Undertone

I was excited to see Undertone at a matinee yesterday because it got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year.  I found it to be incredibly unsettling!  Evangeline "Evy" Babig (Nina Kiri), the host of a popular podcast about paranormal activity with her friend Justin (Adam DiMarco), has moved back into her childhood home to care for her comatose mother (Michele Duquet) who is in the last stages of a terminal illness.  The old house is filled with religious iconography which unnerves Evy because she is an unbeliever.  Justin receives an anonymous email that includes ten audio files of a couple named Jessa (Keana Lyn Bastidas) and Mike (Jeff Yung) as they seemingly become possessed by a demon known for driving mothers to murder their own children.  They decide to record an episode for their podcast using the audio files with Evy as the skeptic and Justin as the believer.  However, as they listen, Evy begins to experience the same phenomena as the couple and she spirals into madness.  Kiri and Duquet are the only actors who appear on screen so most of what happens is depicted through sound.  It is incredibly immersive, and disturbing, because the audience hears what Evy hears and it is easy to believe that the sounds are coming from inside the house because of the way the dark and empty spaces are filmed.  There were many moments when I thought I saw something lurking in the shadows in response to something I heard.  It is one of the most atmospheric movies I have seen and the escalating dread is unbelievably intense.  What I loved most is that, unlike many recent horror movies, the ending is ambiguous (Evy could be possessed or she could be the victim of her own isolation, grief, and guilt) so the tension painstakingly created in the first two acts is not derailed by a tedious explanation in the third.  See this in a theater with the best sound capability possible!

The Secret Agent

The second movie in my double feature featuring the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture yesterday was The Secret Agent (click on the titles to read my commentaries for Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and Train Dreams).  There is a lot to unpack but I found this to be absolutely riveting.  During the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1977,  Armando Solimoes (Wagner Moura) is a former science professor on the run from a phony corruption charge brought by Henrique Ghirotti (Luciano Chirolli), the head of a utilities company who is threatened by his research.  He arrives in Recife during Carnival to visit his son Fernando (Enzo Nunes) who lives with his maternal grandparents (Carlos Francisco and Aline Marta Maia) after the murder of his wife Fatima (Alice Carvalho).  He stays at a safe house for political dissidents run by Dona Sabastiana (Tania Maria), adopts the name Marcelo Alves, and is aided by a resistance leader named Anisio (Buda Lira) who inadvertently involves him with the corrupt chief of police Euclides (Roberio Diogenes).  He learns from another resistance leader named Elza (Maria Fernanda Candido) that Ghirotti has hired two hitmen, Augusto (Roney Villela) and Bobbi (Gabriel Leone), to kill him so he decides to flee with his son.  Mayhem ensues.  The action is nonlinear and there are a lot of characters to keep track of so I only had the vaguest notion of what was going on at any given time (it is definitely a slow burn with lots of colorful details specific to the time and place) but everything mostly comes together in the conclusion even if that conclusion is abrupt and a bit anticlimactic.  What I found most compelling is the portrayal of the sometimes absurd (the corrupt police chief is trying to cover up the discovery of a leg found in the body of a shark) and often cruel reality of living under a military dictatorship and the escalating tension surrounding Armando's uncertain fate is almost unbearable.  Moura's performance is captivating because he is playing multiple versions of himself in different timelines (he even plays the adult version of his son in present day) and the changes in characterization are subtle but powerful.  Finally, I loved the 1970s vibe in the costumes, production design, and soundtrack (the use of vintage camera equipment also adds to the period verisimilitude).  I have not been able to stop thinking about this and I highly recommend it!

Note:  Now that I have seen all of the nominees, I want Sinners to win Best Picture but I wouldn't mind if One Battle After the Other does.

Train Dreams

When the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture were announced last month, there were two movies that I had not seen yet (click on the titles to read my commentaries on Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Sentimental Value, and Sinners).  Since I always like to see each of the nominees on the big screen, I went to a double feature for the remaining movies yesterday beginning with Train Dreams.  It is a hauntingly beautiful and meditative look at the extraordinary story of America at the beginning of the 20th century through the eyes of an ordinary man.  Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) is brought to the Pacific Northwest on a train as an orphan with no recollection of his parents and spends his early years alone and without purpose until he meets and falls in love with Gladys (Felicity Jones).  They build a cabin on an acre of land near a river and have a daughter named Kate but he is forced to leave them for long periods of time to work in the logging and railroad industries which transform the country.  As he witnesses the rapid growth taking place around him, he has many experiences, including a series of tragedies involving strangers, co-workers, and family members, which cause him to search for meaning.  What I loved most about the narrative is that there is no answer and yet Grainier still continues to live with hope and the memories of those lost all around him.  It is slow but incredibly moving and I loved Edgerton's restrained performance (one of his very best) because he is able to evoke so many emotions with very little dialogue (so much so that the voice-over narration by Will Patton sometimes feels intrusive).  There is a large supporting cast of characters who drift in and out of Grainier's life but I especially loved William H. Macy as Arn Peeples, a grizzled explosives expert, and Kerry Condon as Claire Thompson, a surveyor for the U.S. Forest Service.  The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous (I lost count of how many times I was mesmerized by the beauty of a particular shot) and the atmospheric score by Bryce Dessner enhances the otherworldly vibe.  I really loved this and highly recommend it!

