Movie Guide

His Three Daughters - 4 Stars - NETFLIX - September 6, 2024 

Great actresses Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne find truth in drama of a father's last days.  

Ghostlight - 4 Stars - STREAMING - PRIME - July 30, 2024 - A grieving construction worker wanders into a community theater group and winds up playing the lead in Romeo and Juliet - a role that heals him and his family.  

Steve Martin:  A Documentary in Two Pieces - 4 Stars - APPLE - March 29, 2024.  Steve Martin receives the documentary he deserves, divided into his rock star days, film career, and current third act.  Delightful.  

Perfect Days - 4 Stars - December 1, 2023 - HULU - STREAMING - A beautifully simple story of a Tokyo public toiler cleaner and why he chooses the life he leads.  Will stay with you long after watching. 

Remembering Gene Wilder - 4 Stars - March 15, 2024 - NETFLIX - STREAMING - Surprisingly moving story of actor Gene Wilder's life - with much narration by Wilder - and career highlights of films worth seeing again.    

Jim Henson Idea Man - 4 Stars - May 18, 2024 - STREAMING - DISNEY PLUS - Ron Howard pays tribute to the genius of the man who invented the Muppets.  

The Zone of Interest - 4 Stars - February 2, 2024 - STREAMING - NETFLIX - The Auschwitz Commandant and his family live a beautiful life while millions die on the other side of their garden wall.  Powerful and un-nerving. 

Fancy Dance - 3 1/2 Stars - June 28, 2024 - STREAMING - APPLE PLUS - Lily Gladstone searches for her missing sister, on the run with her niece in a compelling watch covering elements of culture, crime, noir, and road adventure.   

Thelma - 3 1/2 Stars - June 20, 2024 - THEATERS - June Squibb as senior citizen out to get even with the cyber thief who scams her.  

Hit Man - 3 1/2 Stars - May 24, 2024 - STREAMING - NETFLIX - Geek posing as hit man gets involved with fem fatale who wants to off her husband.  Delightful update of Double Indemnity with charismatic Glen Powell and sultry Adria Arjona.  

Anora - 3 Stars - THEATERS - November 1, 2024 - Mikey Madison as sex worker who connects with the son of a Russian mobster.  On a bender in Las Vegas, the couple marry.  The family's not happy.  Part Porn, Comedy, and Drama.  This ain't no Pretty Woman.   

Janet Planet - 3 Stars - Mother/Daughter Drama - Young Zoe Ziegler steals every scene, as a 12-year-old navigating her mother Julianne Nicholson's hippie lifestyle.  

The Apprentice - 3 Stars - October 11, 2024 - THEATERS - Surprisingly well-done Donald Trump hatchet job.  Good acting and a plot right out of Citizen Kane.  Not sure the world needs this.  

The Instigators - 3 Stars - APPLE - August 2, 2024.  Matt Damon and Casey Affleck turn a robbery gone bad into a grand adventure.  Better than it ought to be.    

Saturday Night - 2 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - October 4, 2024.  Tries to recreate the first night of Saturday Night Live and never comes close.  Maybe nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be. 

Between the Temples - 2 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - August 23, 2024 - Mildly entertaining crisis of faith with Jason Schwartzman as a Cantor who can't sing.  

A Real Pain - 2 Stars - THEATERS - November 1, 2024 - Cousins Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin visit Poland to honor their late grandmother's roots.  This mismatched buddy movie turns annoying fast. 

Woman of the Hour - 2 Stars - Anna Kendrick stars and directs the story of a woman on The Dating Game who wins a date with a serial killer.  

Wolfs - 2 Stars - APPLE - September 1, 2024 - Superstars George Clooney and Brad Pitt phone it in as "cleaners" working the same job.  

Wicked Little Letters - 2 Stars - PRIME - March 29, 2024.  Olivia Coleman and Jesse Buckley do their breath to breathe life into the slight story of a proper English woman who receives vile expletive filled letters and blames her neighbor.  Slight stuff for two great actresses.  

The Substance - 1 Star - PRIME - September 20, 2024.  Demi Moore discovers a substance that let her younger self emerge.  But the younger self won't play by the rules.  The body horror begins.  

