Guillermo del Toro brings his style to the newest take on the classic Frankenstein tale. The film begins at the end: in the late 1800s, a large boat has become stuck in the ice and the captain is pushing his crew to break it free, lest they become trapped for good and all freeze to death. In the distance they see an explosion, and upon inspection they find a wounded and near-frozen Dr Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac). When he comes to, Victor warns them of impending doom, and soon after his “monster” approaches, killing all who get in its way. We then get a flashback, first to Victor’s childhood being raised by a demanding and cold father, and then as a young adult, where Victor is already possessed with the idea of reanimating the dead. While his early experiments have brought positive results, his cadavers don’t live past a few minutes. His father left him a name but no funds, so Victor does not have the capital to pursue his testing. However, he gets financing backing from wealthy arms dealer Henrich (played by Christoph Waltz), who has his own ulterior motives for funding the research, and is thus able to pursue his goal. While he is building his “monster” in a secluded castle away from society (with some macabre scenes of Victor sawing through corpses and sewing them together) Victor meets his brother’s fiancee the Lady Elizabeth, who also, in a turn of events, happens to be Henrich’s niece, and Victor falls for her. For awhile we don’t know if Victor will love his creation or the girl more, but ultimately the experiment goes off with only a small hitch. However, Victor is crestfallen when he realizes the new life has no intelligence; it can only mimic the word “Victor” and copy his movements. When he is visited by his brother and Elizabeth, Victor admits his failure and in a fit of rage, tries to destroy the castle and monster inside it. The creation survives, and pursues Victor, setting up the scene at the beginning of the film. All of this, however, was Victor’s side of the story, as told to the ship captain. We then get the monster’s viewpoint, and those intervening years as it/he raced after Victor, the monster’s version of events puts everything into an entirely new light. I loved the new take on the classic story, sort of modernizing it while keeping to its roots, and the whole thing is beautifully told, expertly acted, and has all of del Toro’s flare. ★★★★½

Sorry, Baby opens on two adult friends, Agnes and Lydie, getting together for the first time in awhile, though they are best friends from their college days. Lydie tells Agnes that she and her wife are expecting their first child, but the good news is tempered shortly after when the two friends have dinner with other college buds, and one of their old professors comes up in conversation. The story then reverts back to those days in grad school, when Agnes seemed to be an obvious favorite of their collective advisor, Preston Decker, who is helping the group of them on their theses. One of the other girls whispers that maybe Agnes and he have a relationship on the side, but it isn’t until Agnes goes to his house one night for feedback on her thesis that something happens, and that something, which Agnes afterwards will always refer to as “the bad thing,” changes her life. She is ultimately able to move past it, but it seems reminders are always waiting around the corner, including in the present when she has become a professor at her alma mater and is given Decker’s old office. It’s a really good film about one of the most terrible things that can happen to a person. I want to like the movie more, but a few things detract from it for me. I’m no ultra conservative and I use the correct pronouns where appropriate (I know some who would roll their eyes when a couple they/thems are thrown out in the course of this film), but when she and her friend shame a doctor for using the word rape or asking if the attacker ejaculated in her (“such a harsh word” they respond) it makes me wonder where this world is going. By going too far to protect the victim, it softens the ugly act. Let’s call a despicable act what it is, and shame the person who did it, not the person trying to help. Too many safe spaces create a society that can’t face bad shit, and let’s be honest, there will always be bad shit to face. All that aside, it’s a great look at how a person finds the strength to move on, and succeed, with life. ★★★½

After finishing up season 4 of The Witcher, I dove into the The Rats: A Witcher Tale, a surprise release streaming film that fills in the backstory of the gang of young thieves known as the rats in that season. I’m glad the production company decided to do it, because while watching the show, I sort of didn’t like the rats. Every time their scenes came on, I sighed, because it seemed they were interrupting the story of Geralt (which they were) and they all seemed so hollow and one-dimensional. The movie doesn’t do much to remedy my second criticism, but it does give some history of the team of misfits, and thus make them, not just tolerable, but (dare I say it) likable. And it stars Dolph Lundgren! What more need I say?! If you are unfamiliar with The Witcher lore, it takes place in a kingdom where monsters roam free, and Witchers are people who’ve been trained since birth to kill the monsters, but their powers also make them pariahs amongst most of the general populace. There’s a big holy war going on too that separates the kingdoms, but not necessary to get into that for this movie. The film definitely needs to be seen after season 4 though, as it begins right at the end of that season. In his bounty hunting for Ciri, the evil Leo Bonhart (Sharlto Copley), has killed all of the rats and wounded Ciri. We then get a flashback to a big heist the rats did before Ciri joined them, and how they needed help to pull it off, enlisting former Witcher and now current drunk Brehan (Lundgren) for aid. Brehan must clean up his act if he’s to give any help at all, and the team must also evade Leo, who has a penchant for killing Witchers. For a film based around a group I hated in the series, I really enjoyed the film. Lots of action, old Dolph was great as a Witcher past his prime, and overall just a lot of fun. I came to the Witcher series late (I think I watched the first 3 seasons right around when season 3 was releasing) and played Witcher 3 on PS4 years after everyone else, but I’ve enjoyed it all (for the most part). ★★★½

Eddington is the newest from writer/director Ari Aster, and while his last film was divisive, I really enjoyed it. This new movie split viewers and critics even further, and this time I couldn’t buy in. It stars Joachim Phoenix again, this time as Joe Cross, sheriff in a very tiny town in a very tiny county in New Mexico. It is May 2020 and the COVID pandemic is in full bloom, with recent mask mandates splitting the town. Town mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) is pushing the mandates and social distancing, but some in the town don’t agree, including Joe, whose asthma makes wearing a mask troublesome. Joe has another reason to hate Ted though: Joe’s wife Louise (Emma Stone) was once in a relationship with Ted, and there are whispers of a sexual assault that took place, that no one wants to bring up, including Louise. Louise’s mother also lives with them, and she is a far right conspiracy theorist, spending her days reading all kinds of crazy shit online. In his fight against Ted, Joe decides to run for mayor, standing against mask mandates and any platform that Ted champions, including a divisive data center that Ted wants to get built on the outskirts of town. And as if we didn’t need another social hot button, Black Lives Matter protests envelope the town. Now we have neighbor against neighbor and child against parent. The movie skirts the line between comedy and ridiculousness, poking fun at the over-the-top reactions of both sides of the political spectrum (though with an obvious lean towards the left) and it almost seemed Aster was just trying to troll everyone. Maybe the whole COVID thing is still too recent to poke fun at, but it certainly wasn’t fun to live through it. Looking back we obviously know now that some of what was said was absurd (“Don’t touch that, COVID lives for 5 weeks on paper,” or shoppers cheering when a store owner kicks out an older gentleman for not wearing a mask) but at the time, scare tactics were in full force. BLM isn’t spared either: the college-aged kids in town are up in arms about George Floyd and taking down “whiteness,” but their parents respond with, “Are you stupid or something? You’re all white.” Definitely some funny moments, but that aside, the movie just isn’t very good, going for over-the-top more than a relatable story, and the satire is too on-the-nose to be real satire. ★½