Hoppers

I thought the trailer for Hoppers was a bit weird but I decided to see it last night because the response has been overwhelmingly positive.  I am so glad I did because I ended up really enjoying it!  Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) is an animal lover who learned an appreciation for nature from her grandmother (Karen Huie).  After her grandmother's death, she becomes determined to save the forest glade she visited with her as a child from a freeway overpass developed by Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm).  She turns to her biology professor, Dr. Samantha "Sam" Fairfax (Kathy Najimy), for help and inadvertently discovers her secret research project, known as "Hoppers," which allows human consciousness to hop into a lifelike animal robot in order to interact with real animals.  Thinking that she can encourage the animals to return to the glade by becoming one of them, she hops into a beaver and escapes from the lab even though Dr. Sam warns her against interfering with the natural order.  She befriends the Mammal King, a beaver named George (Bobby Moynihan), and persuades him and the other beavers to build a new dam in the glade.  However, when this effort fails, George appeals to the Animal Council which includes the Insect Queen (Meryl Streep) and her son Titus (Dave Franco), the Amphibian King (Steven Purcell), the Fish Queen (Ego Nwodim), the Reptile Queens (Nichole Sakura), and the Bird King (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.).  Chaos ensues when Mabel's impassioned plea persuades the Council, and the new Insect King Titus, to assassinate Jerry.  The narrative becomes a bit unwieldy at this point but I really loved the ultimate message about cooperation, compromise, and coexistence because it is both powerful and timely.  I also really loved Mabel's character arc because she thinks that she is the only one who cares about the environment and trying to make a difference all by herself feels daunting but she eventually succeeds when she finds community and is willing to listen to what others have to say.  The character design is adorable, the animation showing the natural world is beautiful, the action sequences are exciting (especially the scene in which a shark is used as an assassin), and the comedy is a lot of fun (the montage of building the dam to "Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy made me laugh out loud).  I was very pleasantly surprised by this and highly recommend it!

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

I love the show Peaky Blinders (I recently rewatched all six seasons and was reminded again of how brilliant it is) so I was beyond excited to see Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man with my nephew.  I have been disappointed with some of my most anticipated movies lately but luckily, despite my impossibly high expectations, that was definitely not the case last night!  In the midst of the Blitz, Erasmus "Duke" Shelby (Barry Keoghan) is running the Peaky Blinders with a recklessness that worries Ada (Sophie Rundle).  She visits Tommy (Cillian Murphy), who is now living in self-imposed exile with Johnny Dogs (Packy Lee), to get him to intervene with his son but he is consumed by the ghosts of his past.  However, when Duke is recruited by John Beckett (Tim Roth), a Nazi sympathizer involved in a plot to destabilize the economy of England, Tommy is visited by a gypsy medium named Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson) with a message from her dead sister Zelda, Duke's mother.  He will only find the peace he is searching for if he saves his son so he makes a dramatic return to Birmingham.  After another tragedy and a physical confrontation between the two of them, Tommy and Duke form a plan with Hayden Stagg (Stephen Graham) to stop Beckett but can Tommy trust Duke?  Much like the series, this is stylish and intense with a compelling plot that subverts expectations, outstanding performances (especially from Murphy and Keoghan), and an epic soundtrack.  The action sequences are thrilling and I loved seeing the Peaky Blinders do the iconic slow-motion walk in formation along the canal.  In fact, I was practically giggling out loud at all of the call-backs to the show, especially the scene in which Tommy rides through the streets of Birmingham on horseback with an updated version of "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds because it mimics the opening scene in the first episode.  I do think the villain is a bit underdeveloped compared to other storylines (a casualty of only having two hours rather than six) but I really enjoyed Duke's character arc and I think Tommy has a more emotionally satisfying conclusion.  I loved this and think fans of the show will love it, too!

Note:  I wish that I had worn a peaked cap because so many in the audience were wearing them!

