Predator: Killer of Killers is the latest in a franchise which, until 2022’s Prey, was on life support. Prey resurrected the film series, so its director Dan Trachtenberg seems to have been given the reigns to keep it going. He has another live action film due later this year, but to tide us over, we have the animated film Predator: Killer of Killers (which Trachtenberg also co-wrote and co-directed). If you think just because it’s a cartoon that it can’t be as good, then you are sorely mistaken. The film takes place when predators, the ultimate hunting and killing machines, have visited Earth three times in our history: once attacking Norse raiders in the 9th century, once against samurai in feudal Japan, and finally against American fighter pilots in World War II. Each story stands by itself, but they are all brought together in the end for an excellent finale, in which we see a glimpse of a home world of the predators. Great film, full of action and (animated, of course) gore, but one that fans of the film series should definitely check out. Can’t wait to see Predator: Badlands in November! ★★★★★

Magazine Dreams took a long time to be released, due to the controversy over its star Jonathan Majors. When he was charged and convicted of assault on his girlfriend, a lot of attention was given to his firing from Marvel as its “next big villain,” but this film was shelved too. It’s too bad such a good actor has to be (seemingly) a bad guy, because he is extremely talented. This film stands on his shoulders, as he plays a mentally ill young man obsessed with bodybuilding. Killian Maddox stays with and helps care for his ailing “Paw Paw” (both of his parents are dead, violently as we learn later), and Killian is completely fixated on becoming a star in the sport. He eats enough calories to feed a family of 8, works out continuously, is taking steroids, and eats, breathes, and sleeps nothing but his regimen. When he goes on a date with a girl one night (awkwardly, because his mental issues include social problems), he scares her away with his constant stream-of-conciousness on his goals. Unfortunately the lack of social cues aren’t the only thing Killian suffers from; he is also prone to violent outbursts, such as breaking into and wrecking a paint store when they refuse to come put a second coat of paint on their house after Paw Paw said it needed it. Killian also has an unhealthy obsession with a star bodybuilder and fitness champ named Brad, to whom Killian constantly writes letters/fan mail. Killian’s fixation on his physique and his preoccupation with Brad both do not end well, when he does poorly at a competition and Brad stands him up, leading Killian to buy an assault weapon and contemplating serious crimes. Stellar acting from Majors, who I hope gets a chance to do more in the future. I’m not into cancel culture; if you took away every bad character from the movie and music industry, we’d lose half (or more) of the great pieces of work in our history. This film is definitely worth watching. ★★★½

Julie Keeps Quiet is a Dutch film with possible inspiration from some recent events. At a premier tennis program, Julie is a much-hyped teenager with a promising future in the sport. Like any promising young athlete, she doesn’t have time for much more than training and working out. Her friends are others at the tennis academy, but even they go out once in awhile, while Julie hits the gym. However, her longtime coach, Jeremy has recently been suspended by the academy, and a new instructor put in place. The other kids are asking a lot of questions, like what did Jeremy do, but Julie is doing what the title says, and is mum. In fact, she is still in contact with Jeremy via text and phone in the evenings, and he continues to coach her from afar, prepping her for a big upcoming tryout, and contradicting her new coach. As the film progresses and we learn what Jeremy is accused of, it comes as no surprise, though how it relates to Julie may be. For much of the film, we don’t know what is going on in her head, because she just doesn’t open up to anyone, so when she does start to speak up for herself near the film’s finale, her words have a very strong impact on the viewer. Outstanding film, with charged emotions on all sides, and it really takes this scenario and examines it from all angles, from the student athletes to the parents to the school program. ★★★★★

I wanted to like Shayda more than I did, but it’s still pretty good. Taking place in the mid-90s but still very much relevant today, it follows an Iranian mother, Shayda, as she is going through a divorce from her husband Hossein and trying to keep their daughter Mona innocent through it all. Shayda and Mona are currently living in a women’s shelter in Australia, where Hossein had brought his family for work, but Shayda fears that he will abduct Mona and flee back to Iran, where men have much more powerful legal rights over wives and children. Shayda is wanting the divorce because of Hossein’s violence, which would give her standing for divorce even in Iran (where women need a very good reason to divorce their husbands), but even so, she is shunned by other Iranians living in the area, as they see her as going against her husband. As the film progresses, we learn what Hossein did, and things get even murkier when a judge grants him visitation rights with Mona, and Shayda meets another young man too. Until her divorce is finalized, this would very much be considered adultery under Iran law, and she would be killed in her home country for it. A strong story, with surprisingly good acting from young Mona (I’m traditionally not a fan of child actors). ★★★½

Misericordia is marketed as a black comedy, but honestly the humor is as dry as it gets until the very end. It follows a young man named Jérémie, returning to his hometown after the death of childhood friend Vincent’s father’s death. The dead dad was the town’s baker and he originally inspired Jérémie to become a baker too, though he hasn’t been back to this town to visit for years. Rather than take the long drive back home afterwards, the widow (Vincent’s mom), Martine, invites Jérémie to stay at her place in Vincent’s old room, and starts whispering that Jérémie should stay and become the new baker here. Vincent seems to take affront to that, and starts dropping innuendos that Jérémie is “sniffing around” his mom. This later leads to a lethal confrontation between Jérémie and Vincent. Jérémie tries to come up with an alibi, but the police don’t seem to be buying, even when unlikely people come forward with cover stories, which include the town priest, all of whom seem to want to get into Jérémie’s pants. The movie starts out as a fairly gripping drama with a lot of intrigue, leaving me wondering what exactly it was building to and what Jereme’s motives were, but it devolves into a dumb romp. By the end, it’s a ridiculous chain of events, and then, it just… ends. Suddenly, and with no resolution. Really weird film. ★★

Ballerina, or, as it is marketed in order to fill the seats, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, is the latest in the “John Wick universe” (can it really be an expanded universe if John Wick is in every movie?) and takes place between John Wick 3 and 4. A decent enough action film, though if the John Wick team was hoping to move past Keanu Reeves to tell other, somewhat related stories, I’m not sure they’ve succeeded.