A Real Pain - 2 Stars - THEATERS - November 1, 2024

 A Real Pain begins with a good premise - two cousins receive money from their late grandmother's estate to visit her hometown and the concentration camp she survived growing up in Poland.  Jesse Eisenberg sets the tone as David Kaplan, leaving message after message to his cousin Benji, played by Kieran Culkin.  Benji pays no attention to social cues, changes moods easily, speaks without a filter, and often charms everyone except his type A cousin.  Ultimately the two blow up, make up, and come to a new understanding of family and their relationship.  At times A Real Pain reminds me of Sideways, another story of mismatched friends.  Sideways did it better.  You may hear that Kierin Culkin - fresh off his success in Succession - steals the show.  He certainly tries.  I got tired of Culkin's act.  I finished this 90-minute story weary.  One extra note, Eisenberg sneaks in Jennifer Grey as a divorced woman on the tour.  It's nice to see her again.  

Anora - 3 Stars - THEATERS - October 18, 2024

 Anora begins as Mikey Madison, the title character, strides into the Gentleman's club where she strips and has sex with various customers. This is her life as a sex worker.  One night she connects with Ivan, the immature son of a Russian oligarch.  Ivan pays Anora to stay with him for a week and pose as his girlfriend.  One drunken night, Ivan and Anora and an entourage fly to Las Vegas, where Ivan proposes.  She's not sure but thinks maybe.  The couple marry Las Vegas style.  All's well until the family matriarch finds out, flies to America and demands an annulment.  The Hangover begins.  Anora comes in three different stories.  Frist, meeting and sex and scenes that feel like porn.  Then, the family intervenes with Godfathers and inept goons and a scavenger hunt for the missing Ivan, who runs out the front door. Anora sees the light.  She married an immature kid.  This is how Pretty Woman turns out in real life.  A final scene dissolves Anora's toughness for a brilliant moment open for interpretation.  The longer I watched, the more I came to admire Anora.  

Janet Planet - 3 Stars - THEATERS 6/28/24 STREAMING MAX - 11/1/24

Janet Planet begins as eleven-year-old Lacy, played by Zoe Ziegler, dramatically demands her mother, Janet, played by Julianne Nicholson, take her home.  Home is somewhere in the woods of Western Massachusetts, where Janet operates an acupuncture practice and lives the hippie life.  Zoe Ziegler, playing Janet's daughter, tries to bond with her mother while watching men and women, lovers and friends, come and go.  Scenes unfold slowly, often silently, with compelling single shot views.  It doesn't seem like much is happening in Janet Planet and yet there's plenty going on.  The ending comes with a hush.  

Woman of the Hour - 2 Stars - October 18, 2024 - NETFLIX

 Anna Kendrick directs and stars in Woman of the Hour - the true story of a contestant on the 70s TV show The Dating Game who wins a date with a serial killer.  Kendrick doesn't hold back showing the crimes of Rodney Alcala as played by Daniel Zovatto.  As a director, Kendrick delivers tense and horrifying scenes of Alcala, with other women.  

The Apprentice (R) - 3 Stars - October 11, 2024 - THEATERS

The Apprentice surprised me --- as better produced and surprisingly well acted.  I expected a Donald Trump hatchet job.  Instead, The Apprentice goes for origin story, explaining how Donald Trump became Donald Trump.  The answer is---he meets cut-throat lawyer Roy Cohn, the same Roy Cohn who put the Rosenberg's in the electric chair in the 1950s for spilling the secrets of the A Bomb.  Cohn explains convincing the judge to fry Mrs. Rosenberg, granting her no mercy for motherhood or gender.  As Roy Cohn, Jeremy Strong makes Cohn an actual Devil, taking Trump's soul as he teaches the levers and uses of power.  I also found Maria Bakalova, best known for her role in the Borat follow up, as a credible and sympathetic Ivana Trump.  Sebastian Stan manages to capture young Trump of the 1980s - the guy some of you remember from the New York Post.  The Apprentice faces a lose-lose proposition.  Those who love Trump won't watch because it reveals their man's flaws, including vanity and addiction to diet pills.  Those who hate Trump won't want to watch a story about a guy they hate.  Who's left?  Maybe a few of us who like the plot of Citizen Kane and enjoy seeing it echoed.  Hurry if you want to see, The Apprentice won't be around long.