The Bride

Last night my nephew and I went to see The Bride, one of my most anticipated movies of 2026, with a large crowd at the Broadway.  I appreciate Maggie Gyllenhaal's bold swing for the fences but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would.  The spirit of Mary Shelley (Jessie Buckley) possesses a gangster's moll named Ida (Jessie Buckley), who lives in Chicago in 1936, because she was denied the opportunity to tell the next chapter in Frankenstein's story when she was alive.  While Ida is possessed, she identifies the victims of the crime boss Lupino (Zlatko Buric) to a crowded speakeasy so he sends his henchmen Clyde (John Magaro) and James (Matthew Maher) to deal with her and she dies after falling down a flight of stairs.  Frankenstein's monster (Christian Bale), a lonely cinephile who idolizes the actor Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), visits Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening) and he convinces her to create a companion for him using the body of Ida.  She is reanimated but cannot remember who she is so Frank tells her that she is his bride.  Frank eventually kills two people who harass Ida and they are forced to go on the run while Detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant Myrna Malloy (Penelope Cruz) pursue them.  Ida is also forced to kill multiple times when possessed by Mary's rage and this incites a revolution of women who are tired of being silenced but it also gets the attention of Lupino who sends Clyde after her.  This leads to the inevitable confrontation.  There is a lot going on in the narrative and it is often very messy with wild tonal shifts.  Furthermore, the message is unclear.  I think I get what Gyllenhaal is going for (a woman finally finds her voice and a so-called monster is vilified by men who are the true monsters), but she doesn't quite get there because Ida speaks with Mary's voice, which often horrifies her, rather than her own and Frank's behavior is still very problematic.  Having said that, I loved the cinematography and the visuals, especially the use of Ida's bright orange dress against an almost black and white background because it is so striking.  I also loved the scenes in which Frank inserts himself into Ronnie Reed's movies and the scene in which he and Ida recreate a big production number is seriously cool.  Bale gives an incredibly nuanced performance as the lonely monster but Buckley is absolutely unhinged (in the best possible way) and you cannot take your eyes off her!  This is a mixed bag for me because it is definitely a case of style over substance but I have to admit that I really enjoyed the style!

Scream 7

Despite the controversy surrounding Scream 7, I thought the trailer was really intriguing so I decided to see a Thursday preview with my nephew last night.  I am only a casual fan of the franchise but I was incredibly disappointed with this installment (I am 0 for 3 with movies this week).  When Ghostface sets fire to the Macher house in Woodsboro, California after killing a couple spending the night there as part of the "Macher Experience," there is speculation that Stu (Matthew Lillard) is still alive.  Sidney Prescott-Evans (Neve Campbell) now lives with her husband Mark (Joel McHale) and daughter Tatum (Isabel May) in quiet Pine Grove, Indiana.  When she receives a video call from Ghostface threatening Tatum, she is unnerved when the killer unmasks and it is Stu.  However, when her family is attacked, Ghostface is revealed to be a mentally ill serial killer.  She suspects that the call was AI and begins investigating with Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) but soon all of Tatum's friends, including Hannah (McKenna Grace), Lucas (Asa Germann), Chloe (Celeste O'Connor), and Ben (Sam Rechner), are brutally killed.  Eventually, Tatum must confront Ghostface in a scene that mirrors what happened to Sidney 30 years ago.  I did not mind the nostalgia that some have taken issue with because I think the dynamic between Sidney and Tatum, and her fear of passing on generational trauma to her daughter, is very compelling.  I also liked the subplot with Gale as she passes the torch of reporting on Ghostface to the Meeks-Martin twins (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding).  There are even some really grisly kills and I did enjoy the opening sequence.  In fact, I liked the first two acts well enough despite the fact that the meta-commentary about horror tropes that makes these movies so much fun is largely missing.  What is most disappointing is the ridiculous and underwhelming Ghostface reveal because the motivation is convoluted and makes absolutely no sense (it also makes one of the kills truly diabolical).  What I also found incredibly frustrating is that, in my opinion, the perfect ending (to the movie and to the franchise if this is actually the final one) was right there.  Ugh!  Definitely avoid this!

Midwinter Break

The second movie in the double feature with my nephew last night was Midwinter Break and, based on the trailer, this looked like the kind of slow-burn drama that I usually enjoy.  However, I found it even more disappointing than the first movie we saw.  Stella (Lesley Manville) and Gerry (Ciaran Hinds) are an older couple who seem companionable but have grown apart so Stella surprises him with a trip to Amsterdam for Christmas.  They excitedly pack, gush about their hotel room, and begin seeing all of the usual sights.  However, as they visit churches for her and pubs for him, flashbacks slowly reveal that Stella was the victim of an attack forty years ago during the troubles in Northern Ireland.  She views her survival as a miracle and, as a result, she is extremely devout but he views what happened as a failure to protect her and buries his pain in alcohol.  Tensions, which appear after he mocks her piety and she criticizes his drinking, eventually force them to address their long-buried trauma.  There are way too many tedious scenes in which Stella and Gerry do everything but talk about what is wrong (she tries to pretend that everything is fine and he is completely oblivious) and I spent most of the runtime waiting for some kind of catharsis which, when it does happen, is incredibly rushed and anticlimactic.  The ambiguous resolution also left me feeling very frustrated and made me wonder what the point was.  Manville and Hinds are brilliant actors but not even they can elevate this dull material into something compelling.  I did enjoy the beautiful cinematography featuring the city of Amsterdam (and my nephew loved the soundtrack) but I recommend giving this a miss.

