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Brats (2024)
Know Thyself To Be a Brat
I'm of the same generation as the members of the Brat Pack, but I have to admit my takeaway from Andrew McCarthy's 2024 documentary was mostly indifference. The film amounts to the actor's personal odyssey in examining the impact of the media's Brat Pack designation back in 1985 on him and his close-knit colleagues, almost all of them in their early 20's. Nearly four decades later, McCarthy, now 61, uses a first-person narrative to track down his fellow Brat Packers as well as Brat Pack-adjacent actors like Lea Thompson and Timothy Hutton and even David Blum, the magazine journalist who wrote the puff piece that introduced the term. Despite his genuine efforts toward personal revelation, McCarthy often comes across as self-entitled and obsessed with the "brat" moniker all these years later. His fellow sixtyish Brat Packers appear downright sanguine compared to him (Ally Sheedy, a poker-faced Emilio Estevez, a chill Rob Lowe, and a post-therapy Demi Moore), and Blum is understandably unapologetic about his role in hurting the feelings of a group of celebrities who are clearly not hurting financially.
Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel (2022)
Bracingly Honest Confessional Redefines Standup
I seem to be discovering Jerrod Carmichael backwards because I had already seen all eight episodes of his 2024 reality series, aptly named the "Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show" before I finally saw this 2022 special. I already knew he had a confessional sit-down comedy style from the series but was unaware that he came out on this special. Like the series, the special was deeply personal and bracingly honest. At first, his comments were more observational and acerbically funny as he talked about things like all the illegitimate children sired by his father and grandfather. The special shifts tone but not so much when he comes out but when he shares how he is grappling with how his relationships have been evolving afterward, most poignantly with his deeply religious mother. It became less about getting laughs and more about human sharing and a sincere search for empathy. It was a bold move and one Carmichael pulled off very well.
Plan 75 (2022)
Intriguing But Relentlessly Somber Film Tackles Japan's Aging Problem
By a large margin, Japan is the nation with the oldest population in the world, which has dire economic consequences in the future. Director/screenwriter Chie Hayakawa drew on this burgeoning reality and fashioned this quietly provocative 2022 character drama based on the dystopian idea of Plan 75, a government program that gives people 75 or older the option of euthanized suicide. It's a macabre (though not far-fetched) concept that Hayakawa cleverly turns into a subtle thriller based on the power of mass suggestion. The main protagonist is Michi, a lonely 78-year-old hotel cleaner who suddenly loses her job and her home, making her a prime candidate for the program. There are other key characters - a young, conflicted Plan 75 employee and a Filipina service worker who helps dispose the remains - but the focus is primarily on Michi played affectingly by Chieko Baisho. To its detriment, he film has a relentlessly somber tone. It could've benefited from a few scares or even laughs. There were just too many lengthy silent shots of Michi contemplating her fateful decision.
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... (2016)
A Famous Sondheim Fiasco Revisited & Revitalized
Having just recently been thrilled by the successful Broadway revival of "Merrily We Roll Along", I wanted to revisit this 2016 documentary which chronicled the original 1981 production, a legendary fiasco now revered by Stephen Sondheim aficionados. Directed by Lonny Price, one of the original three leads and now one of the leading Broadway directors, the film went into fascinating specifics about the embattled mounting of the show, including the auditions of the youthful cast. It lasted only 16 performances, and the heartbreak of its closure was followed in this film by what happened to each of the cast members and how they looked back on their involvement. Needless to say, Sondheim and Hal Prince recovered from this stumble, but they never worked together again.
Unfrosted (2024)
The Pop-Tart Mythologized and Trivialized
In his directorial debut, Jerry Seinfeld has made an excessively silly movie packed with celebrity appearances and enough ridiculous plot turns to wear me down. Written by Seinfeld and three co-writers in a barrage of one-liners and sight gags, the plot is about the purported invention of the Pop-Tart as Kellogg's and Post fight tooth and nail to gain a competitive advantage in the newly developed breakfast pastry category. There's probably a fascinating story about the real rivalry between Kellogg's and Post in Battle Creek, Michigan, but this 2024 farce isn't it. This is just an excuse to cast comedy heavyweights in drop-gag scenes of little consequence. A few scenes generated the requisite laughs like the cereal funeral and the insurrection where Hugh Grant wore a familiar headdress. It was 97 minutes long, but it felt interminable.