Ana de Armas stars as Eve Macarro, who as a young girl watches her father killed by intruders, and then is raised in a Russian school where girls are taught ballet as a front, but also how to be assassins and bodyguards and whatever-have-you. All grown up, Eve is given her first job to protect someone, and in the course of that job, fights off someone sporting the same tattoo/mark as the men who killed her dad all those years ago. Turns out they are in some weird mob-like cult, an offshoot of Eve’s ballerina school, which believes that all things happen due to fate. They are led by a shadowy figure known as the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). Eve wants her revenge for killing her father, so she goes to the cult’s headquarters in a little picturesque town in Austria, where everyone from the police to the baker to the homemaker is a member of the cult and ready to kill with one word from the Chancellor. Eve must avoid or kill them all if she’s going to get to the boss, but thankfully she gets a little help from John Wick before the end. 

The movie is fine, and that’s it’s problem: it’s just fine. For one, I’m sure de Armas is a fine actress, but she has a bit too much of the “doe eyed innocent” look to be able to pull off the role of a stone cold killer. Just not very believable. If they want to expand the universe, they should bring in some characters already introduced by people behind the camera in some other (much better) films: Atomic Blonde (from original John Wick co-director David Leitch and starring Charlize Theron) and Nobody (writer of 3 John Wick films Derek Kolstad, starring Bob Odenkirk). Now that’s a team-up I’d be down for! ★★★

Nearly a decade in the making, The Accountant 2 is the followup to the 2016 film, a movie I liked a lot. Ben Affleck is back as Christian Wolff, who is brought in by Marybeth Bedina, who received a big promotion for her actions in the first film, to help solve the murder of Raymond King (also from the first film). Christian will need some help on this one, so he calls up his brother, super assassin Braxton, and together the two men start digging. King was trying to solve a mystery involving a trio of immigrants from El Salvador, who disappeared 10 years ago, but he was killed by a whole team of killers trying to keep that story buried. A mystery woman is also involved, who met with King the day of his death, and her assassin skills seem to rival Braxton’s. The story of this woman and the 10-year-old cold case are intertwined, and Christian will have to get to the bottom of it all. Maybe a bit less action than the first film, but what is there is still great, and there’s a lot of added comedy too. In fact, it has almost the feel of a buddy film, with the interaction between the two adult brothers: Braxton the outgoing, gregarious partier, and Christian, the introverted and quiet man that his brother just can’t understand. Like the first film, a whole lot of fun from beginning to end. ★★★★

I recently snuck in Gandhi as an “older” film I had never seen, and I’m doing it again with Kingdom of Heaven, a (highly) fictionalized history of the fall of Jerusalem from Christianity control in 1187. When this movie came out in 2005, it was much hyped as another Ridley Scott epic in the vein of Gladiator (released 5 years previously), but it got awful reviews, so while this genre is definitely my cup of tea, I didn’t bother with it. But with the much-more-highly regarded “director’s cut” recently restored and released in 4K, I gave it a go, and was blown away. Not having seen the original theater version, I have nothing to compare it to, but this version is great. Bailan is a blacksmith in France when he learns he is the son of Baron Godfrey, a crusader with lands in the Holy Kingdom. Bailan joins his father, only to see him die in battle on the way to Jerusalem, so that when Bailan arrives there, he is the new lord. His new clout will be tested immediately by the warring factions there, all vying for who will be the next king when its current, who has leprosy, dies. Harassing the area too is Saladin, who is leading a huge Muslim army to capture Jerusalem from the Christians. A true epic in scale, runtime (3+ hours) and cast (Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, and Jeremy Irons, not to mention a host of recognizable faces throughout), this film has it all and is a must-see for fans of these kinds of historical war movies. ★★★★½

The Day the Earth Blew Up was a must-watch for me, as a Gen X’er with fond memories of the old Looney Tunes cartoons. Would you believe this is the first full feature film of theirs to be released theatrically? I couldn’t believe it either. It features Daffy Duck and Porky Pig as best friends raised on a farm by a kindly farmer named Jim, who dies and leaves them the house. Decades later, the house has fallen into ill repair and the farmland has long been replaced by other houses as a suburb, and Daffy and Porky are facing the real possibility of having the house torn down and eminent-domained if they can’t fix it up. They have to face off against more than just the home inspector: a nefarious alien is mind-controlling all of the world’s residents whenever they chew his cosmic chewing gum, but to what end? The title of the film may give it away, but there’s a good twist before it is all over. Lots of laughs for kids and kids-at-heart, including plenty of jokes that the young won’t get but the elders will (why is Daffy so worried about getting “probed” by the aliens 😉 ). ★★★

The Ballad of Wallis Island is a fantastic indie film with equal parts comedy and story. Herb McGwyer is a once-successful musician a decade ago, part of the popular folk duo McGwyer Mortimer, but when he and girlfriend Nell Mortimer broke up, so did their band. Herb has been hired by superfan (and recent lottery winner) Charles Heath to come to the small Wallis Island for a private concert, to the tune of $500,000, which Herb plans on using to fund his next album. When he arrives though, he is blindsided when he learns that Nell has also been invited, as Charles wants to instigate a reunion. What follows is a story about walking down memory lane, and all of the pitfalls that such a trip can bring. If this were a sappy romcom, of course they’d get back together, but I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I say this isn’t that kind of movie. My wife would hate it, because of that reason, but I loved it. Feels very real, without sentimentality. The two singers have lots of pent-up anger and long-thought-buried hurts, and scraping away at them is just like picking at an unhealed scar. Great acting from Tom Basden and the always-great Carey Mulligan as the two former partners, with lots of laughs provided by Charles as the eccentric loner who can’t help but interject running dialogue into every moment, even when his input isn’t asked for. I laughed a whole lot and admittedly teared up a couple times too. Who could ask for more in a movie? ★★★★★