Hedda is a brilliant film based on the late 19th century Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, and shows that you can definitely modernize the classics in a way that makes them relevant while keeping to their roots. The title character is played by Tessa Thompson. Hedda Tesman (nee Gabler) is recently married, living in a large expansive house that her husband has gone heavily in debt to restore (because Hedda wanted it), and yet she is still bored with her life. You soon realize that Hedda, a former party girl, only married George Tesman because she thought those party days were behind her and she needed to settle down, but that’s not the person Hedda is. The movie takes place over one long day, as the Tesmans throw a lavish party to welcome their friends to their newly renovated home. George needs Hedda to woo Professor Greenwood, in order to secure a professorship for George and thus pay off their substantial debt, but Hedda has other plans for the evening. She learns that Eileen Lovborg will be attending the party, and Eileen and Hedda have a history. Eileen is a noted lesbian in high society, but her private life is ignored because she is a renowned author. However, she is also a devastating drunk, and that is something that has shut doors in her face. Rumor has it, though, that Eileen has a new partner, who has cleaned her up and kept her off the bottle, and if she can stay sober, she has a shot at getting that professorship instead of George. Hedda isn’t going to let that happen, and with her history with Eileen, she knows which buttons to press. Hedda isn’t doing this to help George, nor to save her lavish lifestyle, but only because Hedda has always gotten off on manipulating people. It’s what she knows, and what she does best. A thriller without being a thriller (if that makes sense), it is one of those films that is nearly entirely dialogue-driven but no less exhilarating, with A-list caliber acting in every scene. I was enthralled. ★★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Star Wars Visions (season 3), The Witcher (season 4)
• Book currently reading: Heir of Strahd by Delilah S Dawson

Just about everything Barry Keoghan does is good. He’s not the main character in Bring Them Down, but he’s a central part. Like many of his movies, it takes place in his native Ireland. After a prologue in which we are introduced to Michael (Christopher Abbott), where we see him cause a car wreck that kills his mother and injures his girlfriend Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), we jump to present day, many years later. Michael has continued his family’s 500-year tradition of being shepherds, and tends a flock in the hills above a small town. His father Ray (the always-great Colm Meaney) is a cranky old SOB who looks for any opportunity to belittle Michael. Michael seems to always be butting heads with fellow shepherd Gary, who ended up marrying Caroline and producing a son, Jack (Keoghan). Gary is heavily in debt, and seems to have a chip on his shoulder over perceived feelings Caroline still has for Michael, and that rubs off on son Jack. When Michael learns that Gary has stolen two of his rams and tried to sell them off as his own, he confronts him but backs off to avoid a confrontation, only to be driven off the road by an angry Gary shortly after. Returning home later, Michael finds that someone has gone into his herd and cut off all of the legs of his sheep, leaving the dying animals bleating horrendously. When Michael tells his father, Ray screams for Gary’s head and charges Michael to bring it back to him. The movie then goes back a’ways to see the story from Gary’s and Jack’s point of views, and everything is not as it seemed to be. Fantastic film with lots of intrigue and spine-tingling thrills, and I (thankfully) had no problem understanding some of the heavy Irish accents (there were subtitles for the Gaelic language moments). ★★★★

Ghost Trail is a Munich-like film (which is a great movie!) in that it follows a person (and team) hunting down bad guys whom other governments have let go free. Hamid is a former prisoner of the notorious Sednaya Prison in Syria, and he is hunting the man, Harfaz, who tortured him there. Though there are many Syrian refugees in Germany, and most of Hamid’s fellow team is there looking for Harfaz and others in the former Assad regime, Hamid has followed clues linking Harfaz to France, and that is where the movie takes place. Sleuthing it up, Hamid finally narrows down his target to a man living under a different name, who is teaching at a university. But though Hamid is nearly certain this is his man, doubt starts to creep in. Hamid was always hooded during his torture, so all he can go off is the sound of Harfaz’s voice, the touch of his hand, and while he listens to testimonies of other victims at night, he still can’t be sure. And he doesn’t want to condemn an innocent man, because Hamid’s group is looking for blood, not for a guilty verdict. The idea of the film is good, even if it has been done before, but it goes in fits and starts. Great, edge-of-your-seat moments are followed by long, repetitive introspections, and the lead actor just goes around brooding all the time, showing little nuance. I expected more from such a charged topic. ★★

At the heart of Grand Tour, there’s a very simple story: in 1917, Edward and Molly have been engaged for 6 years, and Molly is tired of waiting. She’s coming to meet him, but with a constant case of cold feet, Edward flees to the other side of the world. Not one to give up so easily, Molly pursues. The film is really just Edward trying to stay one step ahead of his fiancee, continuing from country to country across East Asia. However, the deeper you go into the movie, you realize there’s more to interpret. The first half of the film follows just Edward, and honestly I was just starting to get bored when Molly’s viewpoint showed up in the second half. She never believed that Edward doesn’t want to marry her, just thinking that his work keeps pulling him away, and the viewer starts to see that the director is trying to tell us more about our world than just the one Edward and Molly inhabit. For one, modern scenes are juxtaposed in between narrative moments. When Edward flees from one city to the next, we don’t see him on a boat in 1917, we see scenes of highway traffic or the hectic hustle-and-bustle of a modern city. When Molly follows, she takes the time to get to know the people around her in each successive city, even being wooed by an eligible bachelor, and her intermediary “travel scenes” are more relaxed and softer. Before the end of the movie, you realize that the story of Edward and Molly isn’t really the story of this film at all, it is the people and the places they met and visited. ★★★★★

I know duds can come from any country, but the films out of China, especially the socially conscious dramas, are usually so reliable! Upstream was written and directed by (and stars) Xu Zheng, one of China’s biggest stars of the last couple decades. When he said he’d be making a film about China’s exploding gig economy, I think people expected him to make a statement with it. He does a bit, but not as hard as he should have. Xu plays Gao Zhilei, a middle-aged man who works as a software programmer at a large company, whose job is eliminated after cutbacks. Other tech companies don’t want to hire an oldie like him to start anew, so a couple months go by with no new job leads. Gao gets desperate, as his is the only big income in a household including a young daughter with aspirations of a nice school, and two aging parents with growing medical bills. Knowing he needs to clear 15 thousand renminbi for their immediate bills, Gao takes a job as a food deliveryman (think Ubereats or DoorDash). There’s some growing pains for sure, as he is competing for deliveries with people half his age, but Gao is smart and determined, and slowly, over the course of the film, gets better at the job until the end is in sight. There’s some funny moments, some endearing moments, but ultimately I just shrugged and said, “Ok.” Xu could have really gone after the plight of gig workers in China (and in the USA…), a group that doesn’t get insurance or protection, who work a dangerous job (especially in large cities where many ride bikes or motorcycles in crazy traffic), but who have limited other options for income. Instead, he basically says if you work hard enough, good thinks will happen. Sounds like propaganda to me. ★½