How to Make a Killing

Last night my nephew and I had a double feature and we started with How to Make a Killing.  I was really looking forward to this because the trailer reminded me of the hilarious stage musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (both are inspired by the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets) but, unfortunately, it was very disappointing.  Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) is visited by a priest (Adrian Lukas) hours before his scheduled execution for murder.  He recounts the events that led him to his fate beginning with when his mother Mary Redfellow (Nell Williams) was disinherited by her wealthy father Whitelaw Redfellow (Ed Harris) for becoming pregnant with him.  His mother tells him that, even though there are seven people ahead of him, he is still in line to inherit the vast Redfellow fortune and, when he reconnects with his childhood crush Julia Steinway (Margaret Qualley), she gives him the idea to kill all of them to get the money.  Party boy Taylor Redfellow (Raff Law), photographer Noah Redfellow (Zach Woods), megachurch leader Steven Redfellow (Topher Grace), philanthropist Cassandra Redfellow (Bianca Amato), and pilot McArthur Redfellow (Alexander Hanson) all die under unusual circumstances but suspicious FBI Agents Brad Matthews (Stevel Marc) and Megan Pinfield (Phumi Tau) are unable to prove Becket was involved.  He eventually inherits the fortune when stock broker Warren Redfellow (Bill Camp) dies from a heart attack and when he shoots the patriarch of the family, Whitelaw Redfellow, in self-defense but complications ensue when he begins a relationship with Noah's ex-girlfriend Ruth (Jessica Henwick) and when Julia wants in on the fortune.  What I love most about the musical, which is one of my favorites, is the manic energy as each member of the family is dispatched in an absurd and completely over the top sequence.  This version is strangely inert because it plays it straight with an eat the rich message that becomes muddled in the third act and the family members have little more than cameos in scenes without any bite.  Powell's charisma is wasted, in my opinion, as a character that is surprisingly bland and Qualley does not do much beyond displaying her long legs for the camera.  I wanted this to be funny, or at the very least satirical, but I found it boring and I recommend giving it a miss.

Pillion

Last night I went to see Pillion at the Broadway and I was surprised by how much I loved it!  Colin (Harry Melling) is a timid young gay man who lives with his parents Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), works a menial job as a parking lot attendant, and spends his free time singing with a barbershop quartet.  When a blind date arranged by his mother proves disappointing, he catches the eye of a handsome and enigmatic leader of a biker gang named Ray (Alexander Skarsgard) which leads to an awkward sexual encounter.  Colin is very inexperienced but Ray quickly initiates him into the world of BDSM as his submissive and he soon proves his aptitude for devotion.  Colin is so desperate for a connection that he allows Ray to have complete control but, as their relationship progresses, he demands more autonomy which Ray initially refuses.  However, Ray eventually begins to allow more and more intimacy but his feelings for Colin overwhelm him and he suddenly disappears from his life.  Colin emerges from the relationship devastated but with more confidence and a greater understanding of his own boundaries which ultimately leads to a new partner.  This is explicit (although, in my opinion, it is not shockingly so) but it is also a very tender love story where both men are transformed by being together even if they cannot stay together.  There are powerful turning points for each of them, including when Colin steals Ray's motorcycle and feels the freedom of actually controlling the bike rather than riding pillion and when Ray kisses Colin for the first time and realizes that he loves him (Ray's moment of truth is more subtle than Colin's but it is no less compelling).  This is also features a lot more humor than I was expecting, especially the scene in which Colin meets up with Ray for the first time with his family's long-haired dachshund only to see that Ray has a rottweiler (it perfectly telegraphs their eventual relationship without saying a word).  Finally, both Skarsgard and Melling give brilliant performances.  I have to admit that my motivation for seeing this movie was Skarsgard, and he is both sexy and vulnerable as Ray, but I was especially impressed by Melling because his portrayal of Colin's journey to self-discovery is incredibly dynamic and I was particularly struck by the difference in his demeanor in the two scenes with his barbershop quartet.  I highly recommend this with the proviso that some of the sex scenes might make some people uncomfortable.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Last night my nephew and I went to see Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie at the Broadway and it is a hoot!  Canadian filmmakers Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol play fictionalized versions of themselves in this mockumentary based on the web series and, later, the television show Nirvanna the Band the Show (you don't need to be familiar with either because the movie definitely works on its own).  Matt and Jay are musicians who form Nirvanna the Band in 2008 and create a series of elaborate plans, always detailed on a white board, to get a gig playing at the Rivoli in Toronto.  When their latest plan to get publicity for their band by skydiving from the CN Tower into the SkyDome goes horribly wrong seventeen years later, Jay is exasperated when Matt comes up with yet another plan.  This one involves converting an RV into a time machine inspired by Back to the Future in order to travel back to 2008 for reasons but, when it actually works after Matt's last bottle of Orbitz is spilled in the flux capacitor, Jay takes steps to change the future by interacting with his younger self.  However, once they return to 2025, Jay regrets his actions so he convinces Matt to go to 2008 again to change things back. Complications ensue when they cannot find another bottle of the discontinued Orbitz and have to execute another plan involving the CN Tower.  The physical comedy is absolutely hilarious because it is filmed as a documentary with cameras following all of their stunts (the scenes at the CN Tower were filmed without permits and they used a GoPro positioned on a tour guide without his knowledge) and the reactions from the crowds they interact with are genuine (and so quintessentially Canadian).  It is also extremely amusing when they periodically break the fourth wall, especially when they talk about the potential copyright issues for all of the movies they reference.  This is one of the funniest comedies I've seen in a long time (I saw it with a big crowd and heard people laughing out loud the entire time) but it also has a surprisingly touching message about friendship.  Definitely seek this one out because you will have so much fun watching it!

