Conclave was already on my list to watch, but a buddy (who has similar tastes in film) raved about it, so I got a bit excited to see it hit Peacock recently. It is about the election of a new pope, after the passing of the previous. Cardinal-Dean Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) has the job of herding all the cardinals together to elect a new leader of the Catholic Church, but in a way, it is like herding sheep. There are four main candidates to be the next pope, but each seems to have a problem. Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) is a liberal in the vein of the previous pope, who wants to push boundaries and continue to modernize the church, but after the last pope, there are those who want to see the needle moved back towards the right. One is Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), an Italian who is as conservative as they get. A third option is Nigerian Joshua Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), who is socially conservative (anti-LGBT), but the color of his skin automatically disqualifies him in the eyes of Tedesco and his ilk. The final candidate is Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), who is a moderate, so you’d think as a middle-grounder he would have a good chance of being “the compromise,” but Cardinal Lawrence learns that the previous pope had some serious reservations about something in Tremblay’s past, and Lawrence wants to get to the bottom of that before electing him to one of the most powerful positions in the world. It is indeed a fantastic film, with all the whisperings and machinations that can go on in the background, and shows that a church can fall victim to the same struggle for power that countries go through, anytime people of ambition are involved. You just hope that Lawrence, with his humility and genuine desire to bring the two sides together to find some balance, can find a path forward. The film is directed by Edward Berger, his followup to 2022’s All Quiet on the Western Front, a movie I loved 2 years ago. Keep an eye on this director! ★★★★½

Fly Me to the Moon is a fictional story about some behind-the-scenes stuff leading up to the Apollo 11 mission to put an American on the moon before the Soviets. NASA is doing everything they can to complete the mission, but they have a money problem. With Nixon making cuts left and right, and public opinion sour/distrustful on all things having to do with the government, because of the long Vietnam War, things aren’t looking great to fulfill JFK’s pledge to put an American on the moon before the end of the decade. Nixon sends a fixer, Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), to hire an advertising genius, Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson), to improve NASA’s image and get the money flowing (for those that lived it, remember all those Tang commercials?). The problem is, she’s too good at her job, rubbing mission launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) the wrong way, with her constant commercials and product placement. Things get really tricky in the final half, when Moe approaches Kelly about filming a “second stage” of the moon in an empty hangar, to be used “in case” the footage from the astronauts doesn’t work. Conspiracy theorists unite! The film is light hearted and semi-funny/cute in all the right spots, but ultimately is pretty average and not very memorable. Worthy of a date night or family watch-through for a little light fun. ★★★

Juror # 2 is a legal drama from director Clint Eastwood, and starring Nicholas Hoult as Justin Kemp. Justin is selected to be on the jury of a homicide case. He tries to get out of it because his wife is due to give birth any day, in a high-risk pregnancy, but the judge denies his plea. When the trial starts, Justin learns the details of the case: James Sythe is charged with murdering his girlfriend Kendall Carter. The couple was seen fighting at a bar, and her body was later found off the side of a bridge, and the coroner ruled her blunt-force trauma as homicide. However, as soon as Justin starts hearing the details, he remembers that night, because he too was at that bar. A recovering alcoholic, he went there after his wife’s previous miscarriage, and while he was able to control his urge to drink, while driving home in a delirious state, he hit something in the road with his car. At the time, he got out and looked around, but found nothing and figured it was a deer, going on home. Now, Justin suspects that he hit Kendall, and that James just may be innocent. The film progresses from there, as evidence comes out and Justin makes his decision on how to act. I feel like there were no big surprises in this movie, and Hoult’s acting was not up to his usual luster, which dulled an otherwise very nice subtle thriller. ★★★½

The Children’s Train is one of those films that makes me reconsider my rating system, because it is far and away the best film I’ve seen in a long time, and I can’t rate it any higher than a 5. It starts in 1994 when renowned solo violinist Amerigo is about to give a performance when he hears news that his mother has died in Naples. We then get a flashback to 1946, just after the war, when 8-year-old Amerigo and his single mother Antonietta are barely surviving. The entire community is impoverished and starving, so Communists from northern Italy have agreed to take the children in for a short time, to clothe and feed them, while the parents in the south get back on their feet. None of the kids want to go, as there are rumors that they’ll be sent to Siberia, or that Russians will cut off their hands or shove them in ovens, but go north they do, and the trip will be a revelation for them all. Amerigo is kicked out of his first family when he steals food, and ends up with a single woman named Derna. Derna lost family in the war and is hesitant to let anyone get close, but over the course of the couple seasons that Amerigo is there, they eventually form a bond. News from home is rare, since Antonietta can’t read or write, but in his temporary home with Derna, Amerigo goes to school, learns math and reading, and begins learning how to play the violin from Derna’s brother Alcide. However, when it is time for the children to return home to Naples, Amerigo’s idyllic life will end as he gets smacked by reality once more. A touching film that is an emotional roller coaster and one that will stick with you. ★★★★★

Bird is the latest from director Andrea Arnold, a celebrated director though I’ve only seen her film Fish Tank, which I really enjoyed. This one brings together an incredible cast including Barry Keoghan (too many good movies to note, but my personal faves are The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Banshees of Inisherin) and Franz Rogowski (Transit, Undine, Great Freedom, Passages), along with breakout newcomer Nykiya Adams. Adams plays Bailey, a 12-year-old girl living in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood with her 30ish year old father Bug (Keoghan) and half brother Hunter. At first, you get the impression that Bug is an awful dad, but you learn as the film goes along that he does care for his kids, and is doing the best he can considering he had Hunter at 14 and is still trying to figure things out on his own. Bug is newly engaged to a woman he met 3 months ago, something Bailey doesn’t appreciate, so she pushes back. After running away one night, she falls asleep in a field and when she awakes the next morning, a mysterious young man just appears in front of her. He calls himself Bird (Rogowski) and speaks with a lisp, and it seems like he’s a bit simple, but also becomes very protective of Bailey as they grow a friendship. They’ll lean on each other as Bird tries to find his parents, who used to live in the area, and Bailey confronts her birthmother and the monster she is currently living with, putting Bailey’s other siblings in danger. The whole “handheld shaky cam” thing once felt fresh and raw, but is looking a bit long in the tooth these days, but if you can set that aside, the film is very good, with a wonderful magical surrealism feel to it as it goes along. And did I mention those all-star actors? Just incredible work, as you’d expect. I think your average moviegoer will find this movie boring or listless for much of its runtime, with a couple exciting moments thrown in, but I ate it all up. If you like indie film, it’s fantastic stuff. ★★★★