What We Hide is a super low budget indie film with a story that has been told before, but if films are meant to elicit an emotional response, it certainly does that. The opening scene will get you right away: two sisters, 15-year-old Spider and gradeschooler Jessie, are standing over their dead mother’s body, who’s just died of a heroine overdose. While Jessie is distraught, Spider has lived a lot longer with their mom’s drug problem and knows the toll it has taken on them, and is already looking ahead. She knows that she and her sister are doomed to being split up into the foster system, and she refuses to let that happen. They dump the body in a crate in the shed, and try to pretend to the world that their mom is still around. They still have her welfare money, which loads a debit card once a month with $600, and so the sisters go about as if nothing has changed. Unfortunately the charade can only hold so long, as a determined social worker wants to have a sit down with the family to make sure everyone is doing ok, and Spider’s best friend’s dad is the town sheriff, who also happened to go to school with the deceased. Not to mention their mom’s old drug dealer, who is wondering what happened to one of his best customers. It’s a total B movie with “not so great” acting (though honestly, the youngest actor in the film, who played Jessie, is pretty good!) but I was still swept up in the plight for the two girls, who only have each other and are willing to do whatever it takes to keep that. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Deep Space 9 (season 5), Only Murders in the Building (season 5), Slow Horses (season 5), The Reluctant Traveler (season 3), Mussolini: Son of the Century (series)
• Book currently reading: Heir of Strahd by Delilah S Dawson

Kathryn Bigelow is back doing what she does best: delivering gripping dramas that keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The director who gave us The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty is back with A House of Dynamite, and it wastes no time in getting the heart pounding. It starts as a seemingly normal day showing various spots around the globe, each of which deal with the USA’s response to threats: the Situation Room in the White House, a high tech radar station in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a missile silo in Montana, the Pentagon, etc. At each, people are starting their days/shifts and it seems like any other, until the radar base picks up a ballistic missile launch from somewhere near southeast Asia. Initially, no one bats an eye, everyone supposing it is North Korea saber-rattling again, and that the missile will splash down in the Sea of Japan, as they always do. But after a few minutes go by, radar shows the missile isn’t sinking, it is going into a suborbital trajectory headed somewhere towards the continental states. Our countermeasures immediately go into effect, as time ticks down (just 19 minutes to impact from initial launch) and the missile’s ultimate target of Chicago is determined. The film is broken down into 3 segments, each showing roughly the same window of time (from before the launch right up to the moment before impact), and each section shows the time from the point of view of increasingly higher-ups in the government. The first is the grounds crew and Situation Room, who spot the missile and try to stop it, then from the generals and cabinet members who are providing advice and preparing counteroffensives, and finally from the President himself. As such, each segment builds in intensity right up to the end, and when the next section starts, you get to go through it all again. Great film, with a tremendous cast of who’s who, all delivering their A-game. And the scariest part of it all? It’s completely believable, making you think how close we are on any given day to complete annihilation. ★★★★★

Weapons is a (very) scary horror film that was a critics’ darling and for good reason. I generally don’t do scary movies, but several of my friends told me I had to see it, so I went in (with eyes half closed). The premise is scary enough: in a small suburban town one evening, 17 out of 18 children in a classroom go missing. Video door cameras saw them simply run out of their houses at the same time (2:17 AM) and none ever came back. The townsfolk, and especially the parents of the missing children, immediately turn on the classroom’s teacher, Justine (Julia Garner), calling her a witch and demanding answers. She has none, and starts trying to pin down the 1 child who did not disappear that night, Alex, but he refuses to answer her questions. While Justine is dealing with belligerent parents and obsessing over an ex-boyfriend (a local police officer, who will also play a big part before the film is done), one of the missing boys’ fathers, Archer (Josh Brolin), is starting his own investigation. As 30 days approaches since the kids went missing, Archer finds a few clues to where the kids may have headed that night, and the viewer quickly sees that it was Alex’s house. Their fate and the supernatural power that is running everything, a big mystery that is carefully hidden from the viewer until the final act, slowly comes together even as the tension builds. Outstanding film with plenty of heart-pounding moments, and one that I never want to see again. ★★★★★

Cloud is a Japanese thriller, and a tale of 2 parts. The first half is fantastic. Yoshii is a flipper, meaning he buys goods on the cheap and re-sells them online for a profit. In the beginning of the movie, he is purchasing a truck full of medical devices from a company going out of business, buying them for pennies on the dollar because the owner has no other choice but to accept the lowball offer. Yoshii turns his investment, nearly all the money he has, into over a million Yen, and his little business is off. A couple more transactions don’t go as well, but he is still doing OK, though starting to make enemies. His dirty handed tactics have gotten people upset, and Yoshii starts getting jumpy around his apartment when shadowy figures start hanging around and making threats. Yoshii rents a house outside of Tokyo, hires an assistant, and his girlfriend moves in too. Yoshii’s next buy is a wall-full of designer handbags, and when the assistant asks if they are real or counterfeit, Yoshii quips, “Who cares? We’ll make the same profit either way.” Well his buyers care, because the threats ramp up, and the police start sniffing around about counterfeit sales too. When Yoshii learns that there is an online group actively seeking Yoshii’s location because some past customers want payback, he tries to make a run for it, but by then it is too late. Up to this point in the movie, it was great stuff, with lots of intrigue and suspense, but after this point, it devolves into a ridiculous shoot-em-up flick. All of a sudden, the assistant is a trained fighter with ties to the Yakuza, and why is he so beholden to Yoshii anyway? Silly finale, but I’ll give it 3 stars for the first half. ★★★

Man, on a roll today, with another great film with Familiar Touch. A much more subtle movie that those above, it begins innocuously enough on an elderly woman, Ruth, preparing a meal. She gets it all set up just as a middle-aged man knocks on her front door and comes in. The two engage in playful banter, giving the impression of a date, even if the man, Steve, seems uncomfortable with some of Ruth’s advances. Finally, when she becomes more forward, Steve says it is time go, and packs Ruth into his car, along with a suitcase. She asks if they are going on a trip together, and Steve replies with a half-assed answer. They pull up to an old folks home, and Steve helps Ruth inside. When she asks what they are doing there, Steve replies, “Mom, you’ve been here before, remember? We’re moving you in today.” The truth that Ruth is suffering from dementia, to the point that she didn’t recognize her son, hits hard, and the movie only continues to add heartbreak from there. We really only see Ruth on her good days, and while she undoubtedly forgets people or why she’s there, she seems so “with it” that you can’t help but feel immense sadness that she is stuck there. She continues to do complex things like cook meals, and is outgoing and talkative to the staff. Unlike others on her floor, she’s aware of her surroundings and not “a zombie” or spaced out all the time. But there are reminders that it will only get worse and never better. One of the saddest moments in the film: Ruth is taking a shower after a swimming lesson, and she has an epiphany, saying aloud, “Steve, he’s my son… I won’t remember him.”  It makes your heart ache. As our population gets older, it’s something more and more of us will have to face. ★★★★

Lurker is a timely film about the perils of stardom and what people will do to achieve it. Matthew is working at a clothing store when up-and-coming musician Oliver and his posse walk in. Matthew is a fan (we later see Oliver t-shirts in his closet) but, unlike other customers in the store who immediately fawn over him, Matthew plays it cool and feigns ignorance as to who Oliver is. Oliver finds it endearing and invites him back to his house to hang out. Over a few weeks, Matthew ingratiates himself into Oliver’s inner circle, and the other hangers-on see him as a threat; they care for nothing more than staying as close to Oliver as they can, and there is definitely a flowing hierarchy among them. They know people float in and out according to Oliver’s preferences. Once Matthew has gotten close, he becomes “one of them” as well, and see other newcomers as threats. When Matthew takes a drastic step to cut a newcomer out, Oliver retaliates and kicks Matthew out, but he will not go quietly. Matthew is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his position so close to stardom and the perks that it brings. A great thriller made for today’s celebrity fascinated masses. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Breaking Bad (season 3), Peacemaker (season 2), Walking Dead Darryl Dixon (season 3), The Diplomat (season 3)
• Book currently reading: Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