I’m Still Here is about a tumultuous period of time in Brazil, and in particular the disappearance of former congressman Rubens Paiva. In 1970 in Rio de Janeiro, the country has been seized by a military dictatorship, with its new rulers doing everything it can to squelch dissenters and try to control the narrative getting out to other countries. Paiva is a former politician who initially had to flee the country when the military took power, but returned once things settled down, and is retired and living the quiet life with his wife Eunice and their five children. Clandestinely, Rubens and his friends are still aiding the resistance movement, until one day the police knock on the door to take Rubens in for questioning. He is gone for a day, with police leaving behind a couple tough guys to stay in the house with the family, before another group comes to take Eunice and daughter Eliana too. The two are hooded and driven to a secret location, where Eunice will spend 12 days, not knowing what is going on with her daughter or husband. She is questioned continuously, with the sounds of torture going on down the hall, and it isn’t until she finally emerges into the light, noticeably thinner, that she starts to get some answers. Thankfully Eliana was only held for a day and has been home ever since, and the family is happy to be reunited with their mom. Rubens, however, never returns, and as time goes on, and the government refuses to admit he was even taken, the international community rallies around the family. An epilogue 25 years later, and another 20 years after that, show what came to Rubens and how the family turned out. Based on a true story, it’s a startling look at a dark period in the country. Strong story, even if I felt it was a bit drawn out at times. The film won the Oscar for Best International, and Fernanda Torres won a Golden Globe for Best Actress as Eunice, a rare international win in the category. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: ST Deep Space Nine (season 2), Your Friends & Neighbors (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Amber and Ashes by Margaret Weis

The Last Showgirl is a very good film and a triumphant return for Pamela Anderson, in perhaps her most acclaimed role ever. She plays Shelly, a 57-year-old dancer in Las Vegas, who has performed in the Vegas show Le Razzle Dazzle for over 30 years. Now the “elder statesman” in the show, she is the person that the young dancers look to for help and as an example. She is proud of her long run on the show too, and loves to tell stories about how she was once a celebrity, with the company touring her around the world. In fact, she loves nothing more than reminiscing about what it used to mean to be a Vegas Showgirl. However, those days are long gone, and Le Razzle Dazzle is the last “old school” Vegas show still playing, with other stages having long since moved to singers or other performers, or modern, “sexier” shows with fewer costume changes, sets, etc. The writing is on the wall, with attendance way down, and when news comes that the show will finally close in 2 weeks, Shelly is devastated. She starts to reflect on what she has given up, which includes her own daughter, who she sent to live with a friend 20 years ago, and who she only sees once every year or so. Anderson is incredible as Shelly, a woman holding on to an idea that isn’t there anymore (and tragically, maybe never was), and there’s strong support from Jamie Lee Curtis and Dave Bautista as well. ★★★½

Vermiglio is an outstanding lowkey film out of Italy, with an almost old school Neorealism feel. It takes place at the end of World War II, it a tiny village in the Italian Alps, and centers around the Graziadei family. Patriarch Cesare is the local schoolteacher where it seems half the children in school are his own; he has a huge litter with an always-pregnant wife. The film mostly focuses on 4 of his oldest children. Lucia is the eldest, and seems destined to follow in her mom’s footsteps, especially after she falls for a young man new to the area (which causes a big brouhaha; he deserted from the army, but did save a local resident from death, and the residents of town aren’t really on Mussolini’s side anyway). Dino is a boy whom Cesare wants to see follow his path, but Cesare is continually disappointed in Dino’s lackadaisical ways. Ada is a smart and inquisitive girl who wants to leave the town and see the world, but her way may be blocked by sister Flavia, who gets better marks in school, and the family can only afford to send one child to college. The movie mostly follows this collection of characters in their “adventures” around town, and the plot comes to a head when Lucia gets pregnant (at the same time as her mother, as always) and she quickly marries her man, only to see him leave town once the war ends. It’s one of those movies where not much “really” happens, but at the same time, so much happens. If that doesn’t make any sense, then you haven’t seen any old post-war Italian Neorealism movies. Very much a character-driven picture, with moving and emotional moments. ★★★★

I don’t get this movie at all. Hoard starts out following a little girl, Maria, and her mother Cynthia. They share a chaotic life, living in a home where Cynthia’s hoarder tendencies have taken over. They are surrounded by trash and rats, and Maria, now 8 years old, is starting to realize it isn’t normal. When she gets to the point that she can’t find stuff for school when it is needed, she starts to speak up, but Cynthia blows her off and makes games out of the trash. It takes a huge pile of trash falling and trapping Cynthia, for which the little Maria needs to run and get help from the neighbors, before the authorities step in and take Maria away from the house. She is put in a foster home with a woman named Michelle, and when the films picks up again a decade later, Maria is still living there. She meets a guy named Michael, and the two begin a whirlwind romance, despite Michael having a pregnant girlfriend already. Maria’s own spiral begins after she finds out that Cynthia has recently died, despite thinking she died years ago. Suddenly Maria begins hoarding too, and the pattern of mental illness that permeated her younger life returns. The problem with this movie is it wants to be artsy, but isn’t nearly as smart as it thinks it is. There are long stretches where nothing happens, and not just plot development; there are slow indie films where the slow stretches at least develop the characters or add depth, but there’s nothing going on here except Maria and her friends hanging out. I started skipping ahead just to see how it ends, and the ending is “ok,” but it doesn’t forgive the ambling pace to get there. ★½

