had heard great things about the latest installment, Final Destination Bloodlines, so I decided to see a matinee yesterday.  I really liked it and I think it is the best movie in the series.  College student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) is tormented by a recurring dream in which a woman named Iris (Brec Bassinger) and her fiance Paul (Max Lloyd-Jones) die in an explosion during the opening of a restaurant in a high-rise tower fifty years ago.  She eventually realizes that Iris is the estranged grandmother she has never met and finds her living in an isolated and fortified cabin.  Iris (Gabrielle Rose) tells her that she had a premonition about the explosion and was able to evacuate everyone before the tragedy could happen.  However, Death refused to be thwarted and started killing the survivors in the order they died in her vision.  She and a little boy named J.B. (Jayden Oniah) were the last to die and Death is finally catching up to the two of them as well as her descendants who were never meant to be born.  After Iris is impaled by a weather vane, Stefani tries to warn her uncle Howard (Alex Zahara), her estranged mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), her cousins Erik (Richard Harmon), Julia (Anna Lore), and Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner), and her brother Charlie (Tio Briones) that they are next to die but they refuse to listen because Howard and Darlene believe that their mother was delusional.  After Howard dies in a freak accident with a lawn mower, Stefani searches for J.B., who turns out to be William Bludworth (Tony Todd), to get answers before it is too late for her family.  I love that there is a twist to the usual formula and that expectations are often cleverly subverted (especially with Erik).  The characters and their relationships with each other are much more developed than they are in the previous movies and the family dynamic adds an emotional core that I found very compelling.  I also found William Bludworth's arc (it is ingenious how he ties all of the movies together) to be quite moving and I loved his message that death is coming for us all one way or another and that we might as well live our lives to the fullest while we can (Todd knew he didn't have long to live and this makes his performance all the more poignant).  Another shout out goes to Harmon because he steals every scene he is in and he also gives a surprisingly touching performance.  Finally, all of the elaborate sequences leading to the deaths of each character are absolutely epic (I will never have another MRI).  I enjoyed this so much more than I expected and I highly recommend it.

Note:  There are a lot of really fun Easter eggs for fans of the franchise (pay close attention to Iris's book).

Friendship

Last night I took my nephew to see Friendship at the Broadway because the trailer made me laugh out loud.  It is absolutely hilarious but it is also a really sad exploration of the extent to which someone will go to be accepted.  Craig Waterman (Tim Robinson) is an unremarkable middle-aged man living in the suburbs with a corporate job who is so socially awkward that he gets nosebleeds when he gets excited.  He meets Austin Carmichael (Paul Rudd), a charismatic TV weatherman, when he moves into Craig's neighborhood and they soon begin spending lots of time together.  Craig becomes infatuated with Austin but, when they are hanging out with Austin's friends, he commits a social faux pas that ends the evening on a sour note.  This causes Austin to distance himself from Craig because he is also insecure and wants to keep his friend group.  Eventually, Craig goes to extreme lengths to reestablish his friendship with Austin even though his actions threaten his job and his relationships with his wife Tami (Kate Mara) and his son Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer).  I was unfamiliar with Tim Robinson and his popular sketch comedy I Think You Should Leave so this was my introduction to his particular brand of cringe comedy and I laughed out loud so many times (as did everyone else in the audience) at his antics.  He has outstanding comedic timing and his facial expressions, physical movements, and line deliveries as a character who cannot read social cues but desperately wants to fit in are brilliant.  Rudd is also very funny as the straight man to all of Robinson's mania.  Having said all of that, this is sometimes very difficult to watch because both Craig and Austin are profoundly lonely characters (even though Austin is more socially adept) searching for connection and, while it is realistic, the resolution between them is unsatisfying.  This will make you laugh but it will also make you squirm and I recommend it to fans of this specific genre (it's definitely not for everyone).