They can’t all be winners, and unfortunately today’s films all fell into that average or slightly-below area, until the very last one. Starting with Nobody 2, the followup to a film I enjoyed a couple years ago. As is so often the case, the sequel isn’t as good as the original, but it’s still (mostly) fun. Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) has been taking terrible jobs as an assassin and item procurer in order pay off the huge debt from the first film. It’s taking a toll on his family, so to make amends, he decides to take the wife, kids and his dad (Christopher Lloyd is back!) to the family water park his pops took him to as a kid. Those fond memories masked the fact that the place has always been run by gangsters, who pay the local dirty cops to look the other way, and Hutch mistakenly runs afoul of them. Turns into an all-out war between Hutch and the local bad guys. The movie gets a little silly in the end when Hutch goes all Home Alone with a booby trapped amusement park, but since the team behind John Wick is still writing and producing, the fight sequences are still top notch (and still over the top, in a good way). Yes, a little silly, but not horrible. ★★★

Tatami isn’t based on a true story, but the idea of it is based on something that really happened. In the movie, taking place in 2019, an Iranian Judo athlete is attending the world championship competition in the country of Georgia. The young woman, Leila, is being cheered on back home by her husband and family, and she is peaking at the right time, with a very real shot at winning gold. However, on the other side of the bracket, an Israeli athlete is advancing well through her matches, setting up a potential gold medal final between she and Leila. Iran, like many Arab countries, refuses to admit Israel, and traditionally they have declined meeting them in athletic competitions. Leila and her coach start getting calls from people inside Iran’s government for Leila to feign an injury and pull out of the competition before having to face Israel, something that Leila refuses to do after all the hard work she’s put in to get this far. Iran’s calls become threats, spurring her husband back home to pack up and drive for the border before he can be detained. Leila’s coach once faced this exact scenario when she was competing, and an “injury” took her out of a big match and she never competed again; she doesn’t want to see that happen to Leila too, even as her own family is threatened back home. It’s an engaging story, but the dialogue is clunky and many scenes are a bit on-the-nose. Excellent kernel of an idea, and as I said, based on times when Iran athletes have pulled out of international competitions, rather than face off against Israel, but the delivery of the movie is lacking. ★★

Elevation takes place 3 years after some deadly new monsters showed up and starting killing everyone. Think A Quiet Place, but instead of monsters with an achilles of silence, these can’t climb higher than 8000 feet. Humanity has taken to the mountains and are eking out a rough existence high up. In the Colorado Rockies, Will (Anthony Mackie) is taking care of his young son who has a lung disease, eased only with oxygen filters. When they start running low on filters, Will knows he’ll need to trek down the mountain to a hospital in Boulder for supplies. That would mean going under 8000 feet and risking the dangerously fast and lethal baddies. He is accompanied on his trip by best friend Katie and scientist Nina, who has been researching a way to kill the monsters. Nina thinks she’s on the cusp of manufacturing a bullet that can pierce their tough hide, but she needs something from Boulder too. The harrowing trip down and back is all you would expect it to be, which unfortunately means there are no surprises. It really is just like A Quiet Place, and while that film is thrilling and edge-of-your-seat the entire time, this one is a pale shadow. For an action thriller, it is pretty boring. A B movie with a budget and slick effects to try to mask its shortcomings. ★½

Going back to 2009 for Mike Judge’s Extract, a film I missed before now. It is called a companion piece to Office Space, one of my favorite comedies of all time, but honestly I don’t see the comparison. Office Space is great for anyone who has worked in an office setting, for the absurdity of the characters which still ring just a bit true (scarily so). Extract moves the setting to a manufacturing plant, and I don’t think the stereotypes for warehouse workers carry over the same as they did for the office setting. Jason Bateman plays Joel, the owner of a flavoring extracts company, who is looking to find a buyer so he can retire. The workers are a motley crew, and an accident on site one day injures one of his best employees. The injured man may end up suing the company, which would hurt Joel’s ability to sell out. At the same time, a con artist, Cindy (Mila Kunis), reads about the story in the paper and decides to woo the injured employee and convince him to pursue the litigation, with the ultimate goal to swindle him out of the money in the end. Lots of other (small) laughs going on, like Joel’s sexual frustration from a wife (Kristin Wiig) who is too comfortable in the long marriage, so he hires a pool boy to sleep with his wife so that he himself wouldn’t feel guilty about pursuing his own dalliances, with Cindy no less. Other A-list actors include JK Simmons and Ben Affleck as the funny bartender and Joel’s longtime buddy. Lots of chuckles, but no belly laughs, and not nearly as quotable as Office Space. Sorry, if this is the companion piece, the Office Space should have stayed single. ★½

Just when I was about to give up hope on a winner today, Apple delivered. The Lost Bus is based on a true story and stars Matthew McConaughey as Kevin McKay, a bus driver in the small city of Paradise, CA. He’s recently moved back to the area, where he grew up, and hopes to raise his teenage son, but the son only wants to move back with his mother. Kevin is carrying around a lot of guilt for mistakes in his life to this point, so when he has an opportunity to make up for it (in his mind), he takes it. On November 8, 2018, a fire breaks out in a wooded area from a fallen power line during strong, gusty winds, and quickly spreads. At first, the fire marshal on scene thinks they can contain it and only recommends evacuations in the closest, very small community. But when it becomes apparent that the fire is spreading faster than ever before, over drought-conditioned land, he has to admit that Paradise, many miles away, is in the path of danger. Kevin is wrapping up dropping off kids from school for the day when he gets the call from dispatch asking if he can pick up 22 kids left at an elementary school, whose parents are unable to reach. Kevin’s is the last bus in the area, so while he had hoped to pick up his son and mom and make sure they all get to safety, he agrees to rescue the kids. He picks them up, as well as a teacher who goes along to keep the kids calm, and so begins a harrowing afternoon. With roads out of town completely blocked with traffic, Kevin must take the bus up into the hills and try to outrun the advancing flames, which proves impossible. This movie is frightening, all the more so because it is based on a true story, and I was flinching and crying out aloud before the end, as the kids are screaming and Kevin and the teacher (Mary Ludwig, played by America Ferrera) try to stay cool and collected for their sakes, even when they see little hope of making it out alive. Outstanding action film. ★★★★½

After a refresher this weekend on the first two films, I headed to the theater for Tron: Ares. It was labeled as a soft reboot but really is another sequel, picking up years after the second film in the series. It ended up bombing at the theaters, but the future of the franchise looked pretty bleak after the second movie (and the first movie didn’t do great back in ’82 either), so maybe they’ll make another one day? I’m hoping so, because I actually enjoyed it.

Sam Flynn is out the picture, and running the company now is Eve Kim, opposed by Dillinger’s (bad guy from the first film) grandson, who has his own company. Both groups are working towards the same goal, what they call the “permanence code.” We know from past Tron movies that people can physically enter “the grid” (computer networks), and the companies have made it possible to bring computer programs into the real world, but for some reason, they only last for 29 minutes before the programs fall apart (literally) and disintegrate. If they can figure it out to make those programs permanent, it could solve many of the world’s problems. Imagine writing a program about a field of fruit-producing trees and them 3D print them into the real world — no more starvation. Eve and her counterpart Julian Dillinger want to fix that problem (her to solve the world’s problems, him to print advanced weapons and super soldiers to sell to the military), and it’s a race to who gets there first.