Note:  I grew up about an hour south of Toronto and have returned several times since moving to the United States to see Blue Jays and Maple Leafs games so I enjoyed all of the inside jokes about the city.  I laughed out loud every time they referred to the baseball stadium as the SkyDome.  The name changed to the Rogers Centre in 2005 but the locals still call it the SkyDome!

Wuthering Heights

Last night I finally had the chance to see Wuthering Heights at the Broadway and, even though they may take away my English degree, I liked it.  The volatile Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) returns to Wuthering Heights, his Gothic estate, with a young boy (Owen Cooper) he rescued off the streets.  His daughter Catherine (Charlotte Mellington) adopts him as her pet, names him Heathcliff, and the two become inseparable, much to the dismay of Catherine's paid companion Nelly (Vy Nguyen), the illegitimate daughter of a lord.  Cathy (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) develop intense but unrequited feelings for each other as the years pass but Mr. Earnshaw lets Wuthering Heights fall into disrepair through his drinking and gambling so she contemplates marrying Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), a wealthy textile merchant who lives in neighboring Thrushcross Grange, to escape her circumstances.  She encourages his attentions and accepts his proposal but confesses to Nelly (Hong Chau) that she loves Heathcliff and is having second thoughts.  However, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights unaware that Cathy loves him so she reluctantly marries Linton.  Her life at Thrushcross Grange is luxurious but empty so when Heathcliff returns as a gentleman with a mysterious fortune she begins a passionate affair with him.  Cathy is overcome with guilt and ends the affair so Heathcliff marries Linton's ward Isabella (Alison Oliver) to make her jealous which leads to tragedy.  Emerald Fennell takes many liberties with the novel by Emily Bronte to emphasize the tragic love story between Cathy and Heathcliff but what this version retains, in my opinion, is the scathing criticism of the rigid class system with the character of Nelly.  Much like Farleigh in Saltburn, Nelly is not a member of the aristocracy as represented by the Earnshaws (or even the wealthy merchant class represented by the Lintons) but neither is she a servant like Heathcliff.  She has no agency but she considers herself above all of these characters and manipulates their self-indulgent and self-destructive behavior to emerge as a survivor.  In addition to this intriguing social commentary, I absolutely loved the bold visuals.  The juxtaposition between Wuthering Heights, which is dark and foreboding and dominated by the intrusion of nature, and Thrushcross Grange, which is unnaturally bright and colorful and full of artifice (even in the costumes), is very striking and symbolic.  I also enjoyed the gorgeous cinematography on the moors and the atmospheric score.  Robbie and Elordi have tremendous chemistry (although I was expecting their scenes to be a lot more provocative) and I liked that their characterizations are appropriately unsympathetic but I was much more intrigued by the performances from Clunes, Oliver, and Hau.  I definitely enjoyed this more when I viewed it as inspired by, rather than adapted from, the novel and I recommend it as such.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die