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

I am a huge fan of the Mission: Impossible franchise so I was beyond excited to see Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning at a Thursday preview with my sister last night.  It is unbelievably convoluted but it is an epic and heartfelt conclusion to the series (if, in fact, it is actually the conclusion) and we both loved it!  Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) now has the cruciform key needed to acquire the source code for the Entity from the wreckage of the Russian submarine Sevastopol.  However, Gabriel (Esai Morales) has stolen the malware, called the poison pill, created by Luther (Ving Rhames) which will enable him to control it.  Ethan and his team, Benji (Simon Pegg), Grace (Hayley Atwell), Paris (Pom Klementieff), and Degas (Greg Tarzan Davis), must get the source code from the submarine and the poison pill from Gabriel before the Entity gains access to the world's nuclear codes and before President Sloane (Angela Bassett) launches a preemptive strike to mitigate the fallout for the United States.  They must also evade CIA Director Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and Agent Briggs (Shea Whigham), who have personal reasons for stopping Ethan.  The first hour is really exposition heavy but, once it gets going, there are some amazing action set pieces (Tom Cruise is a madman).  I especially loved the cross-cutting between a scene of hand-to-hand combat between Ethan and a sailor on a submarine and a scene where the team fights a group of Russian soldiers on an island in the Bering Sea and, of course, the much hyped aerial sequence between Ethan and Gabriel on a biplane is spectacular (it is even better than I was expecting) but my favorite scene is a breathtaking underwater sequence where Ethan dives to the wreckage of the Sevastopol and gets trapped (I was on the edge of my seat the whole time because the sound design is so foreboding).  I also enjoyed Ethan's arc because he feels the weight of all of his decisions even more in this installment and there are some really touching moments between him and several other characters (especially with one from his earliest mission) which lead to a very satisfying resolution for him.  Cruise shines in a role he has been playing for thirty years (a montage of all of his missions while he is receiving his latest one is very well done) and the rest of the large cast does a great job (the standout for me is Tramell Tillman as the captain of a submarine because one of his line readings made me laugh out loud).  It is not without faults (I had only the vaguest notion of why things needed to happen and a scene where Ethan communicates directly with the Entity is a bit silly) but it is exhilarating and it must be seen on the big screen (my sister and I are already planning to see it again in IMAX).

Note:  I rewatched all of the earlier movies in preparation for this one and I think Fallout is still my favorite.

Juliet & Romeo

My sister and I are not the biggest fans of Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet but, as soon as we saw the trailer for a new adaptation, we knew immediately that we wanted to see it because it is a musical!  We had the chance to see it yesterday and both of our inner thirteen year old selves loved it.  Prince Escalus (Rupert Graves) is fighting to keep control of Verona and he must ally himself with either House Montague or House Capulet to get the support he needs and this escalates the ongoing feud between them.  Lord Montague (Jason Isaacs) looks to his adopted son Mercutio (Nicholas Podany) to advance their cause because his own son Romeo (Jamie Ward) has started to rebel while Lord and Lady Capulet (Rupert Everett and Rebel Wilson, respectively) bring their unsuspecting daughter Juliet (Clara Rugaard) home from school to form an alliance with Lord Paris (Dennis Andres) in exchange for his army.  Romeo spots Juliet across a crowded square and they bond over their appreciation of Dante Alighieri.  They eventually fall in love and, when they realize that they represent opposing houses, they turn to the Friar (Derek Jacobi) who sees their union as a way to achieve peace and he marries them.  However, when violence erupts on the streets leading to the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), Romeo is banished and he must resort to a bold plan involving the Apothecary (Dan Fogler) in order to be with Juliet.  This takes quite a few liberties with the source material, including a really wild ending, and this would normally bother me but the changes work within the context of a story about choosing your own destiny.  The runtime starts to feel long during the third act when Juliet takes the potion and Romeo misses the message from the Friar but I always find this section of the play tedious when it is performed on stage so I can't fault the movie for it.  The songs eventually all blend together and they definitely have a Disney Channel Original Movie sound but I really enjoyed them (see the aforementioned comment about my inner thirteen year old self) and I suspect that teens everywhere (the target audience) will love them.  My favorites are "Beat the Same," "I Should Write This Down," "The Mask I Wear," and "Streets On Fire."  Ward and Rugaard are very appealing and have great chemistry as the titular characters and I also liked Jacobi as the Friar because he acts as a sort of narrator.  The visuals are gorgeous, with production design by Dante Ferreti and costume design by Luciano Capozzi (I loved the masquerade ball), and the cinematography is dazzling (especially the overhead shots of the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt on the bridge).  I know that everyone is going to hate this but, to me, it was a bit of escapist fun and my sister and I had a blast watching it.