To meet his goal, Julian has written a program named Ares (Jared Leto) who is hunting for the permanence code. Eve actually comes up with it first, so Ares is seeking her, and as a computer program with immediate access to anything that is networked (security cameras, text messages, etc) he’s pretty fast. And he has to be fast, because every time he is brought into the real world, he has just 29 minutes before he goes away and has to be re-integrated. There’s a lot of techy stuff here and it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the film is action packed and a wild ride from beginning to end. It does set up for another sequel (which, based on box office numbers, may not come any time soon) but I hope Disney continues this train at some point. ★★★★

The Life of Chuck, based on a Stephen King short story, is a bit of a throwback. It is like some of the classic King books that were light on horror (though it does have a supernatural element) and heavy on heart. When the film begins, shit is starting to go wonky in the world. There have been intermittent internet outages across the globe, leading to panic, and shortly after, natural disasters begin ramping up. Rumors start flying that the world is ending. A teacher, Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) begin to notice billboards and TV commercials thanking an unknown man, Charles (Chuck) Krantz, for 39 years of an amazing life, and it seems whoever this Chuck is, his impending death is related to the destruction of the world. When Marty and Felicia are sitting outside one night, after the internet has gone down for good and California has fallen into the sea, they notice stars overhead are winking out. In mid-sentence, the screen cuts to black, and we know the world has ended. But why? We next flash back nine months, and finally meet Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), who seems to be a happy-go-lucky guy. Walking down the street, he comes across a busker playing the drums, and, reminded of his grandmother banging on a pot when he was a child, begins to spontaneously dance. Others pay notice and everyone has a good time. However, Chuck gets a headache, which leads to his diagnosis of brain cancer. Further flashbacks later show Chuck as a kid, being raised by his grandparents after a car accident killed his parents and little sister, and the secret in the attic that may lead to the future end of the world. There’s some great suspense, but also a lot of love, laughter, and joy. For a movie about the end of all things, its funny that I walked away feeling good. It really is kind of a feel-good film and I loved it. ★★★★½

Next up are two great international films, starting with Concrete Utopia out of South Korea. A drama disguised as a disaster film, the movie opens on a shot of a row of apartment buildings, just before a major earthquake topples all of them except one. Right in the middle, one tall building remains standing, and its inhabitants are left to decide how to handle other survivors who come seeking shelter, because as they say in Game of Thrones, winter is coming. As the days and weeks go by and no word comes from “the outside world,” the people realize they very much are on their own, so in order to save resources and survive, they make the decision to only allow the apartment’s original renters stay, and everyone else must go. They elect one of their own as a leader and decision-maker, and he starts by calling those non-residents “roaches” (because they only come out looking for a hand-out, according to him), and dehumanizing them has the intended effect of making it easier to ignore their pleas, even as they begin to freeze to death outside. Finally though, as weeks turn into months, the apartment’s residents must set up teams to go out in the wasteland and hunt for food and supplies, and there are still survivors out there who have memories for how they were treated, and even for those who were not kicked out, rumors have spread about “the wealth” that exists in the lone-standing apartment building. Not to mention the fallout that comes when the residents learn that their leader may not be who he says he is. Very intense film, with a stark look at what lows people will sink to when faced with hardship. ★★★★

From South Korea we move southwest to Hong Kong, for Time Still Turns the Pages. Told in the present as well as flashbacks to the past, the film focuses on a teacher named Cheng. The school is rocked when a suicide note is found in a wastebasket, and Cheng and his fellow teachers are on a mission to find who wrote the note, in order to get them help. Cheng in particular seems driven, and we learn why through flashbacks to his past. As a young boy, Cheng was lonely and emotionally abused by his parents. His younger brother is a prodigy, both in school and at the piano, and excels at everything he tries. As such, the parents heap praise on him, while constantly asking Cheng why he can’t be more like his brother. And Cheng really does try, practicing piano until his fingers hurt and studying long hours before tests, only to continue to fail, even being held back a grade, while his little brother is admitted to a prestigious private school. Cheng begins to write in his diary about how terrible he is, how he’ll never amount to anything, and writes his own suicide note. I always stay away from spoilers in my blog, but HUGE SPOILER HERE (you’ve been warned): we soon learn that adult Cheng is not the elder brother. He is the younger brother who survived and lived on after his older brother killed himself as a child. The death rocked the family, with the mother leaving, the father blaming himself (let’s be honest, rightfully so) and the younger Cheng deciding to become a teacher instead of a doctor or lawyer, as his father dreamed. Such a very sad film, my heart ached as the elder boy, aged no more than 9 or 10 and very young still, cried at night, aching for the love of a father who refused to do so. Definitely makes you want to go give your kids a hug. ★★★★½

Will be seeing the newest Tron film shortly, so I decided to go back and revisit the first two movies. Tron was a favorite of mine as a child, so my thoughts on it are admittedly skewed positive. I’ve probably seen it more than 10 times as a kid, but it has been many years (decades) since I saw it last, and watching it as an adult is a much different experience. If I’d just seen it for the first time, I’d probably think it wasn’t very good, but I can’t separate my memories from it, so it’s still good to me! It stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a software engineer whose major program was absconded by an executive, Dillinger, at the company he worked for. Dillinger’s own program, the Master Control Program (MCP) is an early artificial intelligence that has been gobbling up programs to make itself smarter and more powerful. All of these programs exist in a virtual world, and when Flynn tries to start hacking into it, the MCP “zaps” him and digitally transports his body into the computer system. Now inside, Flynn must try to take out the MCP with the help of other programs, including Tron, the program written by Flynn’s fellow conspirator Alan Bradley. Being a “user” and not a written program, Flynn does have powers that the others do not, so they just might pull it off. The movie’s ideas are pretty groundbreaking for its day (1982!) and as such, the critics didn’t really get it and called it “incoherent.” It makes a lot more sense now, even if it often comes off as campy. Still, the film relied heavily on computer animation, the first of its kind, and while it is dated obviously by today’s standards, it isn’t half bad and is a whole lot of family fun to watch and relive. ★★★★

I was not a fan of Tron: Legacy when it came out (15 years ago already, time really flies) and this was just my second viewing. I liked it lot more this time around, maybe because I watched just after the first, and some of the campy nature felt as more of a continuation. (Side note: it was directed by Joseph Kosinski, his first film. He would later go on to do movies I really enjoyed like Oblivion, Top Gun: Maverick, and F1.) The film begins 7 years after the first, and Flynn has been building a new, connected virtual world. However, he mysteriously disappears one night, and after a flash forward to present day, his son, Sam, is all grown up. Sam has been struggling with his legacy of taking over the software company, and when he gets a clue as to the location of his missing father, his search leads him to be pulled into the virtual world. Turns out that Flynn had written a program, Clu, to help him in his building efforts, and Clu turned on him many years ago, trapping Flynn in the computer system. A few minutes in the real world can be years in the virtual, so since Flynn has been missing for 20 years, he’s lived in hiding in his virtual world for centuries. If he leaves his little sanctuary, Clu will know and hunt him down, with the ultimate goal of nabbing Flynn’s data disc, giving Clu the power to enter the real world. This must not happen, so when Sam reunites with Flynn, they team up to try to stop Clu and get to the portal to escape the virtual world together. There’s a whole lot going on here, and the film does suffer from trying to de-age actor Jeff Bridges to play the younger program Clu; the technology just wasn’t there yet in 2010 (and is still not quite to this day), giving the digital actor a blank, glass-like look. However, the exciting moments are still plenty good, so I’m hoping for a solid continuation in Tron: Ares when I see it later today. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Chief of War (series), Portlandia (seasons 1-2)
• Book currently reading: Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