Terrestrial Verses is an incredible film out of Iran, made up of a series of short vignettes, unrelated except for that they all come together to tell the story of authorities (many tied to the government) who persecute rather than help their citizens. The camera never moves, it just sets up on an individual in each scene, while that person is being interviewed by someone off-camera. And it is amazing what a camera can show you, even in a set position. In the first tale, a man wants to name his newborn child David, but gets pushback at the hospital since David is not an Islamic name. In the second, a little girl wants to wear a red outfit to school, but the color is banned, and the parent gets into it with a store owner over what clothing is and is not allowed. A young lady turns the screws on her teacher when she is accused of being dropped off at school by a boy on a motorcycle. Another woman can’t believe it is a crime to drive in her car, or even walk around her own house, without having her hair covered, when she is in a private space (if others can see into her windows). The short stories go on from there, highlighting “what-ifs” and exposing gross hypocrisy with the ruling class. The final, short scene may seem out of place, but it too makes total sense when you consider how it could be interpreted. Tremendous, thought-provoking film, and I have no idea how the country’s powers-at-be let it get released. ★★★★★

Last Summer, a film out of France, starts out great. Anne’s husband Pierre tells her that his 17-year-old son Theo, from a previous marriage, is coming to live with them for awhile because he’s been in trouble, and his mother is tired of dealing with it. Pierre and Theo have a history of butting heads too, but Anne has always played mediator in the past. However, it has been a few years since Theo has been around. He arrives like a whirlwind, putting the household in chaos wherever he goes, and initially Anne tries to parent in a “good cop/buddy” kind of way. Theo’s reaction is out of left field: he starts flirting with her. At first, Anne rebuffs, but maybe because she likes feeling young again, she eventually reciprocates, and the two begin an affair. There’s even a little suspense in the final third of the film, when Anne tries to call off the relationship and Theo refuses to let her go, and the viewer doesn’t know what he is capable of. However, the film loses steam by the end, after Anne has built lie upon lie to try to save her own skin. Somewhere in the 3 to 3 1/2 range for the most part, but the ending did sour it a bit for me. ★★★

My blog followers know that I don’t do many documentaries, but Chasing Chasing Amy is about a movie from director Kevin Smith that I really like, despite the criticism thrown its way (some of it deserved). This movie was made by filmmaker Sav Rogers, a gay woman who begins the film by talking about how much Chasing Amy meant to her growing up. For those that don’t know, Chasing Amy is about a comic book writer (played by Ben Affleck in a break-out role for him; the movie was released 9 months before Good Will Hunting in 1997) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams), and what that means, in both of their lives as well as Affleck’s character’s best friend (Jason Lee). These days, the movie gets a lot of crap for being written by a straight white guy, and people take affront with the suggestion that a gay woman could go straight “if she just met the right guy.” Now, I don’t know anything about writing a movie, but people that think that really have no idea what the movie is really about, as this doc goes on to show. Anyway, Sav begins by saying how she was bullied and teased horrendously, and seeing a movie about a strong-willed, smart, funny, successful gay woman gave her (Sav) hope, helping her through those moments in her young life when suicide seemed the only way out of a painful experience. In the doc, we catch up on some of the actors and behind-the-sceners to see their perspectives on the film 20+ years later, as well as Sav’s decision to come out as a transgender man, and how that could affect HIS relationships. The movie doesn’t shy away from the criticisms of Chasing Amy, in fact it addresses them head on and admit’s the film’s shortcomings. Part of what makes this movie great is that it isn’t all happy-good feelings and vibes. After an hour of talking about all the good that came out of Chasing Amy, Sav sits down to interview Joey Lauren Adams, and her view of the movie, and what was going on behind the scenes to her personally. It is completely different than how everyone else described it, and changes Sav’s view too. While I couldn’t shake the feeling that this whole movie was just a vehicle for Sav’s coming out party (was already out as gay, but in being transgender), it is his film after all, so he can make it whatever he wants. I did really enjoy the in-depth look at a film I’ve long enjoyed, warts and all. ★★★½

Tis the season, so let’s end on a couple Christmas movies. Red One was, for me, a solidly entertaining holiday film, with elements for all ages. It’s one of those movies that critics hate (30% on Rotten) but it isn’t meant to be great cinema, just a whole lot of fun, as evidenced by its 90% fan score and A- on Cinemascore. In the film, Santa Claus (JK Simmons), or “Nick” as he is known to his friends, is kidnapped from his North Pole complex the day before Christmas Eve. His second-in-command, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), head of the ELF organization, is determined to rescue the old man and make sure Christmas goes off without a hitch, and to do so, he enlists the help of Level 4 Naughy-lister Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), who is the best tracker in the world and can find anyone. Along their adventure, they’ll face off against nefarious Snow Men, Krampus, and the evil Grýla, the terrible Christmas witch. It’s an action film with a Christmas theme, with plenty of holiday magic for the young and young-at-heart. There’s a few too many naughty words to be an all-time family film, though when I was a kid, I only heard those words from my parents (hi Mom!) and these days, you hear them everywhere anyway. Very fun film. ★★★★½

Carry-On is the latest thriller to draw comparisons to Die Hard, mostly because it takes place during Christmas (but is it a Christmas movie?). Taron Egerton plays Ethan Kopek, a TSA agent working at LAX on Christmas Eve. He’s just found out that his girlfriend, who also works at the airport, is pregnant. She’s been urging Ethan to pursue his dream of becoming a police officer, but he’s been reluctant to make that leap. On this particular day, he’ll wish he’s anywhere but at his post in the security line. Someone hands him an earpiece, just before his phone rings, and when he answers, he is told to put the earpiece in and follow all instructions, or his girlfriend will die. Turns out a really bad man (played against type by Jason Bateman) wants Ethan to let one particular bag go through the security screening without alerting anyone. Of course something bad is going to be in that bag, but if Ethan does anything, his girlfriend is dead, and the bad guy has others with him, watching security cams and monitoring police calls for anything that Ethan may try to avert disaster. Suspend all belief for 2 hours, and you’ll enjoy this movie. There’s lots of great action and plenty of tense moments, though none of it would ever happen in the real world. But that’s what’s great about these thrillers! ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Dune Prophecy (season 1), Lioness (season 2), The Day of the Jackal (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Memory’s Wake by Django Wexler

