Maria - 2 stars - NETFLIX - December 11, 2024

Well, the soundtrack's great in Maria.  Angelina Jolie vamps around Paris, imagining  the highlights of Maria Callas' career.  Seems she was a little nutty in her last days, at least according to this.  Never do you get past---we are looking at Angelina Jolie---and we are looking at Paris---and the whole thing looks and sounds great---but barely scratches the surface.  Thanks but no thanks.  

Movie Guide

Conclave - 4 Stars - THEATERS - October 25, 2024 - Surprisingly great drama as Catholic Cardinals select a new Pope.  Ralph Fiennes at his best.  

Wicked Part 1 - 4 Stars - THEATERS - November 22, 2024 - Big, loud, charming, old school Hollywood version of Broadway's prequel to The Wizard of Oz.  First of two parts. 

Emilia Perez - 4 Stars - NETFLIX - November 1, 2024 - Over the top Operatic Crime Thriller/Comedy/Romance.  Musical in Spanish about Cartel leader who changes genders.  Wildly creative. 

  

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.  

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.  

Inside Out 2 - 3 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - June 14, 2024 - Fine sequel to Pixar story of a young girl's emotions.  In this episode, puberty arrives.   

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.  

Maria - 2 Stars - NETFLIX - December 11, 2024 --Angelina Jolie vamps around for a couple of hours as Maria Callas.  

 

Blitz - 2 Stars - APPLE TV - November 22, 2024 - 9 ear old evacuated during wartime London rebels and finds his way home. 

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.  

Emilia Perez - 4 Stars - NETFLIX - November 1, 2024

 Brush up your Spanish for Emilia Perez, a wildly creative thriller/comedy/romance opera. Karla Sofia Gascon plays a cartel boss who hires lawyer Zoe Saldana to help him fakes his death and change his sex.  Returning as Emilia Perez, she reconnects with the lawyer who arranged her new life.  Together, the two create a nonprofit aiding families looking for the remains of loved ones lost to cartel violence.  The plot thickens when Emilia, posing as a distant cousin, brings her wife and children back to Mexico. Selena Gomez plays the wife, a nice departure for her comic turns on Only Murders in the Building.   I expect Emilia Perez to receive a nomination as best foreign film of 2024.  It may well compete for best picture of the year.  

Wicked - 4 Stars - THEATERS - November 22, 2024

 Wicked steam rolls its way into theaters, settling in for a long run.  The big screen version of Broadway's Wizard of Oz prequel is gigantic, loud, and completely charming.  The singing and dancing dazzle.  Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande hold their own.  Ariana fits the role of Glynda the good witch., while Cynthia adds heart to the Wicked Witch.  The film enlarges the Broadway production.  I guess I could grouse that Hollywood breaks the story into two parts.  I wonder why it takes two hours and forty minutes just to tell half.  Fans won't care.  It's hard to resist watching this dazzling spectacular again and again.  

Blitz - 2 Stars - Apple TV - November 22, 2024

 Young actor Elliott Heffernan lights up Director Steve McQueen's wartime drama Blitz.  As George, the mixed-race son of single mother Saoirse Ronan, he's a 9-year-old lost in wartime London, trying to find his way home.  Blitz feels like earlier wartime sagas, Empire of the Sun and Hope and Glory. Placed on a train evacuating youngsters during the German bombing raids in 1940, the kid rebels, jumps the train, works his way back.  Blitz changes from adventure into a Dickens thriller, as thieves kidnap George, forcing him to join their scavenging.  Blitz is especially creative showing terror from the sky.  The result feels familiar, and sometime derivative.  

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.