40 Acres is a post-apocalyptic film (my favorite!) taking place a dozen years in the future, after a fungal infection wiped out livestock, which was followed by a second civil war in the USA and the complete breakdown of government. Citizens have been left to fend for themselves, with families grouping together around any small plot of land they can farm, which they fiercely (and violently) defend against marauders, the worst of whom have become cannibals. The movie revolves around one such farm, where former marine soldier Hailey Freeman and her small family and close-knit friends have built a pretty comfortable life. It would be very comfortable if not for the occasional bad guys trying to come in and kill everyone, but the Freemans have done a good job of not broadcasting where they are, and even the youngest members of the group are well trained in firearms and hand-to-hand combat. Hailey runs the place with military precision, but when her eldest son Emanuel sees a hot young stranger bathing in a nearby river, and later rescues her when she’s being chased in the woods from some bad characters and brings her back to the barn, he puts the entirety of their existence in peril. There’s some not-so-great acting from a few of the characters, and a few silly throw-away scenes (one in particular near the end of the film, where the Freemans let some bad guys in and purposefully put the kids in danger, only to set up a joke that was referenced earlier in the film, is truly cringe-worthy), but the story is a step above the norm and there’s enough mystery and tons of trepidation built in to overcome some of the film’s shortcomings. Overall pretty good movie, which could have been great. ★★★½

The next couple films are about people eking out a life on the fringes of society. Paradise is Burning follows 3 sisters trying to survive on their own after their mother, who has suffered a lifetime of mental illness, has disappeared (as she has done before) for several months. The eldest, Laura, is finishing high school (barely, when she goes to class) and is trying to keep the secret of the missing mom from social services, who would swoop in and split up the girls to the foster care system. Th middle daughter, Mira, is around 11 or 12 and helps when she can, leaving 7-year-old Steffi to often fend for herself. The family is constantly on a knife’s edge, where any small error can explode in their faces, and they are currently facing a problem not so small. Child services does call one day after Laura’s latest unexplained school absence, needing to set up a meeting with mom to make sure all is OK, and Laura assures them that mom is just busy, but will be available to meet in a week. With a deadline looming, Laura needs to find a stand-in “mom,” and sets her eyes on a new woman in the neighborhood whom Laura hopes she can convince to act the part. Laura even goes so far as to seduce the woman, but as you know, the best laid plans… Really startling film about the bonds of sisterhood and what lengths people will go to to keep a family together. ★★★★½

Another good one in Souleymane’s Story, the most recent film (of many in the last half-dozen years) shining a light on the plight of immigrants in Europe. Souleymane escaped Guinea to France looking for a better life, but his time there may be coming to an end. His asylum petition meeting is in 2 days, and until immigrants clear that hurdle, they are not allowed to work. Obviously people need money to live not to mention help themselves on the path to asylum, so Souleymane has been “renting” the food delivery account (think Uber Eats or Door Dash) from an immigrant who has been granted asylum already, for an astronomical fee, despite Souleymane doing all the work. He’s also been paying a swindler for fake papers and a concocted “story” that he can give the asylum interviewers for a better chance of passing. But all shit breaks loose in those final 2 days. Always tight on funds, Souleymane is stiffed on a couple deliveries, gets hit on his bike by a car, and faces not having papers for his meeting if he can’t come up with the payment for his handler. Everyone continually rips him off, because he has no recourse. Add onto all of this the kinds of things that every immigrant has to go through (sleeping in a cot in a homeless shelter, which he has to set an alarm on his phone in the wee hours of the morning every day to get up and call in to reserve a bed that night, not to mention making sure to catch the bus to the shelter at night or end up sleeping on the street) and it quickly becomes apparent that Souleymane is burning the candle from both ends and can’t possibly keep going like this. Every human has a breaking point, and Souleymane is fighting a losing battle. And lest we forget, this situation is still better than what he left behind, all in the hopes of finding a better life. Pretty eye opening, anyone lacking for compassion by what the far right is spewing should watch it. ★★★★

Day of the Fight is an awesome sports film with a lot of heart (as the best ones always do). Mikey Flannigan is recently out of prison after having served nearly a decade behind bars; we don’t learn why until much later. Once the boxing middleweight champion of the world, he’s trying to make a comeback, and his trainer and a former admirer (the current heavyweight champion) pulled some strings to get Mikey on the card for a big fight at Madison Square Garden. The film begins on the morning of the match, and he spends his day making peace with himself and those in his life that led him to here: his ex-wife and estranged daughter, his abusive father, his childhood friend (now a priest), etc. It’s gritty with a very authentic feel, and not just because it is shown in black and white. Mikey is being very introspective, and we see glimpses of the past, random memories that surface here and there throughout the film, which, together, define and make up who Mikey is, on this, the most important day of his life. Michael Pitt is solid as the fighter on a redemption path, with a strong supporting cast including Ron Perlman, Joe Pesci, and Steve Buscemi. The “real critics” will poo-poo this film as just another boxing film like any other, but there’s nothing wrong with a good formula when it works, and this one is told extremely well. ★★★★★

And while I’m on the subject of real critics, look no further than Goldfish, a film that was “universally acclaimed” but which, in my view, is a total bore. Anamika (Ana for short) is a young woman who has mostly abandoned her Indian heritage, but is confronted with it when she returns to her mother’s home in England. Her mom, Sadhana, has dementia and is progressively getting worse, so Ana has come home to decide what to do with her. Sadhana lives in a predominantly Indian neighborhood, where tradition is you take care of your family as they age, and heaven forbid you put someone in a home, which is exactly what Ana was considering. Ana must also face really terrible memories of growing up under Sadhana, who openly has stated she wishes she’d never had kids, and mentally and physically abused Ana as a child. Pretty terrible stuff, to the point you wonder why Ana came home at all, until you realize she’s hoping to inherit the house. Everyone in this film is a terrible person, no one to root for, and all you get for 90 minutes is a slow crawl. There isn’t even a big “ah-ha” moment where you find some deep nugget of clarity that makes it all come together in the end. Just boring slush from beginning to end. I’d rather visit an elderly folks’ home and listen to some of their (probably much more interesting) stories than sit through something like this again. ★½