Up today is a set of films out of Italy (thought not all in the Italian language, as you’ll see). First is 1962’s Mafioso, which is a very entertaining gangster film disguised as a family drama. Antonio is a successful overseer at a car factory in Milan (northern Italy for us less-traveled). He works hard and hasn’t taken a vacation in years, so he asks his boss for over 2 weeks so he can go home to Sicily, to show his wife and kids where he grew up. When finding out what village Antonio is from, the boss asks if he knows Don Vincenzo, to which Antonio replies, “Who doesn’t know Don Vincenzo?!” The uptight Antonio, who keeps every record straight and plans leaving for Sicily down to the minute, is a completely different person when he gets around his family in Sicily. Warm and boisterous, he quickly is at home with the southern Italians, talking about his old friends (who’s in jail? who’s dead?) and laughing when his wife says she’s full from all the food, and Antonio quips that those were just the appetizers. But Nino, as he is called in the village, knows the pecking order, and makes a point to take his family to Don Vincenzo the same day they arrive, to make introductions and pay his respects. The Don welcomes Nino home, and has a plan of how to make use of Nino while he is available. Antonio may not like what he is called to do. Tremendous film, lots of laughs regarding the stereotypical Italian (large) family, but the film provides plenty of tension too in the finale. ★★★★

The Night Porter was filmed in Italy and directed by Italian Liliana Cavani, but it gave my subtitled-eyes a break, as it is in English. In Vienna in 1957, Lucia (a young Charlotte Rampling) checks into a posh hotel with her symphony conductor husband. She and the hotel night porter, Max, immediately recognize each other but don’t say a word, and go each other’s ways, though each is visibly shaken. In flashbacks, we learn that Lucia was held in a concentration camp during the war, and Max was a German guard there. As the film progresses, we see further flashbacks in which Max was, at first, a torturer, and later, Lucia’s lover, in a sadistic way. Whether from Munchausen’s or another reason, Lucia cannot get Max out of her head in the present, and when her husband moves on to the next orchestra to conduct, Lucia stays behind and begins an affair with Max. While this is going on, Max’s old German buddies have been running mock trials against each other, in which they gather evidence of their war crimes, present it in front of a fake “judge,” and then burn it all, as sort of a cleansing/letting it all go. They see Lucia as a threat, someone who could really point the finger at them in court, but Max will not see her come to harm. The movie is at times either fascinating or grotesque, but all in all it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Lucia is pretty well abused during her time in the camp, and why she would run back to Max, submitting herself to further humiliations, is beyond me. Weird movie. ★½

From one film dealing with Nazi Germany to another. Released in 1959, Kapò was one of the first films to dramatize events of the Holocaust, and it took a lot of backlash at the time because of it. Edith is a young teenager in Paris when she and her Jewish family are rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. Edith is separated from her parents and witnesses them being led to their deaths, but can do nothing to stop it. She becomes nearly catatonic, but a kind fellow prisoner saves her life. With the help of a Jewish doctor, they give Edith a new name, Nicole, and new prisoner garbs labeling her as a criminal and not a Jew. They get her on the next train to a new camp, where no one will recognize her. “Nicole” is now as safe as you can be in such a place, and slowly comes out of her stupor. However, rather than doing good for others as she was shown, she vows to herself to do whatever it takes to improve her situation. She begins stealing food from other prisoners, and starts sleeping with German guards for food and niceties. A couple years later, she has moved up to a kapò, a prisoner still, but one who is in charge. She lords her power over the others, including the women who helped her early on. It is only when she starts to fall in love with a Russian prisoner, Sascha, and he shows her that there is still hope in the world, does Nicole think she can redeem herself. Strong acting from Susan Strasberg in the lead, but the film is a bit unbelievable at times. I’ll forgive it, since it is such an early example of Holocaust films, and on the whole I found it an above-average flick. ★★★

To be honest, I watched Kapò because I wanted to see an earlier film from director Gillo Pontecorvo, before I watched his breakout, 1966’s The Battle of Algiers, a film that received acclaim and is still talked about in film circles. Filmed in a documentary style (and actually looks and feels like a documentary many times throughout the movie), it follows a group of men, particularly Ali La Pointe, as they fight for the independence of Algeria from France in the late 50s. At the start of the conflict, the freedom fighters initially target French police officers, killing them out in the open to create fear and try to get them to leave. However, the police retaliate by setting off a bomb in the Muslim quarters of the Casbah, killing innocent civilians. The FLN (National Liberation Front) then step up their tactics to targeting innocents as well, placing bombs at hangouts frequented by French citizens (cafés, airports, horse-racing venues, etc). Each side keeps moving the goalposts, to further and further atrocities. Eventually, the French bring in a trained paratrooper unit to deal with the insurgency, led by Lieutenant Colonel Mathieu, who starts a serious crackdown, hunting leaders and torturing them for information. He justifies his actions by saying he was brought in because people believed that France should still be in Algeria, and if you believe that, then let him do his job. I got the impression that he doesn’t believe it himself, but he’s a soldier there to do what he’s been ordered to do, and he’s very good at his job. It’s a gut-busting film to watch, as you don’t know who exactly you’re supposed to be rooting for. Obviously in this day and age we can agree that colonialism is generally a bad thing, but in this movie (and the facts on which it is based), both sides are doing terrible things. This is the kind of movie that sticks with you for a long time. ★★★★★

For the last film, I returned to director Michelangelo Antonioni, someone who I really enjoyed when I watched some of his stuff a few years ago (5 years already, time flies!). Identification of a Woman was a later-career film from the director, released in 1982, and it unfortunately does not reach the heights that his earlier films attained. It follows a film director named Niccolò who has plenty of professional success but who has been unable to match that level in his private life. Already divorced, he becomes infatuated by a young hot socialite named Mavi. She comes from money and runs in circles Niccolò has never considered, and he doesn’t quite like it. However, he is head over heels for Mavi, and it becomes an unhealthy situation for her. While their lovemaking is incredible, Niccolò becomes controlling, and after a big blow-out fight at a weekend getaway, Mavi disappears the next morning. Unable to locate her, Niccolò eventually tries to move on with a new girl, Ida, but he continues to obsess over Mavi. The film just meanders along with no big, thought-provoking moment, and it lacks the style of Antonioni’s earlier films, so that it ultimately just comes off as a subpar 80s film lacking any memorable moments. A couple stars for strong acting, but that’s it. ★★

• TV series recently watched: Yellowstone (season 5.2), The Rings of Power (season 2), Static Shock (seasons 3-4)
• Book currently reading: The Battle of Corrin by Herbert & Anderson

Everyone knows Sony’s little corner of the Marvel universe has been struggling, but I keep holding out hope that they right the ship. Kraven the Hunter is better than the last couple duds (though it couldn’t possibly be any worse), and while it has some good action and ratchets up the blood for a more adult-themed superhero flick, it still has flaws.