Chinatown (1974)
Still the Noir Classic No One Can Touch
Roman Polanski's 1974 neo-noir mystery is about as perfect a pastiche of the dark-hearted genre as there ever has been. In fact, in the half-century since its release, I think it's one of the best detective movies ever made, period. Starting with Robert Towne's meticulously compelling screenplay, the labyrinth plot encompasses the Southern California water wars that threatened the future of LA and weaves an intense psychological drama that leads to one of the most memorable climaxes in cinema history. Polanski moves the deeply involving story with a consistent sure hand, an unerring attention to period detail and a judicious amount of grisly violence. Jack Nicholson plays cynical gumshoe J. J. Gittes in his characteristic style and with a welcome depth of dimension, but it's Faye Dunaway who impeccably conveys the glamor and mystery of the classic femme fatale and adds a startling Method edginess as things start to unravel. Channeling Gene Tierney and Kim Stanley at the same time, Dunaway does her best movie work by a mile here. Thanks especially to John Huston's cunning vulturish performance, the ending is a haunting knockout.
Single in Seoul (2023)
Lightweight Korean Romcom Has Its Charms
Directed by Park Beom-Soo, this 2023 film is a fairly inconsequential romcom set in the commercial paperback publishing world where Hyeon-jin, a lonely, whipsmart editor decides to find writers who can speak credibly to the single life in Seoul and Barcelona, respectively. A popular female writer named Joo-ok has been recruited for the Barcelona book, but the Seoul tome proves to be more elusive. Enter Yeong-ho, a young, poker-faced teacher unproven as a writer, yet Hyeon-jin is convinced he's the one to write the book based on a crush she had on him in college. Inevitable complications ensue but nothing that prevents the predictable from occurring. Lim Soo-jung and Lee Dong-wook play the initially mismatched pair with aplomb, and Esom brings a flirty freshness to Joo-ok. Otherwise it's a rather forgettable affair offset by the cool urban Seoul setting.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
The Horrors of the Holocaust Behind a Wall
The blithe indifference of a privileged German family to the immediacy of the Holocaust is the subject of filmmaker Jonathan Glazer's starkly compartmentalized 2023 look at Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig as they build their idealized family life right next door to the concentration camp. Instead of depicting graphic images as one would expect in dread, evil is portrayed in the absence of moral judgment. We only see the horror peripherally and in personal conversations that mostly imply the extermination. The ebbing sensitivity of the couple to humanity becomes all the more striking with their increasingly banal behavior. It's an engrossing film even though Glazer is intent on avoiding explicit images to punctuate his themes. Toward that end, the film might be frustrating for some viewers.
Takano Tofu (2023)
Broadly Played Father-Daughter Ozu-Like Drama
Director/screenwriter Mitsuhiro Mihara's 2023 plaintive father-daughter drama is a bit too on-the-nose to be compared favorably with the family drama classics of Yasujiro Ozu. In a story focused on Tatsuo, an aged tofu master in Onomichi and his singularly devoted daughter Haru, Mihara is clearly channeling Ozu's "Late Spring" and "Early Summer" in capturing the specificity of their close relationship. The plot plods along as each eventually finds prospective mates but not until a requisite number of comedy scenes with stock characters are played out quite broadly. The clownish moments felt like a different movie than the one that was intended. Regardless no, screen veteran Tatsuya Fuji plays Tatsuo with curmudgeonly elan, while Kumiko Aso provides attentive assistance as Haru. Fuji's scenes with Kumi Nakamura as an ailing older woman were touching, though the ties with the A-bomb felt contrived to shoehorn more pathos into the film. For a film with similar sensibilities about the artistry behind uniquely Japanese food, I suggest watching Naomi Kawase's 2015 "An (Sweet Bean)".