Unlike many (just about everyone I know) I did not like 28 Days Later. I even rewatched it recently to see if my mind had changed, and it had not. Too much shaky cam for me (I get the reason why, for such a low budget film, but it was so bad that I couldn’t tell what was going on) and the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, was just as bad for my tastes. But this years-long-gestating sequel came with great promise, as it returned the original director (the great Danny Boyle) and writer (Alex Garland, who has gone on to great things since 28 Days, helming some really great films like Ex Machina, Annihilation, Men, and Civil War, all of which you can find reviewed in my history). So getting to it: 28 Years Later finally broke the curse, and delivered a movie I really enjoyed. It has been a generation since the “rage virus” turned most of the UK into a zombie zone, and nearly the entirety of the country has been quarantined from the rest of the world. A small community survives on a tiny island off the coast, only accessible by a land bridge during low tide, and its inhabitants have, if not thrived, at least are doing well enough. A coming-of-age tradition sees its young men sent out as teenagers to kill any zombies encroaching near to their island, and the newest young man is 12-year-old Spike. He and his father Jamie go to the mainland one day where Spike is able to kill a couple of the slow-moving monsters, but when they are attacked by some of the fast moving zombies, who can full-on sprint at you, Spike freezes in fear and the father and son barely make it back alive. Despite this fear, Spike has heard tale of a doctor living in the quarantined zone, and thinks that he can help his (Spike’s) mother, who lies abed with some debilitating illness. Spike absconds with his mom and seeks the doctor, traversing through overrun lands where anything can kill you. Great, tense film from the very beginning, almost to the point that it is exhausting to watch because you can never catch a breath. The ending was fairly divisive because it shifts tonally very suddenly, setting up a sequel that will soon hit, but I didn’t have a problem with it, and in fact, kind of liked it the more I think about it. Bring on the next film in the series! ★★★★

The Thursday Murder Club seemed like a “safe” movie for a stay-in movie night with the wife, featuring a strong cast (Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley) and a ho-hum murder mystery at an old folks home. And safe is what I got. The eponymous club meets weekly to look at cold cases and drink tea, but when a real murder happens, they take it upon themselves to do what the cops can’t. The owner of their retirement center is killed, and the new controlling owner is wanting to kick everyone out and turn the place into upscale apartments. Before that can happen, our plucky geriatric sleuths need to get to the bottom of the murder. Nothing too surprising here, and it’s a pleasant enough film, even if it definitely more geared for the older crowd (lots of corny jokes and whatnot), but it is intriguing enough to keep your attention. ★★½

Materialists is the followup from director Celine Song (bonus trivia: I learned she took her Western name from Jacques Rivette’s Céline and Julie Go Boating); her debut film Past Lives was a darling of the critics, even if I wasn’t as high on it as some. In Materialists, Dakota Johnson plays Lucy Mason, a matchmaker in New York who works to bring love to others, even if she can’t find it for herself. She spends her days interviewing would-be customers about their perfect matches, who too often care more for how tall their mate would be or how much they make. Lucy is really no different. She was once in love with (perhaps) her soulmate in John Finch (Chris Evans, a Captan America sighting!) but she broke it off with him over money. He was (and continues) pursuing his dream of acting but as such, is living dirt poor, and Lucy “doesn’t want to worry about spending $25 at a restaurant.” At least she admits to herself what she wants. She might just find her perfect match in Harry Castillo (Pedro Pascal), a wealthy investor with a $12 million apartment, and the two hit it off. But when one of Lucy’s clients is assaulted, by a match that Lucy had set up, she begins to ask herself serious questions about what she really wants, and if “settling for money alone” is really what will make her happy. It’s a charming film, exploring the same kind of ideas of fate and love-conquers-all themes that the director tackled in her first film. ★★★

The Naked Gun is a soft sequel of the classic Leslie Nielsen film trilogy from the 80s/90s, and has the exact same amount of ridiculous laughs as its predecessors. In case you’ve forgotten how ridiculous, it isn’t 3 minutes into the film before bank robbers pull off a heist with the goal of stealing a small electronic device labeled “plot device,” while cop Frank Drebin Jr (Liam Neeson, as Nielsen’s too-old son (*wink*) barrels in, chewing off guns, knocking down shooters as bowling pins, etc. That stolen device has a nefarious purpose, and as Frank and his partner Ed (Paul Walter Hauser) try to get to the bottom of the case, a femme fatale (Pamela Anderson) will either help or stand in their way before the end. The visual humor comes at you a mile a minute, and while I usually don’t do comedies, this one is so dumb that it is funny. Like, really funny. I laughed (out lout, to my wife’s chagrin) from beginning to end. Makes me want to go back and re-watch the originals after all this time, as I was a kid when they came out. ★★★★

All of You is a bittersweet romantic film starring (and written by) Brett Goldstein, with co-lead (and the always charming) Imogen Poots. They play best friends Simon and Laura, with the kind of closeness and non-sexual intimacy you can only have with a friend with whom you’ve shared everything for years. However, the viewer immediately gets the impression that Simon wishes it was more, but is unwilling to risk the friendship he has. Taking place in the near-future, in the beginning of the film Simon is driving Laura to Soul Connex, a company that has discovered the guaranteed ability to match people with their soulmates. Laura is excited for the chance to finally find true love, but Simon laughs it off, saying he’d rather find a mate “the old fashioned way.” When Laura’s match comes back, not as Simon but as a stranger named Lukas, Simon is obviously disheartened, but he’s not going to stand in her way. From here, the film starts to jump forward after every scene or two, sometimes a year, sometimes more, as we see the development of Laura’s marriage to Lukas and subsequent birth of a daughter, and what all this means for her friendship with Simon, who continues to (privately) hold on to hope. He dates here and there, relationships that never work out, until eventually, some years down the line, Laura’s father dies. With emotions high, Laura and Simon begin an affair that night, but afterwards, she refuses to leave her husband, whom she still loves (he is her legitimate soulmate after all, and makes her happy), but she continues on with Simon on the side. This can only last so long, as Simon wants more. Beautiful film with superb acting from Poots (as to be expected; how she’s never won a major acting award is beyond me) and spot-on writing from Goldstein, which isn’t surprising if you’re a fan of the heartwarming moments of Ted Lasso; he was originally hired as a writer on that show before taking on the role of Roy Kent. I absolutely adored this picture. ★★★★★

Jurassic World Rebirth is the latest in the film series (up to 7 now!) and a soft relaunch. The first Jurassic World film (the first one with Chris Pratt, a decade ago now) was pretty good but the subsequent two films got worse and worse. New cast, new setting for Rebirth, but in a good move, they brought back David Koepp, the original writer on the first 2 Jurassic Park films back in the 90s. In this film, set 3 years after the last, climate change has forced all dinosaurs to migrate towards the equator, and all the countries of the world have banned travel there for safety reasons. That’s fine for most of the population of the world, for whom the novelty of seeing dinosaurs has worn off, and no one cares anymore. However, a rich man has a scheme (don’t they always?) to sample the blood from 3 large dinosaurs for a new heart disease treatment, and he hires a crackshot crew including Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali to escort him into the quarantined zone to retrieve his samples. This island hosts the worst of the worst dinosaurs, not just the T-Rex’s and Velociraptors, but also genetically modified and mutated dinosaurs that the company was experimenting with. The team goes in, rescuing a family of boaters who had strayed too close to the unsafe zone, and together they must try to obtain their samples and then survive a day before rescue can arrive. Honestly lots of the same kind of scenes that are in every Jurassic Park film (people hiding behind something while a stealthy dino sniffs them out) but there are enough new-ish exciting moments to make up for it. The movie is long at over 2 hours, and I felt it, but it is better than the last movie in the series, so here’s hoping they are taking the franchise in a better direction. Because I’m sure there will be a film # 8 on this money train. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Deep Space 9 (season 4), Marvel Zombies (series), Strange New Worlds (season 3), Voyager (season 2), John Adams (series)
• Book currently reading: Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