Kraven is portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a vigilante, the “best hunter in the world,” who hunts down the worst of the worst bad guys and mercilessly kills them. The film opens with Kraven getting arrested in a remote Russian prison, purposefully so as we soon learn, in order to take out his latest target, a Russian arms dealer being held in the prison. The action is quick and bloody from the outset, and I started to think that Sony finally had a hit on their hands, but those hopes were quickly dashed. We next get a (long, and at times boring) flashback to Kraven’s childhood, where he and his younger, “softer” brother Dmitri were raised by their father Nikolai (Russell Crowe), who praised manliness and strength above all else. We get Kraven’s origin story here, where and how he gets his powers. Nikolai is himself a gangster, so when we finally get caught back up to present day, we learn that the person’s (who Kraven just killed in prison) death has left a vacuum in the criminal underworld, a hole that Nikolai wants to fill. But he’ll have competition. Another evil guy, a supervillain who goes by the name of Rhino, also wants a controlling hand, and in order to get a handle on Nikolai, he kidnaps Dmitri and sends an assassin after Kraven. Bloodshed ensues.

The fight scenes are pretty decent, even if some of the car scenes are obnoxiously heavy with not-that-great CGI, but the dialogue is subpar to downright bad, and there are glaringly huge holes in the story that are too distracting to ignore. In the beginning, Kraven kills anyone who hears his name, until suddenly halfway through the movie, everyone in the world has heard of Kraven. Did I miss something? The twists are heralded a mile away, contributing to a lack of excitement when they are revealed. All in all, it is a step in the right direction, but Sony still has a long way to go to equal what Marvel has accomplished in their own shared universe. ★★½

Moana 2 is the sequel that no one asked for, but for those who were kids when the first came out nearly a decade ago, or are kids now, there’s still enough entertainment there to keep you engaged. For the rest of us old fogies, it’s a pretty average film with exactly one catchy tune (and several forgettable ones).

Taking place 3 years after the first film, an older and more traveled Moana is exploring the ocean but has still yet to come across any other people/tribes. She knows they’re out there somewhere, but other inhabited lands elude her. Turns out it is because the storm god Nalo once placed a curse on a tiny island, sending it under the sea. In times past, the sea currents carried ocean travelers to this island, so they would meet each other. The only way to break the curse is for a human to touch the land of the island, but with it buried under the ocean and a perpetual storm hovering over it, that doesn’t seem likely to happen. Cue Moana’s friendly demigod, Maui. He hatches a plot to confront Nalo, lasso the island and raise it to the surface, while Moana and her friends sneak up to it. Of course, nothing goes as planned, but that’s part of the fun.

I’m going to rag on this movie a bit, but don’t get me wrong, it isn’t bad per se. It just felt unnecessary. I really liked the first Moana film, but there’s nothing wrong with a really good movie standing on its own without a sequel. But this is Disney we’re talking about, who in the last few years has churned out sequel after sequel (and remake after remake; in the previews for this one I saw live action remakes upcoming for Snow White and Lilo and Stitch, as well as Mufasa, itself a sequel-to-the-remake of The Lion King). Moana 2 is very average as an adult moviegoing experience. The House of Mouse should try for better than average. ★★½

For a change of pace, how about a series of classic foreign films? Ballad of a Soldier came out of the USSR in 1959, but got some theater showings in the USA in 1960 during a thawing in the Cold War, and it was a hit. Taking place in the Eastern Front during World War II, it follows 19-year-old soldier Alyosha. There’s a short prelude in the beginning where we meet Alyosha’s mother, who talks about how her son never returned to her from the war, after which we get into the action. Alyosha heroically takes down 2 German tanks by himself, for which the general rewards him with 2 days leave to visit his mother in his hometown. But first, Alyosha needs to get there, and his trip will show the travails Russia is going through during the war. Alyosha will meet a soldier afraid to return home to his wife, now that he is missing a leg, and a mother living in fear that her son will not return. The always kind and helping Alyosha will push jeeps out of mud, promise to bring a message from one soldier to his wife in a neighboring town, and sometimes just be an ear when someone along the way needs to talk. All of these little side trips hold him up, but the most important one is Shura, a young woman hiding in a train car to get across the countryside, with whom Alyosha unexpectedly falls in love. When Alyosha finally does make it back to his hometown, his 2 days are up, and he has just minutes to hug his mom and promise he’ll be back. Of course, after the beginning of the movie, we know that will never happen, making their short reunion that much more poignant. A wonderful film about the effects of war, and told (and shown) beautifully in start black and white. It was extremely popular in its home nation even by higher-ups, yet is completely devoid of soviet propaganda (even referring to Alyosha as a Russian Soldier and not a Soviet). ★★★★½

From the opening you think you might be in for a comedy, as you hear some light-hearted, playful music, but when you see it is a band playing in a square, with armed guards walking around, you realize you’ve been duped. Then a title card stating that it is 1942, and the Slovak Republic has adopted the Nuremberg Race Laws from Hitler’s Germany, and the setting for The Shop on Main Street is set. Tóno is a struggling carpenter, sidelined when much of the country’s laborers are doing well, because his brother-in-law, a higher-up in the new fascist government, doesn’t like him. He is given a chance when the government decides to take over businesses owned by Jewish citizens, under the guise of an Aryan controller, and Tóno is gifted the widow Mrs Lautmannová’s sewing shop. The problem for Tóno though is Lautmannová is hard of hearing, old as snot, and doesn’t understand that he is basically her new boss, so she continues to boss him around as if he’s a servant. Of course Tóno has to keep this hidden from the soldiers in the city and, even worse, his overbearing wife, who expects him to find “the gold that Jew hid under the floorboards.” Tóno doesn’t know what he got himself into, because it turns out the Jewish citizens and their sympathizers have been keeping Lautmannová and others like her funded, and they’re going to pay Tóno a nice monthly salary now to look the other way. He is willing to do so until the government decides it is time to round the Jews up and ship them off to Germany, but by now, Tóno has come to like Lautmannová. The ending is soul-crushing and one of the hardest moments I’ve seen in awhile. Lots of humor in this movie, but it definitely gets dark. ★★★½

Le Trou (“The Hole”) is a fascinating film behind the camera, but let’s start with in front of it. Gaspard is in prison, charged with the attempted murder of his wife, and he gets put in a full cell with 4 other men, all of whom look like career hardened criminals compared to the wide-eyed younger Gaspard. He quickly ingratiates with them though, with his cool, easy personality, and since he’s in the small room with them and they have basically no choice, they bring him into their scheme: they are planning an escape. Once they tell Gaspard that his crime will net him 20 years at least, he is ready and willing to join in their feat. Prison escape films are a dime-a-dozen, but this one is a cut above the rest. For starters, we see their painstaking chiseling through the concrete floor, filing through bars, and working around obstacles, which takes place over weeks or months, but which is blended together so that the passage of time goes almost unnoticed by the viewer (much different for the jailed, I’m sure!). Through it all, there is always the very real fear that an unplanned search and toss by the guards will bring ruin to them all, so there’s tension for almost all of the movie that never really lets up. It’s an old-school thriller, one without scares, but no less intense. And if all that isn’t great enough, know what’s even better? It’s all true. As we are told in the beginning, it is based on a real-life jail escape, and the person who did it plays one of the characters in the film. I’m often not a fan of non-professional actors in films, but I didn’t even notice in this one, and everything is perfect. Great film, and it was also director Jacques Becker’s last— he died before it was released. ★★★★½