Shadow Force

I wasn't really interested in Shadow Force but there are not a lot of new releases in theaters this weekend and my nephew is a fan of Omar Sy so we went to see it last night.  If I hadn't seen Magic Farm at Sundance I would call this my worst movie of 2025.  Isaac Sarr (Sy) and Kyrah Owens (Kerry Washington) are highly trained agents who were once part of a multinational covert organization, known as Shadow Force, led by Jack Cinder (Mark Strong) who now works for the G7.  After they fell in love, got married, and had a son, they decided to leave the organization knowing that this decision would put a bounty on their heads.  Kyrah spends the next four years hunting down the agents who were once their colleagues while Isaac goes deep under cover to care for their son Ky (Jahleel Kamara).  However, when Isaac uses his highly specialized training to foil a bank robbery, he blows his cover and Cinder doubles the bounty on them because he doesn't want his involvement in the organization to come to light and ruin his chances of becoming Secretary General (does such a position even exist?) of the G7 (or it might be because he is in love with Kyrah and is bitter that she rejected him).  They go on the run to evade all of the other operatives now chasing them but they are helped by the spies "Auntie" (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and "Unc" (Clifford "Method Man" Smith), who have some sort of unexplained connection to them.  Eventually, everyone involved ends up on an island off the coast of Colombia for a final confrontation (that lasts forever).  The script is an absolute mess because it relies on having the characters, who are supposed to be the most elite and highly trained covert assassins in the world, make one incomprehensible decision after another in order to sustain the action.  At one point, Kyrah has all five of the operatives she has been chasing for the past four years in her sights (they are literally standing in a row) but she just walks away from them.  At least this afforded us many opportunities to yell at the screen ("Take the shot!") and that was somewhat entertaining.  There are a lot of (unnamed) characters to keep track of and one's betrayal is telegraphed almost from his first appearance and another one's assistance comes out of nowhere (it made me laugh out loud).  With the exception of Kamara, who is adorable, and Sy, who has a few touching moments with Kamara, the acting is incredibly melodramatic (Washington has several monologues that are meant to be poignant but they made my nephew laugh out loud because they are so cheesy).  All of this might be forgiven if the action sequences were exciting but they are edited in such a scattershot way that it is difficult to see what is going on most of the time.  My nephew said that he wasn't expecting this to be great but he also wasn't expecting it to be so bad.

Thunderbolts*

Last night I went to a Thursday preview of Thunderbolts* with my nephew and I can’t remember when I was so excited for an MCU movie!  Luckily, I was not disappointed because I absolutely loved it!  In fact, this is the first time I can say I loved an MCU movie without qualifications in a really long time!  CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is being investigated for illegal activities by Congress so she has her assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) get rid of the evidence against her, including the covert agents who work for her.  Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Antonia Dreykov/ Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Ava Starr/ Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) are lured to a secret underground facility where they are tricked into attacking each other and Ghost kills Taskmaster before they realize that it is a trap.  They also discover a mysterious man named Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman) who creates a diversion that allows them to escape before he is captured by de Fontaine.  The group is eventually recovered by Alexei Shostakov/ Red Guardian (David Harbour) and then apprehended by Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) but they reluctantly decide to work together to rescue Bob when they learn that he was the subject of one of de Fontaine's secret experiments and that, because he now possesses superhuman strength, she plans to use him as the weapon Sentry.  This is very character-driven because they all have a reckoning over the things they have done, especially Yelena because she must reconcile her trauma in order to help Bob face the darkness he feels inside.  As someone who has struggled with mental health issues, I think the portrayal of the Void, the alter ego of the Sentry, is one of the best and most accurate depictions of depression that I've seen (I actually had tears in my eyes several times during the scenes with the Void because they resonated so deeply).  I really enjoyed seeing Bucky take on a leadership role as someone who has also had to make peace with his actions and the relationship between Alexei and Yelena is incredibly poignant (even though Alexei provides much of the comic relief).  Pugh is such a great actress and she gives an incredibly emotional performance throughout Yelena's arc (I was also really impressed with Pullman).  Finally, all of the action set pieces (many of which feature practical effects) are a lot of fun but I found the sequence where the Thunderbolts protect people from the Void and then are hailed as heroes to be especially moving.  It was so much fun to feel the same exhilaration that I once did for the MCU again and I am now really looking forward to Phase Six!

Note:  There is a mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene.  They are both really good!