Late last night I went to see Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die and it is absolutely bonkers!  An unnamed man (Sam Rockwell) from a dystopian future arrives in the present day and takes all of the patrons of a popular Los Angeles diner hostage.  He is looking for a specific combination of people to help him save the fate of humanity but tells them that, since this is his 117th attempt, he is not very optimistic about their chances for survival.  He eventually coerces Bob (Daniel Barnett), Marie (Georgia Goodman), Scott (Asim Chaudhry), and the couple Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beetz) to join him and then Susan (Juno Temple) and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) volunteer for reasons.  He explains that people in the future have become obsessed with virtual reality to the exclusion of their own reality and, as a result, the natural resources in the real world have run out causing a catastrophic number of deaths.  The only hope for the future is to find the nine-year-old boy responsible for creating the AI that is about to take over the world and install a safety protocol into the program (he doesn't want to destroy the program because he believes that AI is inevitable). However, there are forces working against him and mayhem ensues. I enjoyed the surreal tone and the satirical humor made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion but there is also a powerful message about the dangers of technology that really resonated with me, especially the scene showing students enslaved to their phones.  I also enjoyed Rockwell's performance because he commits fully to the insanity.  His physicality is almost manic and it is fun to watch, particularly when he is trying to convince the customers at the diner that the world is about to end.  I sometimes found the pacing to be a bit off because the action is periodically interrupted by flashbacks to the backstories of some of the characters and, while these are interesting and inform what is happening, the transitions back to the present are jarring.  I also think the third act is unwieldy and goes on far too long (the drawn out explanations of several twists become very tedious).  This was a mixed bag for me but it is entertaining and I recommend it to those who appreciate a bold, if not always effective, swing for the fences.

Crime 101

Yesterday my nephew and I were able to catch a matinee of Crime 101 and we both really liked it.  Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is a jewel thief who uses inside information to plan heists along Highway 101 that involve stealing from couriers without the use of violence.  Det. Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) suspects that all of these robberies are the work of one man but no one, including his exasperated partner Det. Tillman (Corey Hawkins), agrees with him.  When Mike refuses to do a job, his fence Money (Nick Nolte) gives it to an incredibly unstable and violent biker named Ormon (Barry Keoghan) and, when the job goes wrong, Mike is angry about the casualties.  He decides to do one final job on his own after beginning a romantic relationship with Maya (Monica Barbaro) and enlists the help of Sharon Combs (Halle Berry), a disgruntled insurance broker, to get information about one of her wealthy clients (Tate Donovan).  Money doesn't want to miss out on Mike's job so he has Ormon follow him to steal back what he steals.  Complications ensue when all of these characters become involved with the execution of the heist.  This is an incredibly stylish neo-noir crime thriller but it is also much more character-driven than I was expecting.  I especially enjoyed the arcs for Mike, Lou, and Sharon because all three of them are easy to root for despite their questionable behavior (the resolution is perfect).  I loved the requisite car chases with the equally requisite synth score as well as the dynamic camera angles and use of reflections (I've seen a lot of comparisons to Michael Mann's Heat but, in my opinion, this is not a negative).  Finally, the entire cast is great (Hemsworth is very well suited to his role and Keoghan adds another little freak to his collection) but Berry steals the show with her tough, yet vulnerable, performance as a woman who is fed up with broken promises.  This is highly entertaining and I definitely recommend it.

A Private Life

I was really exited to see Jodie Foster in a role that is almost entirely in French (she swears in English) so I went to see A Private Life at the Broadway last night.  Her performance is even more captivating than I was expecting.  Dr. Lillian Steiner (Foster) is an American psychiatrist living in Paris.  When Paula (Virginie Efira), one of her long-term patients, commits suicide, her husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric) and daughter Valerie (Luana Bajrami) hold Lillian responsible because she used pills that Lillian prescribed to kill herself.  However, when Lillian discovers that the prescription was altered, she suspects that Paula was murdered by one of them and enlists her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) to help her find the truth.  At first I found the narrative to be incredibly messy, with subplots involving a disgruntled former patient (Noem Morgensztern), a son (Vincent Lacoste) with whom she has a distant relationship, and a hypnotist (Sophie Guillemin) who reveals the possibility of childhood trauma and a past life that informs the present, but there is a moment when everything comes together and what I thought was just a murder mystery becomes a psychological character study about a woman in the midst of a breakdown.  Even though some of the ideas are underdeveloped and the tone is a bit inconsistent (some of the humor is very jarring), it is definitely a lot more complex and thought-provoking than some might suggest.  What everyone can agree on is that Foster is outstanding (her French is flawless) and gives a highly nuanced performance in which she is cold and detached but slowly becomes more and more vulnerable as Lillian investigates a suspicious death and her own psyche.  The rest of the cast is great as well, especially Auteuil who has a surprisingly sexy and playful chemistry with Foster.  I also loved the stylish interiors (especially all of the spiral staircases) and the rainy autumnal exteriors around Paris.  This is the kind of movie that really appeals to me (but might not appeal to others) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sundance Film Festival 2026