After so many heavy movies, I was in the mood for some lighter fare, so next up was a comedy, Big Deal on Madonna Street. It’s sort of like Ocean’s 11, if the team was made up of a bunch of bumbling idiots. In the opening scene, a couple crooks are trying to steal a car, but make a mess of it and one of them is arrested trying to flee. He’s fine doing his time until he hears of a possible easy robbery target with a limited window, so he needs out. First, he has to find someone to take the fall for this car thing, so he tasks a buddy to pay off someone willing to sit in jail for a couple months. Of course, in the circles they run, everyone has a record, so their time would be a lot more than 3 months. When they finally find a patsy, our original criminal ends up stuck in jail longer anyway, due to an unsympathetic judge! While he’s in, all the fools that were approached about doing time in his place band together to pull off the job on their own. It involves tunneling through an empty apartment to a pawn shop and cracking its safe. Nothing goes right from the beginning, such as a couple spinsters moving into the “empty” apartment, and even when the would-be robbers get into the apartment, they drill through the wrong wall! There’s lots of slapstick style comedy, with a recognizable cast including one of Italy’s all-time greats, Marcello Mastroianni. Very funny movie, as the crooks can’t ever seen to get out of their own ways. ★★★½

For awhile there I was watching a lot of old Japanese black-and-white films, but it seems like it has been a long time. Double Suicide is a great one, and it is told in a very interesting way. The movie is based on an 18th century bunraki, a traditional Japanese puppet theater play, and the film opens with puppets getting set up. We soon realize that the movie, though using human actors, is set up as a puppet show; some people dressed all in black act as stage hands, and will manipulate characters or scenery here and there, and every now and then, a narrator relates some kind of background tidbit or recounts a scene or something, so we are definitely being told a story. It is thus: Jihei is a paper merchant with a wife and child at home, but he has been seeing a prostate, Koharu, for a year. He is too poor to buy out her 5 year contract at the brothel, and another man, the rich Tahei, has been eyeing her too. Jihei and Koharu make a pact to kill themselves should it come to that, before Tahei or someone else can take Koharu away. All seems well and good, but Jihei’s wife, brother, and father-in-law will have something to say about it before all is done. It’s an extremely engrossing film, I was at the edge of my seat for a lot of it. Lots of tension, and the characters dressed all in black that move stuff around seem to come out at the most tension-filled times, adding suspense. Black-shrouded figures moving clandestinely around tends to do that! And they’ll draw your attention to things that you may not have noticed, not to mention that, like a puppet show, it sometimes seems Jihei has no power over his situation, that someone else is “pulling all the strings,” leaving him powerless. And did you notice the same actress plays both the mistress and the wife? What does that intend to say about Jihei? Great stuff. ★★★★★

Was going to stop at 5 films, but I enjoyed Le Trou so much that I grabbed another from director Jacques Becker. Casque d’Or is supposed to be one of his more heralded films, but I couldn’t get into this one. The film opens on a river as a group of men, with their girlfriends in tow, are boating down and pulling up on the banks of a quaint outdoor restaurant and dance floor. Any idea that this is a routine outing are dashed when we learn that the men have just robbed a bank, and they are now celebrating. One man in the gang is Roland, a brute who likes to slap around his girlfriend Marie, the prettiest woman of the bunch. Their trip to the restaurant is ill-fated though, as Marie falls head over heels with newcomer Manda. Manda is friends with another man in the gang’s troupe, having done time with him years past, but Manda has since turned his life around and is working as a carpenter, with a fiancee at home. Marie, though, is used to getting her way, and she latches on to Manda. When Roland tries to intervene, Manda slaps him around and leaves. This will eventually lead to a knife fight between Manda and Roland, with Manda coming out on top again. You’d think that’d be the end of it, but the head of the gang, Leca, also has eyes for the beautiful Marie, and is willing to set Manda up to get his way. There’s so many twists going on that my head spun, and some weird plot elements end up going nowhere (what ever happened to Manda’s fiancee?!). And as they would have said back in the 50s when this movie was made, all this over a dame? ★★

• TV series recently watched: Disclaimer (series), Star Trek Next Generation (season 4), The Devil’s Hour (season 1)
• Book currently reading: The Battle of Corrin by Herbert & Anderson

The King Tide is a tremendous film with a new idea (rare these days). On a tiny remote village on a small island by itself, on the same day that a mother loses a child in a miscarriage, another baby washes up on the shore. In rescuing the baby, the mayor of the village, Bobby, cuts himself badly, but as he holds the baby, the cut heals itself. We fast forward 10 years, and see what life is like in a village with a child with healing powers. Every day, a line of people come to visit Isla while she reads stories to them, just to be in her presence so they can ease whatever aches and pains (or hangovers) that they have that day. Her parents, Mayor Bobby and wife Grace (who lost the child in the beginning), haven’t aged a day in 10 years, by being around Isla all the time, and even Grace’s mom Faye, who was suffering from dementia 10 years ago, is perfectly fine. It’s a little creepy, as the villagers leave her presence with a constant stream of “Thanks to you Isla” as if she is some kind of savior, and in many ways she is, because the town relies on her for more than just healing as you’ll soon learn in the film. If that’s not bad enough, what happens when all of a sudden Isla loses her powers, in a village that hasn’t had to deal with loss or pain in 10 years? And as bad as it is for adults, what about for Isla, who has never known fear or hurt? The film touches on lots of “what-ifs” and explores some deep questions about the lengths people will go to for comfort. Outstanding movie that does a whole lot on a little budget, most of which went to filming in a remote location. ★★★★★