Highest 2 Lowest is the newest Spike Lee film and is based on the masterpiece Japanese film High and Low from Akira Kurosawa. Denzel Washington plays David King, a successful record company executive whose glory days may be behind him. In the modern TikTok age of fast-changing trends, King hasn’t had a really successful musical act on his label in a decade, and others in his company are considering selling out before the ship sinks further. King however doesn’t want to give up on the company he founded, and has secured investors to buy out his partners and thus keep control. On the eve of the deal though, his high school son, Trey, is kidnapped, along with Trey’s friend and King’s godson Kyle, who is King’s chauffeur’s (Paul’s) son. Paul is an ex-con and owes much to King, and is willing to do anything to bring back Trey, but is the reverse true? We’ll find out, because Trey shows up at the house after a day, and it turns out the kidnappers grabbed Kyle instead, thinking it was Trey. Though they have the wrong kid, they still want their ransom, $17.5 million, all of the money King has rounded up to buy control of his company. Initially hesitant to do the deal, as it will leave him and his family penniless, King is persuaded to go through with it (mostly from fear of public backlash), and the rest of the film plays out as a quasi-action drama. This “middle” of the film is undeniably thrilling, with hot pursuits and some light cop action, but the beginning of the movie felt a little weird, sort of like a low budget flick with Grade A actors, and an (at times) off-putting and distracting soundtrack. The very ending, the coda, also was a bit out-of-place. Solid 3 1/2 stars, but could have been really great. ★★★½

Sister Midnight is an Indian film with a funny, quirky feel, with some dark elements that come out at points that add lots of tension. The film begins on the wedding night of Uma and Gopal. Like many marriages still to this day in India, it was an arranged marriage, and Uma has been brought to Gopal’s tiny little hovel in the city, where she, a country girl, knows no one nor how to get around. Uma shuts herself off from Gopal and her neighbors. She starts going out at night, and her encounters after dark are sort of funny, sort of haunting, but always entertaining. Something strange starts to happen thought. She starts gathering dead animals she finds, mostly birds, and wrapping them up and bringing them home to hide under the bed. Sometimes, after a strong emotion, one or two will come back to life and fly out the door. After Uma and Gopal finally start to develop a relationship and eventually sleep together, many of the dead animals are brought back to life. But when Gopal dies suddenly one night, and Uma props him up in the corner of the room like a decoration, the town starts to whisper that she’s a witch. Very quirky film, and you can definitely see some Wes Anderson influences in the way the actors move and the camera work and whatnot. However, while I was entertained throughout, I got a little lost somewhere and the style started to rub me wrong after awhile. I’m going with an average 2 1/2 stars, with the caveat that it is probably a much better film than I’m giving it credit for, and I bet if I were to watch it on a different day or different mood, I would have been more into it. ★★½

The New Boy stars Cate Blanchett, which is usually a sign of a good film. Taking place in the Australian Outback in 1944, she plays a nun, Sister Eileen, who is overseeing a very remote orphanage. She and the other nun there take in abandoned or found aboriginal boys, convert them to Christianity, teach them to read and write, and then send them off to work at farms in the area. Sort of a win-win for everyone, except for the boys themselves, obviously. As a nun, she’s not supposed to be in charge, which is supposed to be a priest, but he died a year ago and Sister Eileen has kept up the illusion of him still living to the outside world, for fear of others coming to interrupt her work. Into this environment comes the newest boy, who comes in without a name, and even without any way to communicate with others; he doesn’t speak English and seems to have no interest in learning to do so. He does, however, grow to have a weird fascination with the large statue of Jesus on the cross above the alter of their church building. And while Jesus healed people 2000 years ago, miraculously, this “new boy” (who won’t get a name until he is baptized) is able to cure ailments, pains, and even near-death in the always-dangerous outback. Really startling movie, and whether you agree or not with message it is delivering, it is powerful. Excellent acting, as you’d expect from Blanchett, but also from Deborah Mailman as Sister Mum and newcomer young Aswan Reid as New Boy. ★★★½

It’s strange to think this about a Pixar film, but the newest, Elio, is just… boring. Not all Pixar movies are great, but they’re usually at least entertaining, and this film has almost none of that. It’s about the eponymous Elio, whose parents die when he is a young boy, so he is raised by his Aunt Olga on her military base. A few years later, Elio is a middle-schooler, and has grown obsessed with finding aliens. In a world where he feels alone (despite his aunt’s best intentions), Elio is lonely, and he wants to find some people where he can feel wanted. He thinks aliens are the key. He uses the satellite dishes at Olga’s base to send a message out into space, and amazingly, someone hears. A spaceship comes and takes Elio, and he learns of an intergalactic group of explorers ready to bring him into the fold. Unfortunately, they think that Elio is the leader of planet Earth and that he has more pull than he does, and maybe more unfortunately, the group is currently being threatened by a warmonger who was refused entry into their numbers, and who is hellbent on subduing them to gain access to their extremely advanced technology. It seems the only way Elio can cement his membership is if he can turn away the attacker. Should be a great movie about finding a home in maybe the most unlooked-for location, but I couldn’t stop the yawns from coming and was ready for it just to end long before the credits came. A rare miss from the company. ★½

Sovereign stars Nick Offerman in one of his dramatic rolls (when he’s at his best, imo) and is based on a true story. He plays Jerry Kane, a self-proclaimed Sovereign Citizen (this is a batshit crazy group of people, look it up), raising his son Joe (Jacob Tremblay, who stole our hearts 10 years ago as a little kid in Room) to believe as he does. Joe is a teenager though, and sees others his age doing things that he wishes he could do, even mundane things like going to school (Jerry would never send his kid to that brainwashing institution, so Joe is homeschooled). Much of the movie is exploring what it means to be a Sovereign Citizen, with Jerry refusing to pay his bills since “he never entered into a contract with an entity that has power over him” and getting into trouble when he gets pulled over and has no driver’s license. As the film goes along, Jerry becomes increasingly combative towards police, judges, basically anyone of authority in a world that he refuses to recognize, so Joe may find himself on the wrong side of the law too. A very powerful film, and it blows my mind that there are radicals out there that actually believe this craziness. Seems like just a way to try to get out of paying for stuff (didn’t Jerry “enter into a contract” when he bought his house, a house that the bank is trying to foreclose on?). Anyway, well worth watching, it will open your eyes. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Breaking Bad (season 2), Landman (season 1), Alien Earth (series)
• Book currently reading: Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan

4 1/2 years ago I hit 1500 movies blogged on this site, and I recently doubled that to over 3000 now. Quite a lot of movies seen in the 10+ years I’ve been keeping track of this. As I did in early 2023, it’s time for me to take a bit of a break again. My movie watching has definitely come down a bit from my peak of close-to or over 400 movies a year from 2019-2022, to 241 in 2023 and 321 in 2024. I was on pace for around 275 movies this year, but with this break, I expect it will be far less than that. Part of that is my grandkids (I’m blessed to be able to have them over every week all year long, and several nights a week often), so whereas I used to watch 6-8 movies a week, I’m often now watching half that and playing “catch up” on the weekends. Part of my lower totals is also my new love of jogging; I get out and run anytime I have some free time, and recently completed my first half marathon. I’d love to work up towards a marathon in the next year, and after that, who knows? I always thought I’ve have more free time as I got older, but the opposite seems to be the case!

As I said on my last little break, I’ll still chime in with some movies here and there, so please subscribe here, follow me on Letterboxd, etc, and let me know if there’s ever anything that I should really check out.