I wasn't very interested in the lineup but, since this was the final year that Utah would be hosting the Sundance Film Festival, I knew that I had to attend at least one screening to bid farewell to something that has been a part of my life for well over a decade.  I ended up seeing The Weight last night at the Rose Wagner with my nephew and I think it is incredibly appropriate that I ended with a film starring Ethan Hawke because I have seen so many of his films at Sundance over the years!  Both my nephew and I liked it because it feels like an old school Western but it is set in the Pacific Northwest during the Great Depression.  Samuel Murphy (Hawke) is a widower arrested for fighting and sent to a convict labor camp run by Clancy (Russell Crowe).  He is separated from his young daughter Penny (Avy Berry) and he is desperate to get back to her before she becomes a ward of the state and eligible for adoption.  Clancy is impressed by Murphy's ingenuity and offers him an early release if he smuggles gold from a mine run by his associate Taggert (Alec Newman) and transports it through a dangerous forest to a safe location before the federal government can confiscate it.  Murphy agrees and sets off with three other convicts, Rankin (Austin Amelio), Singh (Avi Nash), and Olson (Lucas Lynggaad Tonnesen), two armed guards from the mine, Amis (Sam Hazeldine) and Big (Jeffrey Lee Hallman), and Anna (Julia Jones), an indigenous woman on the run who joins them, on a perilous journey with higher stakes than he imagines.  It is incredibly tense (at one point everyone in the theater gasped out loud) because they face dangers from nature, from a miner (Cameron Brady) who happens upon them and suspects what they are doing, and shifting dynamics within the group.  It does sometimes get bogged down in between the action sequences but they are great, especially one on a suspension bridge and one during a thunder storm.  Hawke gives a riveting performance that hearkens back to classic Westerns as a rugged and resourceful loner on a mission and the locations are gorgeous.  It was really fun to experience this with a Sundance crowd and I will really miss the festival.

I have so many to choose from but here are some of my favorite memories from the festival:

Whenever I saw a screening at the Rose Wagner, I always tried to sit in the same seat and at one screening I got chatting with a volunteer about my preference.  During the next screening, I noticed that this seat had a reserved sign on it.  The volunteer had put the sign on "my" seat so that I would be sure to get it!

I saw Hereditary at the old Tower Theater which is incredibly atmospheric (and probably haunted) and therefore a great place to see a horror film.  I jumped out of my seat and screamed out loud during an especially tense scene and so did everyone sitting around me.  It is one of the most memorable movie viewing experiences I have had!

When I was teaching, I was able to take my students to the free screenings offered by the Sundance Institute.  One year I had a group who really enjoyed reading Hamlet so I was beyond excited when we were able to see Ophelia.  They loved the film and all of their discussions on the bus ride home comparing it to the play made my teacher heart want to burst!

I am a big fan of the musical Hamilton so I had a fangirl moment when Daveed Diggs, who originated the role of Lafayette/ Thomas Jefferson, showed up for the Q&A after the screening for Blindspotting. I may or may not have screamed when he came to the stage.

I loved being able to talk to people who also have a passion for film while standing in line and I eventually became friends with several people who came to the festival year after year.  I always looked forward to seeing them and I am so glad that I got to connect with a few of them last night!

My favorite films seen at Sundance are Manchester by the Sea, A Ghost Story, Nine Days, Past Lives, and Sorry, Baby.

H is for Hawk

Yesterday I went to a matinee of H is for Hawk, an adaptation of the best-selling memoir of the same name by Helen Macdonald, and I found it to be incredibly moving.  Macdonald (Claire Foy) is a fellow at Cambridge University who is grief-stricken over the sudden death of her beloved father Alistair (Brendan Gleeson).  She is assaulted by memories of her father, especially their bird watching excursions together, so she decides to get an Eurasian goshawk, a particularly aggressive bird of prey, in order to keep these memories alive.  She subsumes her grief into bonding with and training the bird she names Mabel which causes her to abandon her research and teaching responsibilities and avoid her worried family and friends.  However, it is when she observes Mabel hunting that she begins to understand the necessity of life and death in nature which leads to acceptance and healing.  This is a very powerful portrayal of grief and I was particularly struck by how the memories of her father would randomly overwhelm Helen when she least expected them because that is my own experience with grief over the death of my father.  Her interactions with Alistair, shown through flashbacks, are so poignant that I had tears in my eyes on more than one occasion (Gleeson gives a lovely performance).  I also loved the strangely compelling interactions between Helen and Mabel (I wonder how long some of these sequences took to film and how much training Foy received because they appear so authentic) and the beautiful cinematography as Mabel flies through the sky hunting for prey.  Foy gives an amazing performance, in my opinion, because, even though it is incredibly restrained, you understand everything that Helen is feeling just by her body language and facial expressions.  This is a very slow and introspective movie so it might not be for everyone but its themes resonated very deeply with me and I loved it.