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a very good film, but has, I think, a better story behind the camera than in front of it. The movie starts great: in Iran in 2022, protests are breaking out after the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody, arrested for not wearing her hijab in public (a terrible event, look it up if you are unfamiliar with the story). Iman is a lawyer who has the opportunity to advance his career to become a judge, but the stepping stone is to be a puppet for the government in the tumultuous time going on, where they want him to sign off on executions and warrants without really reading the merits of the cases. Iman’s wife is loyal to him, and while she may not like what he’s doing, she wants the better life for the family that his new job will bring them. Their daughters, however, college-aged Rezvan and highschooler Sana, are not so willing to put on the blinders. Rezvan in particular is very supportive of the protestors, especially after her best friend is shot in the face by buckshot from the police at a protest. To protect himself, Iman has been issued a gun, and things come to a head when the gun goes missing in the household one day (very much his own fault; Iman has been bad about setting it around haphazardly). Iman immediately suspects someone in his family has taken it, and becomes paranoid over his daughters. Fearing trouble with his bosses if he comes clean about the missing weapon, he takes his family out to a remote location to interrogate them, using tactics Iran would use on any hostile suspect. The end of the film sort of runs off the rails, and I was enjoying the tension and eternal drama before the movie became an action thriller, but still, it’s a dark picture of a country where its inhabitants are (to this day) clamoring for freedom, while its government is trying its damndest to squelch uprisings. Interspersed throughout the film are actual short videos of the protests, such as women burning their hijabs, and the police’s often violent reactions. Director Mohammad Rasoulof, already under fire from his country for past films, had to shoot the movie in secret and then smuggle the film out of the country to get it released. He himself was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in jail, but he fled the country on foot before he could be secured. Two of the actors in the film were not so lucky, and remain in Iran today. ★★★½

Joram, an Indian film, is pretty much a straight-forward thriller, but does have deeper meanings for those interested in thinking about it afterwards. Dasru is a husband and new father living in Mumbai. A construction worker, he is recognized by a businesswoman named Phulo Karma, who knows him from their village many years ago. Shortly after, Dasru returns home one day after work to find his wife trussed up and brutally murdered. Dasru kills one of the attackers before the other two flee. Dasru grabs his infant son and runs, with the police quick on his trail. The report goes out that Dasru is a suspect in his wife’s killing, and Dasru, with a past that we as viewers are as-yet unaware of (it is slowly revealed as the movie goes along), is not-too-ready to go to the police and try to explain his side of the story. His only plan it to return to his hometown, which is exactly where Phulo expects him to go. She is obviously the one behind the murder of his wife, and she won’t be happy until Dasru is dead too, and it is awhile until we find out why, but it all becomes clear in the end. Dasru’s one helper through this is an unexpected ally: the lead police officer from Mumbai, Ratnakar, who has been tasked to follow Dasru. He wants to take Dasru in alive, even while the people he meets up with, on the payroll of the wealthy Phulo, are being told to kill Dasru. Both the cop and Dasru seem to be playing a role in a power struggle over which they have no control. It’s a very strong film, and when you learn why Phulo wants Dasru dead, and the past that intertwines their lives, it hits hard. ★★★★

• TV series recently watched: The Bondsman (series), The Stolen Girl (series)
• Book currently reading: Hunters of Dune by Herbert & Anderson

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is the reshaped sequel to 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One (they dropped “Part Two” after the suboptimal reception to that film). I liked the last one quite a bit, and while this finale has some really great moments, it can’t quite reach the same heights (despite Tom Cruise literally hanging from a plane in the end!).

This movie picks up where the last one ended. Ethan Hunt and his team are all that stands between an artificial intelligence known as The Entity taking over complete control of the world. It has already started infiltrating the weapons systems of the nuclear world powers, with just a handful of countries, including the USA, still in control of their nuclear weapons. Once The Entity controls them all, it wants to launch a nuclear war to decimate humanity, securing itself in a self-powered bunker, where it can wait out until survivors come out and that it can then control. There are even nutbags out there (and aren’t there always?) who have started to worship The Entity in a cult-like way, and are willing to take directions from it to further its mission. From the last film, Hunt is in possession of the one Key that can unlock The Entity’s source code, from which Hunt can then upload a virus to stop it. However, that source code is sitting in a scuttled submarine at the bottom of the ocean. In typical Mission Impossible way, Hunt will traverse the globe to gather the items he needs to pull off this last ditch effort to save humanity.

The movie starts out slow, and I mean REALLY slow. There’s lots of dialogue to catch up the viewer on what is going on, lots of jumping around, and tons of flashbacks to previous Mission Impossible films (it really is driving home that they’ve all been connected) before the action really gets going. A full hour or so of setting the stage for what is to come, but when the movie is pushing 3 hours long, you have an hour to do that. It throws so much information at you, though, that I was starting to get lost, and I’ve seen all the movies! I can’t imagine how someone newer to the franchise would feel. Once you get through all that setup, the movie picks up quickly, and the rest is pretty great. The final action sequence, when Hunt is chasing the one man who can stop him, while his team is waiting for him to upload that virus at just the right moment, is nail-bitingly intense and as good as any moment in the film series yet.

When the double film was first announced as Dead Reckoning Parts 1 and 2, it was heavily implied that this was Ethan Hunt’s last mission, and the reworked title of The Final Reckoning certainly doubles down on that, but the film does leave at least the possibility of a reset. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything when I say there’s a very “Ocean’s 11” moment at the end where Hunt and his (new) team are giving goggly eyes at each other before walking away. Tom Cruise himself has said that he’d love to keep doing more. I just hope that if they return to the well, they can trim the fat, and get back to some deep spy stuff and not just another action film, because those MI films that blended espionage and action where the best. ★★★½

Novocaine is a fun film for a single watch through, with a unique premise that sets it apart from the usual action comedy genre. Nathan Caine is an assistant bank manager who leads a pretty dreary life, with no real friends (the only person he talks to is an online buddy while playing video games) and a real fear of hurting himself. But the fear isn’t because he fears pain, it’s because he is unaware of it. He literally cannot feel pain, to the point that he may cut himself badly, but be unaware of the injury until he bleeds out. He doesn’t even eat hard foods, for fear of accidentally biting his own tongue off. Into this dull life enters Sherry, a new, pretty coworker at the bank. The two hit it off one night, but Nathan’s life goes sideways the next day, when the bank is robbed and the crooks take Sherry as a hostage to help them escape cleanly. Nathan, a regular guy, can now put his “superpowers” to use as he chases down the bad guys to get back his “girlfriend,” with no fear of any pain he may endure along the way. The movie gets over-the-top gruesome as Nathan is willing to put his body through harm in order to take out a bad guy, but the blood flows in a humorous way throughout. Ultimately what makes the movie work is Jack Quaid as Nathan, as his aw-shucks style of acting wins over the audience. The movie is funny but probably not one I’d return to for a second viewing, but good for a fun (and different) date night. ★★★