Anatomie d'une chute (2023)
Huller Elevates a Powerfully Complex Courtroom Drama
In many ways, Justine Triet's 2023 courtroom drama plays like many film classics before it like Billy Wilder's "Witness for the Prosecution" and Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder", but as usual, the art is in the plot twists and character revelations. In this respect, Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari have fashioned a mystery that appears to change tone and direction from scene to scene. The plot pivots on a family of three in an isolated French chalet - Sandra, a successful, German-born author, her struggling writer husband Samuel, and their son Daniel who recently lost his eyesight. Daniel finds Samuel dead from an apparent fall, and while it looks like a suicide, evidence mounts to the contrary. Precariously tethering the film emotionally is Sandra Huller's intensely compelling performance as Sandra. It's work that starts with subtleties and grows in complexity with sharp precision. Also remarkable is Milo Machado Graner's guileless work as Daniel - a great child performance. A genuinely absorbing film that justifies its 148-minute running time.
The Color Purple (2023)
Bold Musical Adaptation Enhances the Original Version in Unexpected Ways
Big, brash, and brazenly sentimental, this 2023 film is an emotional musical extravaganza that not only honors Alice Walker's classic novel and Steven Spielberg's meticulous adaptation but translates the hit Broadway musical version into its own cinematic terms. Even though she played the role of Celie to great acclaim onstage, Fantasia Barrino becomes a revelation here as the story progresses, giving a raw performance wrapped around her considerable pipes. Phylicia Pearl Mpasi is superb as the younger Celie, and as Nettie, the charismatic Halle Bailey proves her "Little Mermaid" turn was no fluke. It's Celie's journey from desperate abandonment to successful entrepreneur that the movie chronicles in unblinking detail. Unintimidated by Spielberg's work, director Blitz Bazawule does an admirable job coordinating the various elements of the storyline even if the choreography sometimes feels more energetic than resonant. A trio of veterans provide powerful work here - a confidently sultry Taraji P. Henson with an unexpectedly powerful singing voice as Shug, Colman Domingo astonishing in his range as the venal Mister, and Danielle Brooks who steals all her scenes as the uncompromising Sophia. Although the musical numbers come from a variety of sources beyond the Broadway musical, the soundtrack is surprisingly seamless in its emotional impact, especially toward the climax with "What About Love?" and "I'm Here". Certainly long at 141 minutes, the movie manages to achieve its dramatic objectives. I was bawling by the end.
The Idea of You (2024)
Hathaway Delivers the Goods in a Formulaic Romcom That Somehow Works
It's hard to believe Anne Hathaway is the same age as Bette Davis as Margo Channing in "All About Eve". However, Hathaway truly owns 40 in this 2024 romcom as she plays Solene, a successful Silver Lake art gallery owner still smarting from a divorce three years prior. While taking her teenaged daughter to Coachella, she meets Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of globally popular boy band August Moon. Sparks fly immediately, and homemade sandwiches lead to an extended rendezvous on a world tour. While Nicholas Galitzine fulfills the limited contours of his role as a smitten pop star, it is really Hathaway that delivers the goods giving an accomplished performance that finally adds maturity to her natural effervescence. Directed by Michael Showalter (whose last film was 2022's underrated "Spoiler Alert"), the movie definitely swerves with predictable plot turns, but at least thanks to the observant script by Showalter and the wondrous Jennifer Westfeldt, it moves with a certain aplomb that makes it watchable. Enough with the Hathahate.
Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show (2024)
Carmichael Reveals Hidden Layers with Painful Candor
Six episodes in, Jerrod Carmichael's 2024 reality series has been often harshly cathartic and sometimes acutely funny. The reality aspect is no joke as he pulls no punches in making public the personal challenges of being a successful comedian who came out just two years ago. A charismatic personality, Carmichael shifts mercurially between introspective and cruel, but it's hard not to root for him. I got hooked when he painfully confessed his unrequited love for his best friend in the first episode. So far, it has cut deepest with the episodes focused on a road trip with his errant father and a frigid homecoming with his deeply religious mother. Some moments border on exploitative, yet it may be the best, bravest thing on TV now.
