The Accountant 2

I went to see The Accountant on a whim and was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it so I was really looking forward to the sequel.  I had the chance to see a Thursday preview of The Accountant 2 last night with my nephew and, unfortunately, I found it a bit underwhelming.  Raymond King (J.K. Simmons), a retired Treasury Agent now working as a private investigator, meets with a mysterious woman named Anaïs (Danielle Pineda) in the course of his search for a family of three from El Salvador who went missing while crossing the border into the U.S.  During their meeting, King is ambushed by assassins but manages to write a message to find the accountant on his arm before he is killed.  King's former colleague at the Treasury Department, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), sees the message and reaches out to Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) through his handler Justine (Allison Robertson) at Harbor Neuroscience.  Medina and Wolff begin working together to solve King's murder but eventually unravel a vast human trafficking organization run by Burke (Robert Morgan) and they recruit Wolff's estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) to help find Anaïs and the missing family.  The central mystery is very convoluted and there were many times when I had no idea who a character was or how they were involved in the story (and after a while I didn't really care who was who).  I was also disappointed by how much Wolff relies on his cadre of students at Harbor Neuroscience and their hacking skills rather than his own extraordinary abilities to solve the puzzle (which is what I liked about the first movie).  There are some fun action sequences but, in my opinion, the culminating gunfight in a detention camp in Mexico is tedious because it is incredibly far-fetched, to the point of incredulity, and it goes on way too long.  I did really like the dynamic between Affleck and Bernthal as brothers who each have their own way of finding information in some hilarious scenes and as brothers who are trying to forge a relationship with each other despite these differences in some touching ones.  This was a mixed bag for me and I suspect people who are fans of buddy comedies or action movies will like it but fans of the first movie might not.

Pride & Prejudice

Believe it or not I didn't see Joe Wright's adaptation of Pride & Prejudice when it was first released because I didn't think it could possibly compare to the BBC version and I couldn't see Keira Knightley as my very favorite character from literature.  Of course I now love it and I have probably seen it close to a hundred times, just never on the big screen.  It is back in theaters for a limited run to commemorate its twentieth anniversary (what?) and I was beyond excited to finally see it as it was meant to be seen with my sister (I think she loves it more than I do) last night.  Even though I initially thought that Knightley was much too beautiful to play Elizabeth Bennet as she is written in the novel by Jane Austen, I really love her plucky performance and her chemistry with Matthew Macfadyen, who gives Mr. Darcy a vulnerability that makes me swoon, is off the charts as they spar with each other.  The scene where it looks like they are leaning in for a kiss but then touch their foreheads together instead had everyone in the crowded theater audibly sighing.  I also love everyone else in the ensemble, especially Tom Hollander as the priggish Mr. Collins (the audience laughed out loud at the comment about the excellent boiled potatoes), Donald Sutherland as the curmudgeonly Mr. Bennet (I love the tears in his eyes as he gives his permission for Elizabeth to marry Mr. Darcy), Judi Dench as the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourg (she is just so mean), and Kelly Reilly as the haughty Caroline Bingley (her side-eye is second to none).  The shot composition is absolutely brilliant and my favorites are the tracking shot as Elizabeth walks through a field while reading a book, the shot of Elizabeth walking away from Mr. Darcy with a smirk on her face at the assembly hall, the shot of Elizabeth and Jane (Rosamund Pike) talking under the covers, the continuous shot of Betsy (Sinead Matthews) walking through the house amidst preparations for the Netherfield ball, the shot where Mr. Darcy suddenly appears behind Elizabeth and then quickly disappears at the Netherfield ball, the shot of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy dancing in a crowd which then cuts to them dancing alone at the Netherfield ball, the shot showing the passage of time as Elizabeth spins on a swing, the shot when Mr. Darcy sees Elizabeth in the mirror at Pemberley, and, of course, the wide shot of Mr. Darcy walking towards Elizabeth through the mist as the sun rises (sigh).  The visuals are gorgeous (one of the reasons why I was so excited to see it on the big screen) and I loved the locations used for Meryton, Longbourn, Netherfield, Rosings, and Pemberley as well as those in the Peak District (the shot of Elizabeth overlooking the moor with the wind blowing is iconic).  Even though I do love an empire waist, I think the use of an eighteenth century silhouette for the costumes really works and the subtle change from stiffly formal to completely undone in Darcy's costumes is incredibly effective (sigh).  Finally, the score is amazing (the reason I think my sister loves this movie just a bit more than I do is because she owns the soundtrack) and I especially love that the same piece, based on a Beethoven piano sonata, used in the opening scene is also played by Elizabeth and Georgiana (Tamzin Merchant).  I love this movie and it was so much fun to see it with my sister (we recited all our favorite bits of dialogue the whole drive home).  I definitely recommend seeing this while it is in theaters!