When I’m Ready is a super low budget film but one that I enjoyed a whole lot more than expected (maybe partly because I’m a sucker for apocalyptic movies). It follows new couple Rose and Michael as they drive cross country to visit Rose’s grandmother. The world is dealing with the news that the end is near, with a humanity-crushing asteroid on a collision course with the planet in about a week. Rose, who was mostly raised by her grandmother but who hasn’t seen her in over a year, wants to say her goodbyes to the one other person who meant a lot to her growing up. Rose and Michael were schoolmates but not a couple until recently, she being a popular kid and he being anything but. Michael is the only person carrying a cell phone (while services are still working; stuff is starting to break down pretty quickly) and he is monitoring the news for anything new, but is also sheltering Rose to an extent. She is used to things just sort of going her way, and keeps asking if there’s a chance that whatever plan the government is working on will work; he keeps measuring her, but knows there is no hope. Along their trip, they see the best and worst humanity has to offer. Some people are obviously meeting the end of the world with nothing but anger and a desire to hurt others, while some, like Rose and Michael, are making the most of it. Two recognizable faces in the film include Lauren Cohan (Maggie from Walking Dead) and longtime actor Dermot Mulroney, who play different people the couple come across on their drive. Apart from those two, the acting leaves something to be desired, but the story is one of making peace with others and yourself, and resonated with me. ★★★★

I can’t help but wonder what everyone was smoking when they were praising The Room Next Door. I love everyone involved in this film, from director Pedro Almodóvar to co-leads Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, but what a self-indulgent turd this movie turned out to be. The women play Ingrid and Martha, best-of-friends once upon a time, but it has been awhile since they regularly spoke. Martha is now dying of cancer, and when Ingrid hears the news, she reaches out and the two reconnect. In some flashbacks, we learn a bit about the two women’s lives, including why Martha has been alienated from other family, leaving her alone in this terrible moment of her life. With no one else to turn to, she asks Ingrid to help her end her life, so that she no longer has to go through the pain and anguish of a slow death. Ingrid reluctantly accepts, and the two head to a remote cabin to do the deed. That’s as far as I got, because I simply couldn’t stomach another awkward scene. It was a weird experience watching this movie, because it features two lauded actresses who are usually quite good, and from a director I usually enjoy, but I could not connect with this one at all. The acting comes off as contrived and (almost) phony at times, like people pretending to like each and just being fake. Even their actions don’t feel natural. Really weird stuff. Maybe I can chalk it up to the fact that it is Almodóvar’s first English language film, because some of his Spanish films are absolutely moving and unforgettable. They can’t all be winners! ★

The Brutalist received lots of hype but ultimately not as many awards as its writer/director Brady Corbet wanted (or expected, as he comes off as a bit pretentious; he certainly loves to remind everyone how great his movie is). It follows a man named László (Adrien Brody) who comes to America as a Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivor in 1947. He finds a place to live with his cousin, Attila, who has Americanized (dropping his accent, and marrying a Catholic), but Attila’s wife makes it clear that László is not welcome. The one piece of good news László does receive is that his wife is still alive in Hungary; he suspected she did not survive the Holocaust, but she has been writing to Attila. In Hungary, László was a successful and esteemed architect, but in America, he is nothing, and after a business deal Attila had with a wealthy patron, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), goes bad, László is out on the streets. 3 years later, he has become addicted to heroin and is shoveling coal when Harrison finds him. Turns out Harrison’s new library, designed by László, has become the talk of the town, and Harrison wants to hire him to build a mammoth community center in remembrance of Harrison’s recently deceased mother. Despite misgivings, László accepts, hoping to earn enough money to bring his wife to America. Many more years will pass before that happens, and László’s trials and tribulations are not over. In fact, they are never over. Brody won the Oscar for best actor for the film, and he is indeed great, as is Pearce as the devilish Harrison, but I’m not convinced The Brutalist is a great movie. It is buoyed by excellent acting, but has some amateurish “gotcha” scenes, several too many in fact, which only seem present to drive a point home (again and again), that the immigrant’s life is hard, and László is there just to be used and abused by the privileged. I didn’t mind the 3+ hour runtime, but a long movie does not an epic make. It’s the kind of movie that is a critic’s darling, but not one that really moved me. ★★★

My Dead Friend Zoe, on the other hand, is emotionally resonant, even if the acting as a whole isn’t on par with the above picture. It stars Star Trek Discovery’s Sonequa Martin-Green as Merit, who, at the beginning of the film, is attending court mandated group therapy sessions after she nearly got a coworker killed in an accident. Merit is dealing with PTST from her time in the army serving in Afghanistan, but thus far has refused to talk about it. Her constant companion is Zoe (Natalie Morales), but as you can tell from the title of the film, Zoe is only in her imagination. Zoe is funny, always with a quip on hand to poke at Merit or her family, but comedy is not what Merit needs right now—she needs to find a way to make peace with Zoe’s death. As if Merit doesn’t have enough on her plate, her grandfather Dale (Ed Harris) has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and Merit’s mom wants to put him in a home for his safety. She has asked Merit to go to their lake house where Dale has been living alone to break the news to him and prepare him to sell the house, but dropping that news will not be easy on Merit, and the headstrong Dale, who also served in the Army and who was Merit’s idol growing up, isn’t ready to be told he can’t do something. The first half of the film has plenty of laughs from Zoe, but as the truth behind her death is revealed in the end, the film turns very emotional, and hits you hard. Harris is perfect as the cantankerous old man. ★★★★½