Four (2012)
Pierce Anchors an Intimate Film About Sexual Connections and Confusion
Directed by Joshua Sanchez from a play by Christopher Shinn, this 2012 indie drama runs a fleet 75 minutes but manages to pack in quite a bit in a film that covers one Fourth of July holiday in a nondescript town. The focus is on four desperate, lonely characters who pursue risky couplings with people they've never met before. June is a teen struggling with his sexual identity who escapes his family's holiday celebration to hook up with Joe, a closeted middle-aged African-American, married with a daughter Abigayle. At the same time, she meets Dexter, a streetwise half-Latino still holding onto past basketball dreams. Both couples connect but not without a great deal of trepidation and some theatrical contrivances. The performances compensate. Aja Naomi King brings pensive intensity to Abigayle, while E. J. Bonilla adds dimension to Dexter's cocky bravado. Emory Cohen brings the requisite angst to June, and in a surprising brave turn, Wendell Pierce brings his own gravitas to a conflicted character encouraging a teen's sexual liberation while unwilling to expose his own closeted hypocrisy to his family.
She Came to Me (2023)
Quirky Roundelay Doesn't Quite Find Its Footing
Director/screenwriter Rebecca Miller has fashioned quite a quirky relationship roundelay in this 2023 dramedy as she focuses on a dumbfounding love triangle saved from complete absurdity by the dexterity of the three leads. The plot is convoluted. Stephen Lauddem is a famous composer with writer's block who sleeps with Katrina, a shopworn tugboat captain with a sex addiction, and then writes a celebrated opera about their fast affair. Stephen is married to Patricia, a beautiful Manhattan therapist with OCD and a strange obsession with nuns. There's a parallel story of Patricia's son who is in love with the underaged daughter of the family maid whose husband is hellbent on breaking up the relationship. All the story strands come together but don't emotionally resonate nearly as much as they should. Miller seems more preoccupied with the characters' eccentricities. The star performances compensate. Peter Dinklage plays Stephen with jaundiced charm, while Anne Hathaway shows off a welcome edginess to Patricia. Marisa Tomei conveys a convincing lived-in approach to Katrina that helps ground the movie's somewhat flighty tone.
All of Us Strangers (2023)
Love and the Paranormal Meld Beautifully in a Unique Queer Context
This was a surprisingly enthralling and completely unexpected film from director Andrew Haigh who previously made the remarkable "45 Years" starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay. This 2023 release is a relationship drama of sorts but also a paranormal mystery, an intriguing hybrid within LGBTQ cinema. Based on a Japanese novel called "Strangers", the story centers on Adam, a gay, fortyish screenwriter living in a strangely empty London high-rise and dealing with writer's block on his latest script set in the '80's. He's taking inspiration from his working class parents who died in an auto accident when he was twelve. He ventures back to the South London neighborhood of his childhood where he magically reunites with his seemingly ageless parents. Meanwhile, back in London, he starts to connect rather haltingly with Harry, a younger neighbor in his building, and as love starts to blossom, more unexpected complications occur. A quartet of fine actors fill the roles splendidly starting with Andrew Scott who manages to capture all the internal complexities in his portrayal of Adam. Jamie Bell and especially Claire Foy play the parents beautifully as they deal with their adult son in human, relatable terms, especially in the one-on-one scenes. Well paired with Scott, Paul Mezcal has perhaps the most challenging role as Harry who initially comes off as the aggressor but has mysteries of his own to unravel. This is a heartfelt and heartbreaking work creatively executed.
American Fiction (2023)
Racial Politics and Absolution Drive This Sharply Perceptive Look at "Black" Literature
This 2023 release is a beautifully literate and emotionally dexterous film from screenwriter and first-time director Cord Jefferson. He explores the hypocrisy of the liberal elite in publishing stereotypical "black" street books and marketing them as serious literature as a means of absolution. He recruited a superb cast headed by Jeffrey Wright in his strongest role as English professor and flailing writer Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, a classic misanthrope who out of resentment of the racial politics, pens a "black" book under a pseudonym and finally achieves the commercial success he was craving. Needless to say, he doesn't find redemption much less happiness from this feat, but Jefferson infuses a sharp blend of comedy and well earned pathos in Monk's self-discovery journey. The supporting players play their rich roles with vigor and heart - Sterling K. Brown as Monk's openly gay brother, Tracee Ellis Ross as their resentful sister, Erika Alexander as Monk's no-nonsense romantic interest, Leslie Uggams as Monk's mother slowly giving into dementia, Issa Rae as a competitive author who has succumbed to the racial politics Monk abhors.