The Ugly Stepsister

I had planned on seeing The Ugly Stepsister at Sundance this year and I was even in line for the screening but I decided that I was too tired to enjoy it and went home instead (festival fatigue is real).  When I saw that it was playing at the Broadway, I went to a matinee yesterday and I really liked this twisted take on Cinderella.  Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) marries Otto (Ralph Carlsson) because she thinks he is wealthy but is dismayed to learn that he was penniless after he dies.  She now must take care of her daughters Elvira (Lea Myren) and Alma (Flo Fagerli), as well as her new stepdaughter Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess), on her own.  She believes that the only solution is for one of her daughters to marry well and, since Alma is too young, she pins her hopes on Elvira even though she thinks that she is unattractive.  Elvira fantasizes about marrying Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) so, when it is announced that he is throwing a ball, she submits to her mother's primitive and painful attempts to make her beautiful even though her personality deteriorates as her physical appearance improves.  The prince seems to fall in love with her at the ball but he ignores her when an enchanted version of Agnes suddenly appears.  When Elvira realizes that it is Agnes who has stolen her prince, she moves to attack her but Agnes escapes leaving behind her shoe.  The prince declares that he will only marry the girl whose foot fits inside the shoe so a desperate Elvira maims herself (this occurs in the original fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm).  What I found interesting is that every character is extremely unsympathetic (even Agnes because she is really in love with the stable boy but is willing to marry the prince to escape her stepmother) except for Alma, who cares nothing for beauty and does most of the work around the estate, and it is she who ultimately rescues Elvira.  The commentary on the lengths to which women will go to be beautiful reminded me of The Substance but this takes the body horror to a whole new level!  It is sometimes really gross and there was a scene involving a tape worm that actually made me gag (there were lots of audible reactions from the crowd to several other scenes).  The production design, costumes, and score are all what you would expect from a traditional fairy tale so this subversive take is a lot of fun!  I dug it but I would only recommend it to those with strong stomachs!

The Wedding Banquet

There was a lot of buzz for The Wedding Banquet at Sundance this year and I had the opportunity to see it but, because it already had a release date (I saw a trailer for it at the Broadway before Sundance even started), I decided to see something else (the film I saw instead was Rebuilding with Josh O'Connor and I ended up loving it so it was a good decision).  It is now playing at the Broadway so I saw it last night with my nephew and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed because it is very different from what I was expecting.  Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) are a lesbian couple hoping to have a child through IVF but two attempts have failed and they are not sure if they can afford a third.  Chris (Bowen Yang), Angela's aimless best friend from college, lives in their garage with his boyfriend Min (Han Gi-chan), the scion of a wealthy family in Korea who is about to lose his student visa.  Min proposes to Chris but he refuses because he knows that Min's family will disown him and cut him off financially if they find out he is gay.  Min is disappointed but then decides to ask Angela to marry him instead and, in return for helping him get a green card, he will pay for the next round of IVF.  Angela agrees but complications ensue when she tells her mother May (Joan Chen), who has made supporting LGBTQ+ causes her whole personality after initially rejecting Angela, and when Min's grandmother Ja-Young (Youn Yuh-jung) decides to come for the wedding.  This is a remake of the 1993 movie of the same name by Ang Lee and, since I have not seen the original, my expectations were based on the trailer alone and it led me to expect a comedy which I did not get.  While there are a few funny moments (which all appear in the trailer), this is more dramatic with themes of acceptance and reconciliation as flawed people learn the importance of found family.  All of the characters have interesting arcs but the resolutions for some of them feel very rushed, especially Angela's fear about being a mother and Lee's anger about an infidelity.  However, I loved how Ja-Young gradually comes to understand her grandson and Youn Yuh-jung gives a lovely performance (that brought a tear to my eye).  Chen steals every scene she is in and Tran impressed me with the depth of her emotional performance but Gladstone is underused and Yang doesn't really sell the dramatic moments (he is a much better comedic actor).  I didn't hate this but I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Note:  I really hate when the marketing for a movie is misleading.

Sinners

I finally had the opportunity to see Sinners last night with my nephew and to say that I was hyped for this movie would be an understatement.  Let me tell you now that the hype is real and I honestly cannot see anything beating this as my favorite movie of 2025.  World War I veterans Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore (Michael B. Jordan) flee Chicago after stealing from the mob and return to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta to buy a sawmill from the local Klan leader and turn it into a juke joint for the Black community.  The twins recruit their young cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) to play guitar despite the fact that his father, who is a pastor, believes that his ability is supernatural.  They also employ Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) as a piano player and Pearline (Jayme Lawson) as a singer as well as Smoke's estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who has a strong belief in the occult, as a cook, a field hand named Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) as a bouncer, and Chinese shopkeepers Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li, respectively) as suppliers.  At the grand opening, Stack's former girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) appears and he tries to make her leave because she passes for white and he fears for her safety, and his, but she refuses.  Remmick (Jack O'Connell), an Irish immigrant who is a vampire, is drawn to the juke joint along with other vampires and asks to be admitted but Annie has a bad feeling and they are refused.  However, several people eventually leave, including Mary, and are turned into vampires which results in an epic confrontation after Remmick suggests that becoming vampires will help those inside fight against the racism all of them have faced.  I loved the slow build-up to the events at the juke joint because you really get to know the characters and what they have experienced as marginalized people in America, particularly the oppression of Black people in the South during the Jim Crow era (I was particularly moved by Mary because she doesn't seem to belong anywhere).  I found the use of vampires to be incredibly thought-provoking, especially in regards to assimilation, and the juxtaposition between the threat from them and the threat from the KKK is compelling.  But, most of all, I loved the way that music is portrayed as a way to connect the stories from generations in the past to those in the future and, once again, I absolutely loved the juxtaposition between a blues performance inside the juke joint (this scene, shot in one take, is absolutely brilliant and must be seen on the big screen) and an Irish jig performed outside.  The music is absolutely incredible and, as previously mentioned, Caton's performance of "I Lied to You" and O'Connell's performance of "Rocky Road to Dublin" gave me goosebumps.  Jordan is fantastic in the dual role because each brother is very distinctive (I was struck by the different ways in which the brothers interact with the women in their lives) and the rest of the cast is outstanding but Caton, in his first role, is absolutely captivating.  The cinematography, costume design, production design, sound design (there is a scene involving the memory of a lynching that is haunting), and score (Ludwig Göransson has never been better) are all incredibly immersive and I felt like watching this movie was an experience.  I really loved it and, because it is so thematically rich, I suspect that I will be seeing it again soon.

Note:  There is a mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene and both are important to the narrative so be sure to stick around!