When I first saw Charlie Plummer (nearly a decade ago in King Jack), I thought this was an actor destined for stardom. He’s had some acclaim in indie film circuits since then, including a couple films I really loved, but for whatever reason he hasn’t exploded into an A-lister. He brings his talents to National Anthem, where he is once again great, but unfortunately the film around him is anything but. He plays Dylan, a 21-year-old looking after his alcoholic and dead-beat mother and his little brother. It’s a lot of responsibility for a young man, and being the breadwinner leaves no time for fun. That changes when he meets Sky, a transgender rancher. All of a sudden Dylan is making time to hang out with her and the other sexually fluid cowboys/cowgirls/cow-people at an all-inclusive ranch. I had to suspend belief a bit, because even in today’s new-age-y accepting circles, I find it hard to believe Sky and her friends would be so openly accepted at the rodeos they attend, yet it seems there are more gay people at the rodeo (in the deep south, no less) than straight. Ok…. Anyway, Plummer is good as expected, but I got tired of the gratuitous sex quickly. And don’t let any hard-righters see this movie; when Dylan takes his little brother to a drag show and dresses the boy in a dress “for fun,” the cries of grooming would deafen you. Certainly doesn’t seem very realistic. ★½

Slow is an international film out of Lithuania, something you don’t see much. It’s a very nice little film about an unlikely relationship. Dovydas is a sign language interpreter (knowing sign because his brother is deaf) and he meets a contemporary dancer named Elena. The two hit it off from the bat, but before anything gets serious, Dovydas makes an admission: he is asexual, having no sex drive or sexual attraction to others. For the free-spirited, open-loving Elena, this is anathema; she just doesn’t understand no matter how hard he tries to explain it. If Elena could be rational, she would know that for her, for whom sex is very important, she should just move on, but for the first time in a long time, she’s really truly in love, so rationality is out the window. But no matter how much Dovydas wants Elena to be happy, he can’t help who he is, leading to lots of anger and hurt feelings by the end of the movie. It’s a wonderful understated film with a lot of raw emotion, and great for lovers of international film. ★★★½

Speak No Evil is a very good, very tense thriller, based on a 2022 Danish film. A nice family consisting of Ben, Louise, and daughter Agnes (Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis, and Alix West Lefler) are vacationing in Italy when they meet another American family, Paddy, Ciara, and son Ant (James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi, and Dan Hough). Paddy is a guy’s guy and a bit loud and obnoxious, but at first, it’s the kind of temper that comes off as appealing and welcoming, and the two families become fast friends. Paddy invites Ben’s family to come stay with him at his western Italy villa, which is out in the middle of nowhere, for some peace and quiet. Things are weird as soon as Ben’s family arrives there. Paddy berates his wife and son in front of Ben’s family, and forces Louise to eat a goose he butchered, though she is a vegetarian. Ant is mute, from a seeming birth defect to his tongue, but as the film goes along he tries to communicate to Agnes that things in the house are not good at all, lending to a suspenseful feeling. Eventually, we learn that Paddy and Ciara are definitely up to no good, and Ben and his family will be lucky to just get out alive. The only problem with this movie is that the trailers gave away the big twist, so that for a long portion of the movie in the first half, I kept waiting for Paddy to show his true colors, knowing what was coming. I think I would have enjoyed the movie a whole lot more had I gone in blind, straight from the beginning, because McAvoy just oozes sinister feelings that are spot on. He really gives you the creeps, so much so that I’m not sure I could watch this one again! Once the action really gets going, the thrills are top notch. ★★★½

You Gotta Believe is pretty much exactly as I expected, which is an “ok” inspirational sports film. Based on a true story, it stars Luke Wilson, Greg Kinnear, Sarah Gadon, and Molly Parker, as parents around a little league baseball team in Fort Worth, TX, in 2002. Jon is the head coach of the team, but he does paperwork for his day job as a lawyer during the games, and pays little attention to the boys. Assistant coach Bobby is more involved, but he gets a diagnosis of terminal skin cancer and will be sidelined during treatments. Coach Jon realizes the team will rely on him more than ever, and the boys rally around their coach and each other, advancing all the way to the playoffs for the Little League World Series. The comedy is as hokey as its gets, but it is still a fairly entertaining family film if you are in the right mood for it. Nothing spectacular, but because it is based on a true story, it gets a pass. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Lioness (season 1), Superman & Lois (season 4)
• Book currently reading: The Battle of Corrin by Herbert & Anderson

Cabrini is a bio film about Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian Catholic nun who lived in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. She made it her life’s work to care for orphans, and when the film opens, she’s already started a successful one in her home area of Lombardy. She wants to do more though, and makes entreaties up the food chain all the way to the Pope in hopes of being sent on a mission to China to do the same there. After much hemming and hawing over the fact that she’s a woman, the Pope grants her request but tasks her to start in America instead of China. Italian immigrants in New York are having an exceedingly hard time, with public opinion against all immigrants in general and Italians specifically at an all-time low. Cabrini goes there with a half dozen of her sisters, and they begin the long hard work to build, at first, an orphanage for the many children whose parents have died in hard labor in the USA and, later, a hospital and other facilities to care for them. At every turn, Cabrini and her crew face adversity, to the point that it got ridiculous after awhile. The movie is more than a bit heavy handed, in fact it hits you over the head (repeatedly) with how cruel all the Americans are to the Italians at every turn. It never lets up. Continuing to hammer it home leads to diminishing returns; it is one step forward, two steps back over and over (and over) again. I can be reminded that Cabrini is a woman living in a man’s world only so many times. Even if it’s a completely true story (I don’t know the answer to that), it gets old, and some creative license could have been used to make for a more interesting telling. One thing that didn’t get old though is the sets and costumes, which should net someone some recognition, as everything looks great. ★★

My Old Ass looked like dumb Gen-Z bullshit, but I gave it a shot based on some great reviews. I should have trusted my gut on this one, it is a total waste of time for anyone over the age of 20. Elliott (a perfect name for the genderfluid generation) is turning 18 and starting to envision a life away from the lake home where she’s always lived with her family. But first, she’s going to spend her last summer sleeping with her girlfriend and getting high on mushrooms with her friends. On one such bender, she starts hallucinating and meets her “older self.” Older Elliot gives her some life advice, which young Elliot doesn’t really want to hear at 18, but one thing the older self insists on is to stay away from Chad. Young Elliot doesn’t even know a Chad, but that changes the next day, when a new guy shows up in the area. Suddenly Elliot starts liking guys for the first time in her life, and questions what it is about this guy that her older self is warning her away from. It doesn’t get any better from there. The ending is wholly predictable and not worth sticking through the entire movie just to see. ★½