Shelter

If there is an action movie starring Jason Statham released in January I will be seated so my nephew and I went to see Shelter last night.  It is exactly what I expected and I liked it!  Michael Mason (Statham) is living in self-imposed exile on an isolated island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland for reasons.  His only contact with the outside world is a former Royal Marine with whom he served and his teenage niece Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) who deliver supplies to him every week.  When their boat capsizes during a turbulent storm, Mason is able to rescue Jessie but she sustains an injury that necessitates a trip to the mainland where he is caught on surveillance cameras.  This triggers a response from MI6, including an agent named Roberta Frost (Naomi Ackie) who believes that he is a priority-one terrorist and dispatches an attack force to the island, and Steven Manafort (Bill Nighy), the former director of MI6, who knows who he really is and sends a covert operative named Workman (Bryan Vigier) to kill him.  Mason takes Jessie on the run, calling on contacts from his past to help him, but will he be able to elude MI6 to get her to safety?  The story is both convoluted, with a nefarious plot involving a shady surveillance program called T.H.E.A. authorized by the prime minister (Harriet Walter) and a black-ops organization run by Manafort, and frustratingly vague, with hints about Jessie's identity that go nowhere, but it hardly matters because that is not why audiences see these movies!  The non-stop action sequences are a lot of fun, even if they are not particularly groundbreaking, and I especially enjoyed a sequence on the island involving booby traps, a car chase over rugged terrain, a stylish shoot-out in a nightclub, and two fights involving hand-to-hand combat (and the use of several ordinary objects close to hand).  Statham is his usual taciturn self but I liked the relationship that develops between Mason and Jessie (Breathnach is very appealing) and I always love seeing Nighy.  This is a decent entry in Statham's action filmography (I liked it more than last year's A Working Man but not as much as The Beekeeper) and I recommend it to fans of the actor.

The Testament of Ann Lee

I have been looking forward to The Testament of Ann Lee ever since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last fall so I was really excited to see it at the Broadway with my nephew last night.  A musical about a historical figure seems like something I would love but I did not love this.  It documents the life of Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), the founder of the Shaker movement, beginning with her childhood in Manchester yearning for God with her brother William (Lewis Pullman), her affiliation with a sect of Quakers who use boisterous song and dance to worship, her marriage to a believer named Abraham (Christopher Abbott), the loss of four children who die in infancy, her imprisonment for disturbing the peace during which she has a vision about the Garden of Eden and original sin, her subsequent edict that believers should practice celibacy, her proclamation as the female Messiah, the persecution that leads her to take her followers to New England, the establishment of a utopian settlement, conflicts with the Continental Army for her group's pacifism and skirmishes with angry mobs who suspect her of witchcraft, and her death amidst a thriving community.  The story is told through rapturous music and dynamic choreography inspired by the spastic movements made during worship and, at first I found this to be very compelling, but it soon grows monotonous as the same words and steps are repeated over and over.  My favorite musical scene was "All Is Summer" because, even though the lyrics and choreography are repetitive, it takes place on the ship coming to America and shows the followers dancing in all kinds of weather (the editing in this scene is amazing).  The narrative often feels like a mere recitation of facts about Lee, complete with endless narration by Sister Mary (Thomasin McKenzie), and it moves quickly from event to event without a lot of in depth exploration.  I did not learn anything of substance about Lee or her movement.  Despite a tremendous performance from Seyfried, Lee is portrayed as a charismatic leader of a cult rather than a religious figure of importance and so much of what is perceived as miraculous about her ministry is debunked (her vision is shown as a hallucination after days without food or water and her divinely inspired message about celibacy is just a response to years of sexual trauma). I did love the cinematography (particularly the overhead shots), the production design (the scenes of woodworking and furniture making, which also go on for too long, are very authentic), and the beautiful visuals that look like period paintings but I definitely didn't enjoy this as much as I was expecting.

Send Help

Last night my nephew and I were able to see an early access screening of Send Help and I thought it was a lot of fun.  After Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien) takes over as CEO from his father, he gives the promotion meant for the socially awkward Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) to his less qualified fraternity brother Donovan (Xavier Samuel).  He treats her in a very demeaning and sexist way but takes her on an important trip to Thailand because he knows that she will do all of the work.  When their plane crashes in the middle of the ocean, they are the only survivors and are stranded on a seemingly deserted island.  Linda uses her superior survival skills to care for an injured Bradley and find food, water, and shelter but, when he becomes angry about the reversal in their roles and criticizes her for not finding a way off the island, she leaves him to fend for himself.  He suffers from exposure, hunger, and dehydration before he eventually apologizes for his behavior, both on the island and in the office, but this makes him even more determined to take control.  Who will survive?  This definitely features some gory horror elements, especially a scene involving a wild boar, but I loved all of the dark humor as two completely unhinged characters keep shifting the power dynamic between them.  I found it very riveting and I eagerly anticipated every increasingly sadistic thing that Bradley and Linda do to each other.  I couldn't wait to see who would ultimately survive (and I kept going back and forth about who I wanted to survive because of all the surprising twists and turns).  Both McAdams and O'Brien are fantastic because they fully commit to the madness but also have moments of vulnerability that give their characters added dimension and they have great chemistry.  I thoroughly enjoyed this wildly entertaining mix of the horror, comedy, and psychological thriller genres and recommend it to fans of Sam Raimi.