• TV series recently watched: The Wheel of Time (season 3), The Handmaid’s Tale (season 6), The Wonder Years (seasons 5-6), The Last of Us (season 2)
• Book currently reading: Hunters of Dune by Herbert & Anderson

Black Bag is a spy thriller with an old-school feel, from acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh, and featuring an all-star couple of leads in Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. They play married couple George and Kathryn, both intelligence officers in London. Though they are both spies, they cannot talk “trade secrets” with each other, as they are usually working on different “need to know” cases. One such case is George’s latest, when he is tasked with finding a double agent in their midst. He is given a list of 5 suspects, one of whom is his own wife. Shortly after giving George the assignment, his boss dies of a heart attack, so something is definitely up. What follows is some great old fashioned spy work, where George doesn’t know who he can trust, including the love of his life. I think I wanted to like this movie more, because while the tension-building is great, the big reveal at the end is heralded a bit too much, which lessened its impact. Still, it’s a good “thinking man’s” kind of movie, proving again that you don’t need action to have a very tense film. ★★★½

Good One is an absolutely fantastic indie film from a first time writer/director (India Donaldson) with a young lead in a huge breakout role (Lily Collias). She plays Sam, a 17-year-old going camping with her dad Chris, along with Chris’s longtime friend Matt and Matt’s son. Matt’s son bails at the last minute, making it just a trio. Sam and Chris have done camping/trekking together plenty of times and know the ropes, but from the beginning, Matt isn’t ready (packs too much, brings the wrong stuff, etc). Over the course of a few days, sometimes Sam acts as a window for us viewers, giving us a view into the lives of Chris and Matt, 2 lifelong friends, as they work through some private shit. But make no mistake, this is definitely a coming-of-age film about Sam, a trip in which she severs that line between being her dad’s daughter and being her own adult. Collias is tremendous as Sam, showing subtle changes in her face for every emotion she’ll encounter during the trip. A quiet film, but with a lot of lowkey suspense (like when a trio of young men shows up at their camp, or when Matt has a little too much to drink one night when he and Sam are alone) that keeps your attention throughout. Great stuff. ★★★★★

Like a lot of moviegoers, sometimes I ignore the reviews and pick a film based on a favorite director or actor. That’s the case for Havoc, because Tom Hardy is in, and hell, he’s one of the best. But what a turd of a movie. The reviews are so-so, and I have no idea what anyone would see in this. It’s a straight forward action film, about a dirty cop who is caught up working for a dirty mayoral candidate, while trying to rescue a fellow cop’s son who is mixed up in a Chinese drug gang over a gone-wrong drug deal, and a Triad drug lord out for revenge over her murdered son. Enough going on there for you? It’s a hot mess, and honestly I stopped watching about 40 minutes in, so I have no idea how it all went done. Honestly I don’t care to know. ½

The Golden Voice is a generic feel-good film about a young man, KJ (Dharon Jones), who has lost all hope and tries to commit suicide in a park in Philadelphia. As luck would have it, he tries to do so right near a homeless man who is currently sleeping nearby. Barry (Nick Nolte) has been on the streets for decades and has seen it all, and he talks KJ down. Over the next few weeks, the two become unlikely friends. Along the way, they give each other a reason to live: for KJ, to physically live, and for Barry, to let go of the pains from his past that have kept him in this situation for far too long. Nothing very memorable, but Nolte delivers a strong performance. He’s getting up there in years (I couldn’t believe he is 84 now!) and it’s easy to forget, but once-upon-a-time he was regular nominee and winner on the awards’ circuit. ★★½

I usually just stick to films, but here’s a 4-part miniseries out of the UK currently on Netflix, and I was blown away by it enough to write about it. Adolescence starts out innocent enough. Two detectives are talking in a car, but when they get a call on the radio, they peal out and join a parade of other cop cars, who all together storm a house. Drug dealers? Gang bangers? No, it’s a middle class family, and neither parent is the target. It’s the (very young looking) 13-year-old boy asleep in his bedroom. We don’t know the crime (finding that out is part of what makes the first episode so great, so I’m not telling!), but you gotta know the police would have a really good reason to go in guns blazing like they did. What follows is a scary look at the life of teenagers these days, more than the facts of the crime itself. I thought it was rough when bullies would knock books out of your hands or shove you against the wall when walking by when I was in school. Now it is all done online, and the psychological torture is mindboggling. How does any child survive to become a well-adjusted adult these days? Maybe they don’t, and society will get even worse. We’ll find out in the next 10-15 years. Anyway, brilliant show. Every parent and educator should watch this. ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Cheers (seasons 7-8), SW Tales of the Underworld (series), Adolescence (series), The Eternaut (season 1), Andor (season 2)
• Book currently reading: Hunters of Dune by Herbert & Anderson

I’ve been drawn to this movie since I first heard the title: How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. As new-ish grandparents with my wife, who wouldn’t like a title like that? In the film, M is an aimless young adult living with his parents, with his dreams of being a professional video gamer fading. His paternal grandfather has been ill for a long time, and is cared for by his cousin Mui. When the grandfather dies, he leaves most of his estate to Mui, so M gets the idea to do the same for his maternal grandmother, Mengju, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer. It’s a darkly humorous idea, but of course, M gets more than he can handle with Mengju. She is weary of people, especially family, latching on to her as the end of her life nears, but she’s also spent a lifetime taking care of those around her. One son doesn’t make time for her ever, the other only comes around when he needs money, while her daughter (M’s mother) is sort of forgotten in the shuffle. At first just in it for the hope of riches, M gets to know this intriguing and often lonely woman who was once so important in his life as a child. You know how it is all going to end long before it does, but that doesn’t keep the tears at bay, it’s a real tear-jerker. Great film out of Thailand. ★★★★