I’m striking out across the board today, as my next film isn’t much better, despite coming from a heralded directed (Steve McQueen) and starring A-lister Saoirse Ronan. It takes place in London during World War II, when the city was being heavily bombarded by German air raids. Single mother Rita cares for her young biracial son George, who is ridiculed by others for his mixed ethnicity at a time when that was unheard of. They live in a terraced house with Rita’s father, and have to regularly find shelter during the constant nightly bombings. During the war effort, Rita and most of her fellow women are supporting the war effort by working in factories, meaning she can’t be looking after George during the day. To keep him safe, Rita makes the hard decision to send him off (with many other children) to an evacuation center out in the countryside. At the train station, Rita and George get into a fight, and overcome with guilt, George jumps off the train before it gets too far away. Still, it’s far enough for a young boy to try to get back, so most of the film is George’s perilous journey back to the city. He comes across fellow runaways, bullying (and some friendly) soldiers, and even thieves who try to make use of George’s small size in their nefarious plans. He’ll see a lot of things that kids shouldn’t see, and live through things that no one of any age should have to endure. It should be a really great movie, but I could not connect with it at all. Somehow it never really felt “real.” Maybe a bit too much shock factor and too many leaps of faith that it wants us to buy into. Like Cabrini, it looks great, but it’s just a shiny veneer without substance underneath. ★★

Finally a good film, and in a genre that I often don’t bother with! I give huge props to Strange Darling, because it is sort of a low budget thriller, which I’m usually not into, but it does it well enough that I was really liking it for a long time. In fact, I’m going to guess that it becomes a long-lasting cult film, and that fans of this genre will absolutely love it. The movie is told in 6 chapters, but the chapters are out of order, which is on purpose. The movie starts in the middle, where a woman is fleeing in a car, bleeding heavily from the side of her head, while being pursued by a crazed killer with a long rifle. He causes her to wreck the car and she runs off into the woods. The man continues to give chase, and the woman comes across an older couple’s house and seeks refuge there. But the man will not give up easily. That’s all I can say, and that’s only about the first third of the film. A big surprise hits around this point during a flashback (to the first couple chapters), and while I started to suspect the surprise before it was delivered. It is no less satisfying. The film honestly petered out a bit before the end, but it was still a crazy, wild ride. If you like hack-and-slash thrillers with a high level of gore, this movie is right up your alley. Truly great acting by the lead (Willa Fitzgerald, someone I can’t remember seeing before). A little fun fact: the movie was filmed by actor Giovanni Ribisi, his first film as cinematographer. ★★★½

You know you are in for a leisurely paced movie when it doesn’t drop the title card on you until 32 minutes in. That’s the case for The Shadowless Tower, and for viewers like me who love a good introspective Chinese film, it doesn’t get much better. The film follows Gu, a middle-aged man who, despite being a popular food critic, leads a fairly aimless life. When we meet him in the beginning, he is with a group of people at the funeral for his mother. He’s there with his sister, her husband, and their child, Smiley, though you quickly learn that Smiley is actually Gu’s daughter, but she is being raised by Gu’s sister. Much later we learn this is because Gu is divorced, with no mom in the picture, and he knows he isn’t reliable enough to watch over his own daughter; when he does visit her (often late), he is sometimes drunk. At that funeral in the beginning, Gu’s brother-in-law hands him a slip of paper saying there’s the phone number for Gu’s and his sister’s father, a relationship that is obviously strained all around, and tells Gu not to let his sister know about it. The reason for the estrangement doesn’t come until much later in the movie, and the revelation of which explains a lot about Gu’s life and why he feels like he does, so I’m not going to ruin the surprise. Gu spends much of the film obsessing over whether he should call his dad (he dials several times, only to listen to the voice on the other side without saying a word), and spending time with young 20-something Ouyang. She’s a photographer and a free spirit, making playful flirtations with Gu, but we don’t know whether because she likes him or because she’s bored (she alternately introduces him as her boyfriend and her father to other people). This is the kind of movie that doesn’t have any action, and many questions are not answered by the end, it’s just a snapshot of a time in life of a tormented man trying to come to peace with himself. And I loved it all. ★★★★½

Coup! is a sort-of-fun film about class warfare, taking place on a remote island mansion in 1918. With the Spanish Flu running rampant, the owner of the mansion, JC Horton, has to buckle down with his wife and servants, as no one can come to or leave the island; all boat traffic is halted. Unfortunately for JC, his new cook, Floyd (Peter Sarsgaard) has an agenda. The film opened with Floyd taking on the persona of the cook who was supposed to come to the island; we see the cook dead on the boat, victim of a gunshot, and Floyd doing his best to look like the dead man. Now in JC’s employ, Floyd immediately starts flexing his muscles, getting the staff to negotiate for better pay and living conditions, while making JC look weaker in his family’s view. JC, a celebrated journalist, has always written about being progressive and fighting for the common man (his personal hero is Upton Sinclair), but it is easy to see that he loves his large home and the status that comes from his wealth and privilege. It isn’t hard for Floyd to poke holes in JC’s paper-thin veneer as an every-man. There’s some funny moments and a couple light thrills by the end, when Floyd has really turned the screws on JC, but the whole thing seems to abandon its main purpose before the conclusion comes, leaving me to wonder if it was really just a light comedy that tricked us (viewers) into thinking it was more. ★★½

I saw Slingshot despite the poor reviews, because, A) it’s a space movie and I’m a sucker for those, and B) it has Casey Affleck in the lead and he’s (usually) pretty good. Not this time, unfortunately. He plays John, one of 3 astronauts on a deep space mission to Saturn’s moon Titan, to collect natural resources to help Earth deal with its climate change problem. To make the long trip shorter, the team first heads to Jupiter, where the spacecraft will use the large planet’s gravity to slingshot around towards Saturn, building speed along the way. To pass time, each member goes into hibernation for 3 months at a time on the years-long trip. However, as the computer reminds them each time they wake up, the meds used to induce deep sleep have side effects, such as confusion, hallucinations, and paranoia. As the trip goes along, John has a harder and harder time each time he wakes up. He starts hearing voices, and seeing visions of the girl he left back on Earth. He isn’t the only one, as another astronaut, Nash (Tomer Capone) starts talking about how the ship wasn’t built well and they need to turn around before they all die, while mission lead Franks (Laurence Fishburne) begins threatening John and Nash with violence if they don’t stick to the mission. What should be a head-trippy space drama is bogged down by absolutely terrible acting, which is somewhat expected from Fishburne and Capone, but bad from Affleck too, who just gives the same tired, dull, depressed performance that he so often does in his movies, and this time it seems like he doesn’t want to be there. Neither did I, by the end. ★½