Perfect Days (2023)
Now Is Now, Next Time Is Next Time
Longtime German filmmaker Wim Wenders has made his admiration for classic Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu quite clear ever since he made his 1985 documentary, "Tokyo-Ga". This 2023 release felt very much influenced by Ozu's unmistakable style - the soulful clarity of the deceptively simple storyline, long dialogue-free scenes, the lives of characters who live in the depths of emotional containment. Wenders' focus here is on Hirayama, a Tokyo public toilet cleaner dedicated to his work and admirably disciplined in how he lives an almost monastic life. There is a spiritual richness that emanates from him even though he's virtually invisible to most people. There are a few people who fall into his orbit - a lazy coworker and the hip girl he wants to date, a terminally ill stranger, Hirayama's niece who has run away from her domineering mother estranged from her brother. There's a rich soundtrack of 1960's-70's American rock classics which play throughout via Hirayama's cassette tapes. Koji Yakusho's performance is a master class in subtlety and generates a palpable sense of emotionalism that would've pleased Ozu.
The Holdovers (2023)
Giamatti, Sessa, and Especially Randolph Deliver the Goods in an Idiosyncratic Holiday Dramedy
It's been twenty years since "Sideways", but director Alexander Payne hasn't lost his idiosyncratic touch. In this 2023 dramedy, he has reunited with Paul Giamatti for another custom-fit role, this time as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly classics professor hated by both his students and Dr. Woodrup, the headmaster. For flunking a son of a major donor, Woodrup punishes Hunham by forcing him to supervise a few students who have to stay on campus over the holidays. Ultimately just one ends up staying for the duration, Angus Tully, of course, the most obstreperous of the bunch. The rest of the movie follows Hunham, Angus, and cafeteria manager Mary Lamb as they haltingly bond over their respective states of emotional isolation. Payne elicits superb, multi-dimensional work from not only Giamatti but also Dominic Sessa as Angus. Unsurprisingly the standout is Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Mary, as she moves fluidly from stoic to vulnerable as her character deals with her son's recent death. She well deserved her Oscar. It's a shame there's been a plagiarism lawsuit filed in relation to the screenplay because the movie manages to transcend plot conventions to generate something quite impactful.
Poor Things (2023)
A Fantastical Frankenstein Feminist Tract Well Played
It took me a while to empathize with Emma Stone's Frankenstein-like woman-child character, but her fearlessness and commitment gradually won me over in Yorgos Lanthimos' 2023 fantastical black comedy and proto-feminist tract. There is a darkly extravagant "Alice in Wonderland" spirit about the journey of a woman named Bella, who dies and gets transplanted with the brain of her own child by the kindly, physically deformed Dr. Godwin Baxter. From there, she discovers sex (quite graphically), adventure, poverty, marginalization at the hands of men, and ultimately self-empowerment. The period-set steampunk-style designs and costumes are startling and memorable. Jerskin Fendrix's off-kilter score is bizarre but oddly enveloping. Aside from Stone's impressive work, Willem Dafoe brings much needed humanity to the proceedings as Godwin. Ramy Youssef also brings heart to the put-upon role of Max, a medical student who becomes smitten with Bella. Also smitten is Godwin's lawyer Duncan who takes her on a rendezvous to a glorious-looking Lisbon, and as played by Mark Ruffalo, he's a comically rakish figure. Despite the near-unanimous praise for the film, I find it hard to believe everyone will warm to it.
Priscilla (2023)
Heavily Muted Look Back at Priscilla's Years with the King
Director/writer Sofia Coppola's atmospheric adaptation of Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir is so muted the 2023 film often feels emotionally inert. The approach makes sense when it focuses on the compartmentalized world Priscilla lived in from age 14 when she was summoned to meet Elvis in Germany. The first part of the film focuses effectively on her sense of isolation, but it also builds anticipation for a great romance that we don't actually witness much in a relationship marred by jealousy, manipulation and often violent swings in behavior. Coppola manages to draw out solid lead performances from Jacob Elordi who captures Elvis' conflicted offstage personality well, and especially Cailee Spaeny who conveys the title role with aching vulnerability and an evolving sense of self.
Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin (2024)
Finding Franklin
I loved this 2024 short. First off, the animation is beautiful while remaining faithful to the original drawings. Putting the spotlight on Franklin, the first and still only black Peanuts character, really made Charlie Brown's status as an outsider resonate even more. As an army brat, Franklin finds himself constantly searching for new friends every time his dad gets reassigned. When he encounters the Peanuts gang, he doesn't mesh with any of them until he partners with Charlie Brown in the local Soap Box Derby. I particularly appreciated how the creators didn't shy away from confrontations or feelings of loneliness. Franklin is my new favorite kid on the block. I found myself weeping at the end.
Suncoast (2024)
Predictable Coming-of-Age Story Meshes Uneasily with the Tragic Circumstances
I wish first-time director and writer Laura Chinn could have taken greater risks with this 2024 coming-of-age drama because it felt heartfelt yet fairly predictable. It's a highly personal story set in 2005 based on Chinn's own adolescent experience of losing her teenage brother to cancer. Her fictional stand-in is Doris, a withdrawn and resentful teen constantly reprimanded by her emotionally exhausting mother Christine, who decides to move her comatose son to hospice care as he slowly succumbs to brain cancer. It turns out to be the same hospice facility where Terry Schiavo is under care, and right-to-life protestors surround the building under the scrutiny of the media. Laura Linney plays Christine as almost an older version of her controlling character in the memorable "You Can Count on Me", but she's more fearless here in her monomaniacal devotion to her son. Still, it's Nico Parker who carries the film as Doris nicely conveying both preternatural maturity and gawky angst as a social outcast looking to fit in with her new friends. Woody Harrelson plays a protestor who bonds with Doris, but the Schiavo parallels are largely unexamined and consequently Harrelson is used more as an incidental father figure.
Nyad (2023)
A Trio of Stellar Actors Keeps This Conventional, Against-All-Odds Biopic Afloat
Unless you're the Guinness Book of World Records, there is no disputing the monumental achievement of marathon swimmer Diana Nyad in swimming from Cuba to Key West in 2013 at the age of 64. Written by Julia Cox based on Nyad's memoir, this 2023 biopic was co-directed by married documentarians Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, an intriguing choice as they accurately capture the struggle within the open water swimming scenes but flail somewhat with the rather conventional narrative and how to clarify what exactly caused the failures in Nyad's previous attempts. That leaves the three leads the daunting task of filling in the gaps and humanizing Nyad's relentless persistence. Redoubtable as ever, Annette Bening portrays Nyad with vanity-free ferocity, both physically and temperamentally, and somehow manages to elicit sympathy for a character that might've otherwise come across as purely self-serving. Jodie Foster may have taken a secondary role here as Nyad's coach and best friend Bonnie Stoll, but she is truly the heart and conscience of the film in a loose and winning characterization. Rhys Ifans quietly exudes authority and passion as navigator John Bartlett. It is this trio of stellar actors that makes the film eminently watchable.
Good Grief (2023)
Loss and Entitlement Among Rarefied Characters
The title of this 2023 melodrama is appropriate but not for the reason director/writer/star Daniel Levy intended. It's what I was uttering in frustration throughout its interminable running time. The story revolves around Marc, a creatively blocked artist mourning the sudden loss of his husband Oliver, a successful fantasy adventure novelist, in a cab accident. He seeks solace in his two best friends by spending time with them in a plush Paris apartment that Marc is shocked to discover that Oliver bought for an extramarital relationship just before his death. Levy gradually reveals aspects of their marriage as well as other characters, which just felt like convenient plot contrivances. As Marc, Levy removes any trace of his trademark comedy style and acts in a constantly bereft state. As a director, he does no favors to Himesh Patel ("Yesterday") and especially Ruth Negga ("Passing"), both of whom have done far better work elsewhere. They play entitlement to the hilt as Marc's hopelessly self-involved best friends. The whole venture felt like an extended Pottery Barn commercial populated by people leading rarefied lives unworthy of empathy.