Not sure what I was expecting with My Last Best Friend, starring Eric Roberts. When was the last time you saw anything decent with him in it (and not for lack of trying; the man was in 40+ films last year alone). He plays two roles in this movie, two roommates in a NY apartment, both (apparently) named Walter Stoyanov. Taking place during COVID (and filmed during and just after the lockdowns), the film follows as each Walter is going through some shit. One catches COVID and gets really sick, while the other catches the attentions of the FBI and goes under investigation for some previous crimes. This movie brings every cliche under the fold, with truly awful, low budget dialogue to go along with the low budget production (the sound in particular seems like it was mixed by someone with no idea what they were doing). And Eric Roberts isn’t even the worst actor in the movie, and that’s saying something. Why did I waste my time on this one, and more importantly, why did I watch all the way to the end to unravel the mystery of the two Walters? ★

Seagrass is a very lowkey (almost on life support) film about a family on the ropes. Steve and Judith are on the edge of divorce, and to try to save their marriage, they’ve gone to a family retreat in Nova Scotia where they can get couples therapy while their two young daughters can play with other kids to keep themselves busy. The film sets up as Judith as the one at fault in the deterioration of their marriage; she hasn’t been unfaithful, but despite a loving husband and two great kids, something’s not right. As she admits, she has everything she should want, yet she’s unhappy. Getting to the crux of why though, is what is explored as the movie goes along. It is a really slow burn; even I, who tends to like slow, introspective films, was tested, and the payoff isn’t the most satisfying. But there is some great tension, including a subplot involving the kids as the oldest gravitates towards a not-so-nice bully and the younger is left to her own devices. The movie had potential to be great, but ends up just good enough. ★★★

Escape is a low budget film out of South Korea, but an entertaining one for fans of action thrillers. Kyu-nam is a North Korean soldier working at a post near the DMZ, who dreams of defecting south. He has a plan, but on the day of his planned escape, a friend begs to be brought along. The friend ends up getting the two of them caught, but then tries to save Kyu-nam by taking the rap himself. Kyu-nam is hailed as a hero for “catching the deserter,” but he can’t let his friend rot in prison. He gets him out, and the two make their run for the border, with seemingly all of North Korea on their heels, including Kyu-nam’s childhood friend, a higher-up solder in the North Korean army. The movie is more-than-a-little silly at times, especially when it seems time and space mean nothing (as in, a person can be at the top of a big hill one minute and then at the bottom 2 seconds later, or worse, hopping from one town to another in the blink of an eye). Not to mention some strange out-of-left-field subplots, like the nomad gang of women who help Kyu-nam escape capture once. But hey, don’t think about it too hard, and just sit back and enjoy the gun fights, harrowing escapes, and good-vs-evil story, and you’ll have a good time. ★★★

Gandhi is obviously not a newer film, but it’s new to me. Been on my radar for a long time, so when a new restoration was made available, I checked it out. Starring Ben Kingsley as the eponymous Mahatma Gandhi, the film follows the highlights of his life, from a young, smart lawyer arriving in South Africa in 1893 until his assassination in India in 1948. I have no idea how much of the movie is fact and how much is dramatized, but it’s an excellent movie. Upon arriving in South Africa, Gandhi is immediately faced with racism, since only the ruling white party has any rights. There, Gandhi cuts his teeth on how to fight injustices with peace. When he returns to India over a decade later, his eyes have been opened to the plight of his home, and joins the fight for an India free of control from Britain. His countrymen are itching for a fight, and are sure of their vast numbers to win, but Gandhi preaches nonviolence. There’s a lot of very emotional moments in the film, like when a peacefully protesting mob is gunned down by the British, women and children and all, and the movie is full of anecdotes that we as a people should still hear from time to time. Kingsley is on top of his game; he won a Best Actor Oscar, one of 8 Oscars the movie won in 1983 (including Best Picture and Best Director for Richard Attenborough). Great epic about a great man. ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Justice League (seasons 1-2), Dark Winds (season 3), Love on the Spectrum (season 3), Reacher (season 3), Toxic Town (series)
• Book currently reading: Hunters of Dune by Herbert & Anderson

Even for a self-professed fanboy like myself, Marvel has been on the schneid for awhile. They’ve had hits (Deadpool & Wolverine, Guardians 3) interspersed with misses (The Marvels, Ant-Man 3), and you have to go back to 2022 since they were reliably making money hand-over-fist on a regular basis. Thunderbolts* (yes, the asterisk is on purpose, gotta see the movie) attempts to right the ship. It’s a great start, and hopefully a springboard to continued success.

The film begins on Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who has not recovered from the death of her sister Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow) from 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Yelena has been running covert missions for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and while still great at her job, she’s just going through the motions. Her latest mission is to follow a target to a secret base and kill her, but it’s a set up from de Fontaine. Under threat of impeachment in Congress, de Fontaine is tying up loose ends and trying to get her secret agents to kill each other. They consist of Yelena, John Walker (the short-lived Captain America from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, portrayed by Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko, from Black Widow), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen, from Ant-Man and the Wasp). Once they realize they’ve been set up, they stop trying to kill each other, and work together to get to de Fontaine. They are joined along the way by Yelena’s father, former Soviet super soldier Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winder Soldier himself, who has since become a congressman and who has suspected de Fontaine of dirty deeds all along. They have one more in their team, “Bob,” who seems to be the subject of some of de Fontaine’s human experiments, and who will play a big part in the film before the end.