Ingress is one of those low budget indie films that starts with a great idea and is able to do just enough with it to warrant looking past some of its obvious shortcomings. Written and directed by Rachel Noll James, who also stars as lead character Riley, it is about a woman who seems to be phasing in and out of her reality, especially when she becomes upset over thoughts of her recently deceased husband, Toby. Riley is intrigued when she learns of a motivational speaker/author named Daniel who talks about communicating with other beings who can converse through time and space. Riley approaches him at a book signing and states her case: since childhood, she has been cursed with the ability to slip through the various multiverses. Whenever it happens, and she has been unable to control it thus far, it will take her a few minutes to get her bearing, but then “new” memories would replace the old ones, so that she used to be unaware of the changes that were made. However, after teenage hood, she kept her original memories as well as her new ones, so that now, as an adult, she remembers various conflicts such as her parents still being alive (they are dead in her current existence) and her husband still being alive too. These conflicting memories have made her life very hard, to the point that a therapist has helped her stay grounded in this, her current, reality, and she hasn’t phased to a new multiverse in awhile. Riley is hoping Daniel can use his abilities to talk to these beings and find a way for her to permanently return to an existence where Toby is still alive. Daniel too has struggled his whole life; when you are a child talking about hearing voices, obviously society wants to send you to get help and load you up on medications. Together, the two start to work through their baggage, even as Daniel starts having visions himself of a life spent with Riley, where they are married and have children. It’s a great basis of story, but the execution isn’t always there. Director/actor Rachel James is quite good in the lead as Riley, perhaps because it is her characters and story to tell, but everyone else seems to be lifted from the local theater shop, and none are very good. The film was obviously shot on a low budget so the camera work suffers, but there’s just enough there to be entertaining throughout. ★★★

Amerikatsi (“American” in Armenian) is another indie film where the writer and director is the lead, and this one was a surprisingly refreshing picture. After a brief intro in which a young boy is smuggled out of Armenia in 1911 during the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire, we fast forward to 1948. The USSR has been luring former Armenian citizens back to the country in a repopulation effort, and Charlie, now a grown man raised in America, took the bait. He isn’t there a day before he is arrested by the Communist controlled regime for making the sign of the cross (religious propaganda) and wearing an expensive tie (capitalism and worshipping western ideology), and sentenced to 10 years hard labor. Before being shipped to Siberia though, a stone wall at his Armenian prison falls during an earthquake, and the prisoners are tasked with rebuilding it, which ends up taking through the winter. To pass the time in the evenings, Charlie looks out the window of his cell, allowing him to see into the house across the street (with the missing wall no longer obstructing his view) and he sees a man and woman living together. Turns out the man, a guard in the prison, is only working for the Communists as a way to get by, but he too seems to be (secretly, of course) religious, and is a former painter before his art landed him in hot water with the Communists. Charlie lives vicariously through watching the guard across the way, crying with him when his wife leaves him, and rejoicing when she later returns. The movie starts out as a quasi-comedy; even though Charlie goes through some bad stuff, much of it happens because he doesn’t speak a lick of the language and only knows English. However, it is definitely a heartfelt drama by the end, by when Charlie has endeared himself to the guards and fellow prisoners. A wonderful film if you don’t mind the frequent subtitles from Armenian and Russian languages throughout. ★★★★

The Good Half stars Nick Jonas as Renn, a middling 20-something who, like a whole lot of people in his generation, is a bit aimless and goalless in life. His mother Lily (Elizabeth Shue) has recently died after a long battle with cancer, and Renn has put off returning home, so he was not there when she died. He can’t stay away now though, as funeral plans move forward. Renn’s sister Leigh (Brittany Snow) is doing most of the work, with a little help from their father Matt (Matt Walsh) as well as some unwanted help from their stepfather (Lily’s second husband) Rick (David Arquette). As Renn gets acclimated to Cleveland, he wonders why his free-spirited mom never left this town as he did. At the same time, he has flashbacks to his younger life and interactions with his mom, who maybe wasn’t the great mother that he wants to remember her as, and we get an explanation as to why he stayed away at the end of her life. As a Gen-X’er, I wanted to yell at Renn to stop moping around and do something with his life and face his guilt, but I’m sure the film will speak more to those viewers younger than myself. Still, not a bad film, even if it comes off as a not-as-good Garden State (which definitely is my generation). ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Cheers (seasons 1-2), The Penguin (series)
• Book currently reading: Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell

You have to be living under a rock to not notice the hype machine behind the film Wicked, the newest film adaptation of a Broadway musical. Close to 30 years ago I tried to read the book upon which it is based, giving a new take from the eyes of the Wicked Witch of the West and how she came to be (and not so wicked in the beginning after all), but I couldn’t get into it at the time. And despite being an admitted musical junkie, I’ve never seen the production, so I went into the movie blind (outside of knowing the one musical hit, Defying Gravity, that everyone knows). All I can say is, sometimes the hype machine misses, but it does not this time.

The film begins where the Wizard of Oz ends: the land of Oz is rejoicing the death of the Wicked Witch, and as we see Dorothy and her friends in the distance, walking the yellow brick road towards the Emerald City, we zoom over to watch the munchkins celebrating. Glinda the Good Witch joins them but doesn’t seem to participate in their happy feelings, and when someone asks if it is true that she was once friends with the Wicked Witch, Glinda becomes introspective and begins her tale. As they say in another great musical, let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

Elphaba (a name invented for the musical since she never had a name in the first movie, and a play on the original author’s name L Frank Baum) was born green, much to the chagrin of her father, the governor of Munchkinland. He spurns her from the beginning, so life is never good for her, and she is always an outcast wherever she goes. She has one thing going for her: magic, though she doesn’t know how to control it. When her little sister goes away to college, Elphaba goes along to help her get settled, but is noticed by the university sorceress professor, Madame Morrible. Magic has become rare in Oz, and Morrible wants to train Elphaba to become powerful enough to warrant the attention of the Wizard of Oz. It will not be an easy road, especially with the bullying and teasing Elphaba will experience at school. Just when you think she’s hit rock bottom though, an unexpected ally emerges. Galinda (as she was known back then), the school’s most popular student, who also wants to be a sorceress but who shows no talent in magic, pulls a mean trick on Elphaba at a school party. When everyone is laughing at Elphaba, Galinda feels bad for her trick, and pulls Elphaba over and welcomes her in front of everyone, immediately making Elphaba “one of the cool kids.” Thereafter, they become best friends, and when the Wizard finally extends an invitation to Elphaba to meet him in his city, Galinda goes along. What they find there though will change their friendship and the trajectory of Elphaba’s life.

This is a fantastic, high flying movie (literally, once Elphaba pulls out that broom near the end!) with everything you could hope for. Lots of laughs (often provided by the completely self-absorbed Galinda) with equal measures of heart, fear, triumph, and exhilaration, with catchy tunes and gorgeous scenes straight out of the magical kingdom of Oz. Be warned, though they haven’t marketed it as such (purposefully so, I’m sure), this is a “part 1,” with “part 2” due to be released a year from now. Rest assured that the film doesn’t end on a heavy cliffhanger, it just sets you up for what is hopefully an equally thrilling conclusion. ★★★★★