The movie has plenty of action to satisfy superhero genre fans, lots of humor in all the right spots (something that has come off poorly in some of Marvel’s recent entries), and a surprising amount of heart, which is what Marvel really needs in order to capture an audience and keep them coming back. It’s what set Marvel’s films up so high for so long, compared to its DC counterparts. A great cast helps obviously, but the film is well written and well executed, completely missing a lot of the shortcomings that have have plagued Marvel of late. Here’s hoping that there isn’t a miss coming up next! (Which happens to be July’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps.) ★★★★★

Small Things Like These is movie star Cillian Murphy’s followup to his breakout role in Oppenheimer. Returning to his roots in an indie film out of Ireland, he plays Bill, a hard-working coal merchant in 1985. He and his wife are raising 5 daughters and Bill seems to be a good guy all around, though he is haunted by thoughts of a poor upbringing, though, even there, his single mother tried to do right by him. Bill is a man of few words so it is hard to get a sense of what is going on behind those piercing eyes of his, especially when he becomes more aware of the mistreatment of some young women in the care of a local convent and school. It has long been an open secret that the nuns take in “fallen women,” which are usually pregnant single women, or sometimes just the victims of rape who are abandoned by their families, and the nuns cruelly put them to work. One day, on a delivery, Bill finds one such woman locked in a coal shed, and obviously doesn’t believe the story the mother superior (a devilish Emily Watson) concocts. Because of his upbringing, he keenly feels the desperate hope of the lonely woman in need. A film with a slow pace to match the quiet, introspective actions of its lead character, it presents a powerful story about the infamous Magdalene laundries of Ireland, but while the root of the story is strong, the telling of it is lacking. Murphy is great in the lead, but there’s just not enough there to provide the emotional heft it deserves. ★★

The Graduates is a timely film (unfortunately) following three people intimately involved with a recent school shooting, and how the fallout of those events have far-reaching impacts. The shooting at the school was a year ago, and Genevieve (Mina Sundwall, from the Netflix remake Lost in Space) is returning for her senior year. Her longtime boyfriend Tyler was one of the victims, and she still deeply feels his absence, while trying to find some kind of joy in what is supposed to be an exciting time in her life. Once a promising college-bound student, Genevieve is struggling just to finish. That is better than Ben (Alex Hibbert), Tyler’s best friend, who transferred to a new school after the shooting but has since dropped out. The third main character is John, Tyler’s father, who became the school’s basketball coach only to spend more time with this son, but has kept the position for one more year to lead the remaining boys and, like everyone in the film, try to find some kind of normalcy. Everyone is awkward around each, not knowing what to say, and when they do find words, not knowing how those words will be construed. All seem to be living on the edge of a knife, where any one comment or memory can be a setback. The film does a great job of conveying the feeling of unimportance; these kids are supposed to be excited about graduating and moving on, but they are stuck and can’t get excited about anything. There’s a really poignant scene about halfway through where the camera lingers over an empty hallway with sounds just outside of earshot; I couldn’t tell if it was kids talking and playing outside, or if was echoes of screams and terror from that eventful day. ★★★½

Suze is a very enjoyable comedy staring Michaela Watkins as Susan, an at-times overbearing single mother to high school senior Brooke, who is preparing to go to college. Brooke at the last minute drops the news that she has decided to go away to college rather than stay close to home, leaving Susan despondent. To make matters worse for Susan, Brooke breaks up with her boyfriend Gage shortly after leaving for school, and Gage, a young man who lives by his emotions, tries to kill himself from despair. Gage’s mother is in jail and his father obviously couldn’t give two shits for his son, so though Gage has always grated on “Suze’s” (as Gage calls her) nerves, she takes him into her home to watch over while he heals up, to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t attempt it again. The two become unlikely friends, as they lean on each other to heal and grow from the absence of Brooke. As they do, Gage is able to get Suze to come out of her shell and realize she can have a life outside of her daughter, and Suze is able to show Gage that there are people out there who care about him, while they also learn some harsh lessons about the person Brooke has become. It’s a very funny movie with a strong message about being yourself, the world be damned. ★★★½

My final two films are both biographical, the first being Unstoppable, based on the life of Anthony Robles. Born with a whole leg, Anthony is driven from a young age to excel in wrestling. His high school coach is maybe his biggest fan, but his disability is obviously keeping many colleges from taking him seriously. Anthony’s dream has always been to wrestle for Iowa, who always churns out national champions in the program, but they do not offer him a scholarship, something he needs in order to go to school. Drexel offers him a full ride, but the school’s program is just too small for Anthony to be able to earn the recognition he craves, so he ends up going to Arizona State. The coach there doesn’t have high hopes for Anthony, but Anthony works harder than anyone and earns a spot on the team, going on to the greatness that you know just know is coming. Along the way, he has to face hardship on the mat as well as home, where his stepdad abuses his mom. Unstoppable is fine, and that’s part of the problem. It’s just fine. The cast is a list of those who always seem to show up in these kinds of uplifting films (Michael Pena, Don Cheadle) and there’s a surprisingly great performance from Jennifer Lopez as the mom (maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised, she’s turned in some good stuff in the past). Unfortunately Jharrel Jerome in the lead is not that great, and didn’t come off as natural. Very average film overall. ★★½

The Fire Inside is much better, this time about Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, who was a boxer who rose to fight in the Olympics for the USA. From the city of Flint, Michigan, which had gained a “certain reputation” nationally by 2010 or so, when the film picks up, Claressa is fighting the odds just to not end up pregnant or in juvie. Her dad is already in jail, and her mom cares more about whatever latest man she has and throwing parties than being any kind of parent to Claressa or her half dozen siblings. From a very small age though, Claressa has been drawn to boxing. There’s a local coach named Jason Crutchfield who teaches boys to box as a way to keep them off the streets, but he initially tells Claressa that girls aren’t allowed. When she keeps showing up at the gym, he finally relents and takes her under his wing. Through his tutelage and her own (very) hard work, Claressa gains national recognition as a young fighter who isn’t afraid to take on stronger and more seasoned fighters. A loss in the Olympic qualifiers leading up the 2012 Olympics almost derails her goals, but Claressa perseveres to win the gold medal, the first USA woman to do so. The expected endorsement deals, which Claressa was counting on to help her family’s situation, never materialize, leading Claressa to become even more motivated to go for the 2016 Olympics too. The film is well written (Barry Jenkins) and well acted (Ryan Destiny as Claressa in particular) and the story is thrilling in all the right spots. It’s from a first-time director, Rachel Morrison, but she cut her teeth as a cinematographer on some very well-received films, including Fruitvale Station, Dope, Mudbound, and Black Panther. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Daredevil Born Again (season 1), ST The Next Generation (season 6), Dope Thief (series)
• Book currently reading: Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan