Licorice Pizza (2021) * *

Directed by:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring:  Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits, Sean Penn, Benny Safdie

As much as I wanted to rally behind Licorice Pizza, it is impossible to go beyond the fact that Alana (Haim) is 25 and Gary (Hoffman) is 15 (but will be 16 in another month).   They are the protagonists we know will eventually fall in love and declare their love for each other, but there are issues at play such as potential statutory rape and she is an adult and he is a minor, albeit a confident and eternally optimistic one.  

There is no denying Haim's and Hoffman's appeal as actors.  Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, exhibits much of his father's charm and offbeat sensibilities.   Haim, in her film debut, establishes a unique character at the service of a meh movie.   Anderson's love for the Southern California of the 1970's is palpable and obvious, but what we have in Licorice Pizza is an odyssey from one self-contained saga to another in an effort to keep Alana and Gary apart until the end.   It's an odd romantic comedy with little emphasis on the romance.   

Gary is a teen actor who meets and immediately falls for Alana on the day he is having his picture taken for the school yearbook.   Alana assists with the photographer, but as she states to Gary in an effort to rebuff his advances, she is 25 and he is 15.   Despite Gary's list of acting credits which he spouts off to Alana, he knows the likelihood of a long career is almost zilch, so he at first opens a store which sells waterbeds and later an arcade with an abundance of pinball machines which were recently made legal.

Where does Gary have the funding to start these businesses?   His parents are forever out of town or absent.  He can run around Southern California with little or no supervision.   And he's only 15.   This may not be the type of movie in which we're supposed to ask these questions or observe such behavior.  We are supposed to be swept up in the magic.   Licorice Pizza also contains some superb supporting work from Sean Penn as a hard-drinking actor in the twilight of his career, Bradley Cooper as hairdresser turned producer Jon Peters (who was dating Barbra Streisand at the time), and Benny Safdie as a closeted mayoral candidate.  Cooper is only in the movie about ten minutes, but electrifies as the narcissistic Peters who tries in vain to have Gary correctly pronounce his girlfriend's last name.  (Stry-SAND!)

We can't help but feel, however, that these subplots and tangents are designed to keep distance and mark time until Alana and Gary run towards each other (they run a lot in this movie) and walk off into the sunset as boyfriend and girlfriend.  Did I tell you she was 25 and he's 15?  

Don't Look Up (2021) * *

Directed by:  Adam McKay

Starring:  Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Melanie Lynskey, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Ron Perlman, Timothee Chalamet, Himesh Patel, Ariana Grande

This is a cast which belongs in a better movie.   Today's media and political climate is ripe for satire, but it's also difficult to parody something which is already a parody of itself.   Don't Look Up seems more like quotation than satire.   If you judge how millions view COVID-19 as a hoax or a sham, how far away from the truth is Don't Look Up?   It's scarcely ahead of the facts and may be even a tad behind them.    

Don't Look Up stars Jennifer Lawrence as astronomer Kate Dibiasky, who discovers a comet which according to her calculations later confirmed by her boss Dr. Randall Mindy (DiCaprio), will hit Earth in six months and fourteen days.   Since the comet is roughly nine kilometers wide, the impact will kill all life on Earth as we know it.   Randall and Kate are granted an audience with President Orlean (Streep) and her Chief-of-Staff doofus son Jason, but their discovery is pooh-poohed by the president and tabled until a scandal involving her hand-picked Supreme Court passes.   Oh, and midterms are in three weeks and we wouldn't want to bum out voters by breaking news about a comet which will kill us all in six months.   

Absolutely stunned that the President and her administration couldn't care less about impending doom, Randall and Kate take their message to a national talk show hosted by a couple of empty-headed, banter-spouting hosts (Perry and Blanchett).   Kate's blunt declarations of the end of the world are met with scorn on social media, while Randall's passable good looks are a hit with the targeted show demographic and Cate Blanchett's character.   When Randall finally explodes with a Howard Beale-type speech near the end, I couldn't help but realize this was done better by Peter Finch.  

Don't Look Up, with very few exceptions where a chuckle is elicited, isn't a funny or particularly wicked satire.   It doesn't even work up enough effort to be angry or outraged.  The plot itself sets up easy targets which McKay and company attack not even gleefully.  It is content to be wacky.  The performances are serviceable with underwritten characters.   We spend more time waiting for the first appearance of all of the stars promised in the opening credits than we do caring about who they're playing.  By the time Timothee Chalamet shows up with his superfluous character, we forgot he was even supposed to be in the movie.

The best way to watch a movie like Don't Look Up is to watch Network instead.   

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) * * *

Directed by:  Jon Watts

Starring:  Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, Marisa Tomei, J.K. Simmons

I'll tread lightly to avoid spoilers.   Some were already given away in the trailers, such as the return of Doc Ock (Molina), but Spider-Man: No Way Home has many more tricks up its sleeve.   Picking up where Far From Home left off, the world now knows Spider-Man is Peter Parker, which makes Peter's life hell.  He and his family and friends are stalked by media and vilified on social media.   A desperate Peter enlists Dr. Strange (Cumberbatch) to cast a spell on the world so it forgets Spider-Man's true identity, except for girlfriend M.J. (Zendaya), best friend Ned (Batalon), and a few others.   The spell has devastating side effects, such as the introduction of villains from other universes who know Spider-Man is Peter Parker, just not this Peter Parker.

Spider-Man's world leaped from the frying pan into the fire.   He now has to battle Doc Ock, Green Goblin (Dafoe), Electro (Foxx), and others from other reiterations of your friendly, neighborhood crime fighter you may have seen previously.   No Way Home has so many skewing timelines and alternate realities it could give Back to the Future a run for its money.   At times, I felt No Way Home would crumble under the weight of its own cleverness, but it establishes a rhythm and a sense of nostalgia which makes it fun.

Dr. Strange is fleshed out more in No Way Home than in any earlier Marvel film, including his own movie.  He is the big brother figure to the stubborn and sometimes impetuous Peter Parker.   He does his best to warn Peter of the dangers of such a spell, but at times he can only stand by and watch it play out to Peter's disadvantage.   Peter's plans for the multiverse villains may seem a bit idealistic, but how often do you see a superhero want to help the villains and not simply destroy them?   

Tom Holland is just as engaging as he has been in the previous Spider-Man films.   He has strong camaraderie with Zendaya and Batalon, while convincingly holding his own against the supervillains.   I said I wouldn't spoil the other big surprise No Way Home has in store, but it's amusing to see him interact with certain other characters from the multiverse for which it's a joy for us to see again.   

The Power of the Dog (2021) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Jane Campion

Starring:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smith-McPhee

The Power of the Dog is beautifully staged, acted, and photographed at the service of little payoff.   I am of two minds about it as I struggled to attach two and a half stars or three atop this review.   The film is buoyed by Benedict Cumberbatch's best screen performance to date as a bullying, toxic macho cowboy in 1925 Montana who belittles his brother and his new bride while working out his own issues involving his...well I won't spoil it for you.   The Power of the Dog draws favorable and worthy comparisons to...oh, well bringing that movie up will also be a quasi-spoiler.

Cumberbatch's Phil Burbank is an educated, intelligent rancher who shares the ranch with his quieter brother George (Plemons), who is often at the receiving end of Phil's jabs.   When George marries a local widow (Dunst) who moves in with her son Peter (Smit-McPhee) who is off for the summer from medical school.  Phil is frosty early towards Peter before finding he has a lot in common with him.   They form a friendship which doesn't extend to Peter's mother, who takes to the bottle to cope with Phil's harassment.  George takes the higher road when dealing with his brother.   Maybe he understands Phil more than he lets on.

We gather what Phil's problem is, which would surely cause him hassles in 1920's Montana and perhaps even today in such an environment.   With carefully worded insults and putdowns, Phil masks his own self-loathing while attacking those who did nothing to deserve it.   The Power of the Dog takes its time unfolding and soon enough we realize there won't be a satisfactory payoff to this.   It just...ends.   Is that the idea?  

Jane Campion has previously directed other such films which explore family and sexuality in quiet, meandering ways (The Piano is one such movie starring Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin in Oscar-winning performances).   Cumberbatch may find himself with a Best Actor Oscar statuette at the end of awards season.  The Power of the Dog can't be faulted for the performances or its production values.  It looks gorgeous.  Does the story match how it looks?  Eh, not quite. 

Being the Ricardos (2021) * * *

Directed by:  Aaron Sorkin

Starring:  Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, Tony Hale, Nina Arianda, J.K. Simmons, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy

I Love Lucy is among the most enduring and most popular sitcoms of all time.  We see tributes paid to it nearly seventy years after it debuted.   In the early days of television, it set the mold, broke it, and then set it all over again week after week.  In Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos, the year is 1953 and I Love Lucy is about to make history once again if its married stars and producers can withstand a week from hell.  Lucille Ball (Kidman) is accused by gossip radio host Walter Winchell of being a Communist with the Red Scare and McCarthyism in full force.   Desi Arnaz (Bardem) is front page news with a photo of him cuddling up to another woman in a restaurant.   Putting on a weekly sitcom is difficult enough, but these sideshows make the behind-the-scenes aspect a pressure cooker which simmers all week ready to explode at any point.

Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are not the first choice of actors to play the immortal Lucy and Desi, mostly because they are far too famous and self-contained to play such showbiz icons, but after taking a moment to adjust to seeing Kidman and Bardem in these roles, we settle into watching them play the couple with fierce determination, intelligence, and a wary eye on each other.   We see flashbacks of Lucy's transformation from contracted studio actor to an "overnight" sensation on television, which at the time was where Lucy thought careers went to die.   She meets Desi on the set of a forgettable musical movie which studios were churning out by the dozen back then.   She likes his suavity, he likes her sassy ways and her unwillingness to fall for his pickup lines like so many starlets before her have.  They begin a romance, marry, and then become the most unlikely sitcom stars you could dream of. 

Lucy and Desi produced their own shows with Desi, a Cuban-born bandleader with an accent, growing into the lead role of an American sitcom.   Lucy wouldn't co-star with anyone else, and puts her foot down at times when it would have been considered ballsy and even career suicide to make such demands.  But she did and the rest is television history.   Being the Ricardos is filled with engaging performances all around, as you would expect from such a cast.   J.K. Simmons is a standout, as usual, as co-star William Frawley, who at first bristles at the idea of his co-star and boss being a Communist, but remains touchingly loyal.   What makes the scenes between Kidman and Nina Arianda (as Vivan Vance) work isn't what's said as much as what's not said between these two sometimes catty co-stars and friends. 

Among all of this drama, Lucy is pregnant and Desi wants CBS executives to confront this notion head-on instead of hiding her behind scenery and furniture to hide her bump.  A pregnant woman as the star of a TV show?   Scandalous!   Sorkin's usual volleyball banter is toned down a bit here, but the wit is there.   Sorkin pries the door open into backstage politics, network interference, and battles between co-stars which teeter between the personal and professional on a razor-thin line.  We never lose our way, although at times Sorkin may seem as if he's trying to cram too many 1950's ills into one movie and the documentary feel of having actors playing the show's writers years later doesn't work, we achieve the sense that as the mighty United States of America, we are not immune to being scared or repulsed too easily. 

tick, tick...BOOM! (2021) * * *

Directed by:  Lin Manuel Miranda

Starring:  Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Joel Grey, Richard Kind, Bradley Whitford

As tick, tick, BOOM! begins as a raucous musical number, Jonathan Larson (Garfield) is a week or so from turning thirty and laments having done nothing of substance with his life.   Rent, Larson's most famous work, is still ahead of him and will always remain so since he died the night before the iconic play's premiere.   tick, tick, BOOM! isn't about Rent, but how Larson struggled to finish a work he had been struggling with for eight years.   As the days before his play debuts in front of a workshop to be attended by Broadway producers, Larson suffers from writer's block as he attempts to write a song to be sung by his female lead which would tie the play's acts together.  His girlfriend Susan (Garfield) has accepted a job outside of Manhattan and wants him to move with her there.   His best friend Michael (de Jesus) has begun a lucrative advertising career and longs for Jonathan to join him and not live in squalor in a tiny Manhattan apartment.

Jonathan's real job to (barely) pay the bills is at a local diner which is hopping on Sunday mornings and frequented by some of Broadway's biggest producers and directors.   tick, tick...BOOM! was the name of Larson's one-man show which came about following his successful workshop.  The play he labored over for eight years never saw the light of day, but it served as a stepping stone for the indefatigable Jonathan, played by Andrew Garfield with a perpetual grin and boundless energy.   It's impossible not to get behind Jonathan and wish the best for him, even though we know the facts of his eventual death loom large.

The musical numbers are energetic, if not very memorable.   I can't recall a note of any of them and many of those may seem extraneous, but what would you expect from a movie directed by Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda about a Broadway show writer and director?   Music or not, the underlying story of Jonathan Larson's life is what's compelling here.   Jonathan Larson longed to hear the applause and the critical raves over his work, but as we know, he never lived to hear any of it.   tick, tick...BOOM! is as much a title as foreshadowing.  

Thinner (1996) * * *

 

Directed by:  Tom Holland

Starring:  Robert John Burke, Michael Constantine, Lucinda Jenney, Joe Mantegna, Kari Wuhrer

Thinner has a creepy, doomed noir energy to it which works steadily and effectively.   It is not among the most well-known Stephen King works adapted into a feature film, but it captures the macabre King spirit.  Maybe because of its obscurity, there is no burden of expectation and Thinner is free to roam around in the darkness.  

Thinner's main character is obese attorney Billy Halleck (Burke), who represents powerful mobsters like Richie Ginelli (Mantegna) and uses his friendship with the local judge and police chief to have his clients acquitted.   One night on the way home from dinner, Billy accidentally runs over an elderly gypsy woman and kills her.   Turns out she is the daughter (?) of local gypsy clan leader Tad Lempke (Constantine) known for wandering and casting spells.   Billy is tried in a show trial in which his acquittal is a foregone conclusion.   Lempke (with a boil on his nose for good measure) touches Billy's face outside, whispers the word "thinner," and goes on his way.    

Billy drops close to 100 pounds in a month despite eating everything in sight.  His doctors marvel at his weight loss, while Billy has a nagging feeling something else is at play.   However, the judge and police chief drop out of sight as well, each having a confrontation with Lempke and having their own curses thrust upon them.   Billy's curse is relatively tame compared to theirs, but perhaps because the old man wants Billy's suffering to last longer.

The overwhelming feeling you experience while watching Thinner is dread and a sense of hopelessness.  You even feel a bit sorry for a selfish creep like Billy because no one should have to wither away before our very eyes.   Stephen King's best works take place in ordinary small town settings while something far from mundane happens below the surface waiting to explode.   Do you think Billy, after all is resolved, learns his lesson?   Doubt it.  

Only Murders in the Building (2021) * * *

 

Streaming on Hulu

Starring:  Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Aaron Dominguez, Jayne Houdyshell, Julian Cihi

Only Murders in the Building may have been inspired by Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) in which Woody and Diane Keaton put themselves in danger investigating what appears to have been a death by natural causes because of their own suspicions.   Or maybe they read too many crime novels or were just bored.   Charles Haden-Savage (Martin), Oliver Putnam (Short), and Mabel Mora (Gomez) all live in a New York apartment complex named the Arconia.   They are at different phases of their lonely lives.  Charles is a lonely, has-been actor who is still recognized from a cop show he did twenty-plus years ago.   Oliver is a down-on-his-luck Broadway director who reeks of desperation as he attempts a comeback following a massive flop years ago.   Mabel lives in her late aunt's apartment while renovating it and has a history of her own.

In the first episode of Only Murders..., these three do not know each other.   One night, a fire drill forces an exodus from the building and the three who only met on the elevator recently find themselves with one thing in common...their love for a popular true crime podcast.   When trying to return to the building, they are told a tenant (Cihi) had committed suicide.   The detective on the case reaches the same conclusion, but Mabel, Charles, and Oliver don't believe the official story.   There has to be more to it, no?   

They investigate, snoop around, and Oliver hatches a plan to turn their investigation into their own true crime podcast.    The murder represents an opportunity for Oliver to earn some sort of income to avoid being tossed out of his apartment.   Charles can focus on something to fill his days and Mabel can exorcise demons which have haunted her since, well, you'll see.   All is not what it seems of course.  Because if it were, then we wouldn't have a ten-episode series.  

Martin and Short have impeccable comic chemistry.   These are the types of people destined to be friends, even if they fight it every step of the way.   Gomez is the more grounded and serious of the trio, which nicely counteracts Martin and Short's sometimes hysterical dealings with each other.   I also enjoyed Nathan Lane as Oliver's once and future friend who manages to come up with the cash to back Oliver's latest insane idea.   He has his own dark side which is thrown into full display.   

Some of the episodes have some sagging spots, such as the episode in which none of the characters manage to relay one single spoken word to each other.   However, Only Murders... works because of the trio of engaging actors and a murder subplot you actually find yourself caring about.   

JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass (2021) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Oliver Stone

Narrated by: Oliver Stone, Donald Sutherland, Whoopi Goldberg

Let me be clear about Oliver Stone's 1991 masterwork JFK.   I wrote in my review of the film that it would be an amazing film even if not one word in it were true or no conspiracy to kill President Kennedy ever existed.   It captured a nightmarish sense of paranoia and distrust in the official version of events.  The Warren Commission concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that was that.   Many agreed, some did not.   Over the years, the conspiracy theories have grown in number as have the number of people who believe in them.   Stone weaved these beliefs into a striking array of visuals, names, and dates hurled at you so fast and furiously that you would have to duck.  

It is now nearly sixty years since Kennedy's assassination in Dallas.   The only things we seem to know for certain is that President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime, and two days Oswald himself was shot dead by Jack Ruby.   Everything else is up for debate.  The arguments have gone on for decades and will go on for decades more.   We will never know what truly happened.   Years have passed, nearly anyone who would be directly involved or witnesses are dead, and the waters have been so muddied that there is no way to ever know what happened...if you believe there is more to it than the official story.

JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass is Stone's documentary follow up to JFK.   It covers much of the same ground with some updates which occurred since the 1991 film's release.   A commission was created to allow for swifter declassification of documents related to the assassination.   Stone focuses on the bungled autopsy at Bethesda Medical Center, the entry wound to Kennedy's throat which was treated initially as an exit wound, Oswald's checkered past, and then Stone wildly espouses theories involving the CIA, FBI, the Mafia, and Cubans are intertwined in a labyrinthine plot which would grow large it could not likely be controlled or kept secret all these years.

I'm not reviewing Stone's beliefs, just the film in which they are presented.   Stone wants to reopen the conversation about Kennedy's murder with warmed-over arguments we've heard before.   JFK Revisited is simply an alternative way to present them.   Stone assertively states that "Conspiracy theories have become conspiracy facts,"   In his mind and in the minds of many, this is the case.   However, let's be honest.   Most conspiracy theories are presented as conspiracy facts anyway.   Stone has not been able to make another film about JFK which is as compelling and exciting as the initial film, whether you believe Stone's stories in any respect.    

Belfast (2021) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Kenneth Branagh

Starring:  Jamie Dornan, Caitriona Balfe, Jude Hill, Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Lara McDonnell

Shot in black and white and told with intimacy, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast is a portrait of a family held together by love during one of many eras of strife in Belfast, Northern Ireland.   After a brief shot of present-day Belfast, the action picks up on a small city block on August 15, 1969.   It cannot be a coincidence Branagh chooses this date, which was the first day of Woodstock in the United States.   The concert for peace and love is juxtaposed with another round of violent attacks by Protestants against Catholics.   

Buddy (Hill) is a nine-year-old boy (perhaps representing Branagh himself) who enjoys playing on the block, wooing a girl crush in his class, and visiting with his loving grandparents (Hinds and Dench).  When the violence breaks out, he is hurried inside by Ma (Balfe) whose husband, only known as Pa (Dornan) is away at work in London, but is swept up in the tumult when he returns home on weekends.   A friend attempts to entice Pa into joining the Protestant crusade against Catholics, but Pa refuses.  He only cares for the safety and future of his family, but finds such ideas may not be feasible in Belfast.

Besides Branagh's deft directing skills we have witnessed often, Belfast treats us to a family we care about.  Branagh knows this world and these people as only he can.   Belfast looks and feels like a story he has wanted to tell and wants us to understand how much it means to him and should mean to us.  The actors feel like a real family.   The people's intricacies, foibles, and personalities are felt from the inside out.   Belfast is a story of Branagh's remembrance of 1969 Northern Ireland.   Thank goodness he chose to flesh out the family's story and dials down the turmoil.   We have seen or heard about the Irish war between Catholics and Protestants told in many different films.   What we haven't seen is the story of how one family dealt with it and stayed true to themselves.   

Fever Pitch (2005) * * *

 

Directed by:  Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly

Starring:  Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore, Willie Garson, Lenny Clarke

When Fever Pitch was made, the Boston Red Sox were in the final year of the alleged "Curse of the Bambino."  You remember that, don't you?  Babe Ruth was traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees in 1918, causing an 86-year World Series drought for the Sox and twenty-six titles for the Yanks.   The Red Sox have won four World Series championships since 2004, so that curse is most assuredly lifted.

Ben Wrightman (Fallon) is a lifelong, obsessed Sox fan with a closet full of jerseys and Red Sox bed sheets and memorabilia all over his apartment.   He meets Lindsey (Barrymore) over the winter and they date and fall in love.   She contracts food poisoning on the first date and vomits.   Ben attentively takes care of her.   He says and does all the right things, but that is before spring training.  Once spring training arrives, Ben turns into That Guy who paints his face and acts like a lunatic fan on television.  Oh, I mean passionate.

Fever Pitch details the ups and downs of Ben and Lindsey's relationship over the course of a Red Sox season.   This turns out to be the season in which the Red Sox finally won it all, but Ben and Lindsey don't know that at the time.   Lindsey is working ninety hours a week to earn a promotion at work, while juggling Ben's needs to attend virtually every Fenway game.   Something's gotta give.  At one point or two, it's Ben's relationship with Lindsey.   She wants a real relationship, he wants to torture himself by watching his beloved Red Sox with his Fenway family of season ticket holders who have agonized over the team's near misses as much as Ben has.   He has more in common with them, but he would love to lure Lindsey into the fold.

Fallon and Barrymore have an easy, likable chemistry.   Lindsey is more pliable than Ben, who tries to avoid listening to the Red Sox score while having dinner with her parents for the first time.   He even thinks he succeed in being the guy who attends a costume party instead of a Red Sox-Yankees game.  When he finds out the result, he laments having attended.   Any psyched sports fan likely has at least one game they wish they saw but didn't due to prior commitments.  

Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, whose movies until this point veered towards slapstick, Fever Pitch is a subtly handled, lightweight romantic comedy which flows a bit more easily than a Red Sox season, at least up until that point. 

Christmas with the Kranks (2004) * *

Directed by:  Joe Roth

Starring:  Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Cheech Marin, Austin Pendleton, M. Emmet Walsh, Julie Gonzalo, Tom Poston

I'm willing to concede Christmas with the Kranks has one or two moments of brief cheer, but the slapstick and uneven tone prevent it from crossing over into the upper echelon of holiday movies.  Luther Krank (Allen) and his wife Nora (Curtis) live in the type of town which grows apoplectic if you say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".   Their only daughter has joined the Peace Corps and will be away for Christmas.   Now faced with being empty nest parents, the couple decides to go on a cruise during Christmas and simply skip celebrating Christmas this year.   They will save about $3,000 and can process their grief of having their daughter move away while getting a tan in the Caribbean.   

Not so fast says their asinine neighbors, who openly shun the Kranks' desire not to celebrate the holidays this year.   They gather and protest in front of the Kranks' house, harass the poor couple at every turn, and attempt to shame them into decorating their home like everyone does in the neighborhood.   Don't these people have lives or something more productive to do?   They're led by neighborhood Christmas bully Vic Frohmeyer (Aykroyd).   Aykroyd and Curtis were charming together in Trading Place and My Girl, but in Christmas with the Kranks they are neither charming nor together.

Allen plays Luther with a bit of an edge which only grows sharper as his neighbors bully he and his poor wife into submission.   The movie never explains why it means so much to the neighbors for the Kranks to conform to their sense of what Christmas should be or how this is funny.   Oh, Christmas with the Kranks is a comedy, although a subplot involving a sickly neighbor gives the Kranks a chance to show they aren't cranks after all.   The issue is, the Kranks are relatively sane and independent, while the rest of the block is nothing but a mob.   Christmas with the Kranks believes the mob rules and the Kranks had better get with the program or be dealt with accordingly.   If a plot twist didn't occur setting the movie on its course to a, ahem, happy ending, the Kranks and Vic would've come to blows.   Now that's the Christmas spirit for you. 

House of Gucci (2021) * *

Directed by:  Ridley Scott

Starring:  Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston

House of Gucci is 153 minutes of buildup and about four minutes of payoff.   This is the A-list cast of A-list casts and they deliver as well as can be expected, but soon we're impatiently waiting for all of this backstabbing, scheming, and conflict to come to its head already.   The actors are having fun in roles which give them a license to overact, but to their credit they don't.... mostly.   Jared Leto under makeup looks like Benjamin Franklin with a mustache in his role as Paolo.  He's a sad, pathetic Gucci  trying to make a name for himself.   He wants to be a designer, but as his uncle Rodolfo (Irons) succinctly puts it:  "Don't ever show these designs to anyone."  Such scenes are few and far between. 

Based on a true story, House of Gucci is told from the point of view of Patrizia (Gaga), who works as an accountant in her father's trucking business.   One night at a party, she meets the awkward Maurizio Gucci (Driver) and she is smitten with him, or at least his last name.   Maurizio falls in love with Patrizia, which doesn't sit well with his father, the aforementioned Rodolfo, who soon disowns Maurizio.   Patrizia and Maurizio live their lives working for her father, she as an accountant and he has a truck washer, until Maurizio's Uncle Aldo (Pacino) invites him back into the family fold.   Patrizia now has another way into the Gucci fortune and after Maurizio regains his share after Rodolfo dies, she schemes to oust Aldo and his son Paolo (Leto) out of their share and thrust Maurizio into the forefront of the Gucci name and business.   As far as Maurizio's abilities as the controlling shareholder of Gucci, well he's a better truck washer.  

Everyone speaks English in distracting Italian accents which I always wonder why they're done at all.  We know the characters are all Italian.  Let them speak without accents.  So what if the movie doesn't have a dialect coach?   Despite their fame and fortune, the members of the Gucci family are desperately unhappy with themselves and each other, and they let us know it in all of their accented glory. 

All of this leads up to the eventual murder of Maurizio by a hit man hired by Patrizia and her psychic best friend (Hayek).   The murder itself and its aftermath are covered by an epilogue.   This may or may not be a spoiler for you, but House of Gucci is more interested in the supposed intrigue of a disintegrating family.   In theory, with these actors, such a topic would be engrossing enough to keep our attention, but House of Gucci tells this story at a snail's pace.  We're left with a story that doesn't measure up to the talent in front of the camera.     

Goliath (2021- Season Four on Amazon Prime) * * *

 

Starring:  Billy Bob Thornton, J.K. Simmons, Bruce Dern, Nina Arianda, Jena Malone, Elias Koteas, William Hurt, Haley Joel Osment

The fourth and final Goliath season mostly returns to the formula which made season one a success.  If you let Billy Bob Thornton do this thing in the courtroom and behind the scenes, you have a deliciously entertaining drama on your hands.   Goliath cuts down on the hallucinations and bad dreams which haunt Billy McBride (Thornton), although not entirely.   Billy deals with his near-death experience by dreaming that he's waiting for the train in High Noon.   The train represents death, and so on.   The fantasy sequences don't work nearly as well as Billy's battle with three Big Pharma drug manufacturers who knowingly addicted their customers.  

The ringleader of the Big Pharma defendants is George Zak (Simmons), who is gleefully ruthless in his pursuit of the almighty dollar.   He justifies his actions by stating he is in the "pain management" business and is willing to step on his own son and niece if they stand in his way.   Zak cuts a shady deal with the head of the firm, Samantha (Malone) going after him.   The three manufacturers will settle for relative pittances and the firm will receive its cut.   McBride is called in to the case at the request of Patti (Arianda), his longtime friend and partner who is aiming to become partner in the firm.   Samantha is a walking conflict of interest who suffers from MS who has an eleventh hour change of heart that apparently spares her from prosecution or disbarment.   If you consider she has the original lead attorney on the case Tom True (Koteas) murdered, you wonder how the show fails to deal with the consequences of her actions.

Billy also has another meeting with his longtime enemy Donald Cooperman (Hurt) in which we find out Donald has someone out there he despises worse than Billy.   Their reconciliation is handled in a subtly touching way, which is better because it's unexpected.   Besides Thornton, who is such a natural fit for the sardonic, cynical McBride, season four of Goliath is populated with deft supporting performances all around.   It isn't just the Billy Bob Thornton show, although it wouldn't be a horrible thing if it were. 

King Richard (2021) * * 1/2

Directed by: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring:  Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Demi Singleton, Saniyya Sidney, Tony Goldwyn

Will Smith plays the title role of Richard Williams, the domineering father of tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams who leads them on the path to immortality.   It's a tribute to Smith that he is able to eschew his natural likability to play the blowhard Williams as the ultimate Little League Dad and still make a movie about him at least watchable, if not anything special.  What prevents King Richard from evolving into true greatness is its attempts to shoehorn a positive spin and happy ending to these events.   The movie is called King Richard and not Saint Richard for a reason, and there are times the movie forgets that.

The athletic prowess of Venus and Serena is not exactly on full display here.  Serena is shoved to the back burner almost altogether, except for some unbelievable speech by Richard to her that she will someday be better than her older sister.   The speech almost serves as a reminder that Serena is also in the movie, with so much of the focus being on Venus.   As great as Venus is, Serena has whizzed past her in terms of career and stardom.    At an already bloated 2 hours, 20 minutes, King Richard would've approached Gone with the Wind's running time if any attention were paid to Serena. 

The movie isn't about the Williams sisters but about Richard's pursuit of their fame.   He is the Stage Dad who rightfully believes he has the next two Michael Jordans of their sport, and makes life intolerable for the poor coaches who agree to train them.   Richard wants to do things his way and interferes in Venus' and Serena's development as often as he possibly can.   Richard has a long-suffering wife (Ellis) whose primary function is to sit by, support Richard while gritting her teeth, and eventually dress him down as the egotistical showman he is.   It is ironically amusing when Richard attempts to instill humility in his daughters when they become overly celebratory after Venus wins yet another junior event.   

Any emotional investment in King Richard is caused by the Smith performance, in an Oscar-bait role that is flashy and slyly entertaining.   We may not always like or agree with Richard, but he still doesn't fail to compel us to watch him.  Smith nearly makes the film a three-star endeavor all by himself.  The ending reeks of filmmakers wanted to contort a happy ending out of these events even it kills them, and any of the film's credibility.   

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) * *

Directed by:  Jason Reitman

Starring:  Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson

Ghostbusters: Afterlife wants to introduce us to the next generation of Ghostbusters, but it's difficult to pull off.   The original Ghostbusters was a blend of science fiction and comedy which is hard to imitate.  Ghostbusters II (1989) and the gender-swapped 2016 Ghosbusters had more detractors than fans, but I enjoyed them both on their respective levels.   Ghostbusters: Afterlife feels more like a retread even with a younger cast and a change of scenery from New York to rural Oklahoma. 

As Afterlife opens, we meet Callie (Coon), a mother of two who inherits a "dirt farm" and a rickety old farmhouse in the middle of Oklahoma from her recently deceased father who ran off on her when she was a child.   Her father was famed Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis) and Callie hates him for leaving her and her mother, but He Had His Reasons, and we soon find out the evil Gozer and Zuul who were vanquished in the original film are trying to rise again.   Egon set traps for the ghosts, but he died before they could be contained.    His granddaughter Phoebe (Grace), who looks and acts like her late grandfather, discerns what Egon was doing and why.   She enlists help from her summer school teacher Gary Grooberson (Rudd) to thwart Gozer's plan, but it turns out who Phoebe should've called were the original Ghostbusters, who manage to arrive on the scene just in time to aid Phoebe and her friends.  

At 2 hours, 4 minutes, there isn't a lot of ghost busting in Ghostbusters: Afterlife.   Much of it is the youngsters trying to figure out their legacy and how to stop Gozer from being reborn.   There is a teeny bit of nostalgia when we see the old Ghostbuster vehicle, the whirring siren, a slimy ghost, the proton packs, and of course the original remaining Ghostbusters themselves, but when the nostalgia is more inviting than the current Ghostbusters situation, you know Afterlife is in trouble.  Ghostbusters: Afterlife isn't as terrible as it is unnecessary.   Just watch the original to see how busting can make you feel good. 

Red Notice (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot, Ritu Arya, Chris Diamantopoulous

I've heard of movies designed to be the kinds you simply shut off your brain to watch.   That's not always a bad thing.   Some films work that way.   Red Notice is such a movie, but the trouble with a picture like Red Notice is you struggle to recall what happened moments after finishing it.   I know this much:  Everyone is after a priceless egg once owned by Cleopatra.   Maybe not priceless, but worth hundreds of millions.   Numbers are thrown around as quickly as double crosses in Red Notice.   It all adds up to very little.

Red Notice is not built to be original or groundbreaking, but that doesn't mean it has to feel weary and deflated.    Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber has made some funny films in the past (Dodge Ball, Central Intelligence, and Skyscraper, which was cheerfully ridiculous, but fun).   Johnson plays FBI profiler John Hartley, who is on the trail of art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds).  He hopes to have Booth help him capture an even more elusive target known as The Bishop (Gadot), who plans to find and steal the fabled Cleopatra egg.   Booth and Hartley of course Don't Get Along, but soon Learn To Get Along after trading quips, punches, insults, and involvement in an escape from a Russian prison.   I forget exactly how they both came to be prison denizens.   Oh yes, Booth is captured by Hartley and Hartley is framed as an accomplice to the Bishop.  

Johnson, Gadot, and Reynolds play characters who aren't a million miles removed from their famed personas.   Try as they might, they cannot elevate the material above its standard origins.  Red Notice is chock full of action, fights, double and triple crosses, and much of it portrayed in front of an obvious green screen even as the scenery switches from city to city.   It makes no difference.  Red Notice plays like a movie with its wheels spinning furiously in the mud to no avail.   

Spencer (2021) * *

Directed by:  Pablo Lorrain

Starring:  Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Jack Farthing, Amy Manson, Sally Hawkins

Like Lorrain's Jackie (2016), Spencer creates a microcosm of the pressures a famous woman is facing compressed into a few days.   In Jackie, it was an examination of Jackie Kennedy in the days following her husband's assassination.   Spencer views Princess Diana (Stewart) over the Christmas holiday in 1991.  She is estranged from Prince Charles, embroiled in controversy and constant press attention, and only longs to spend some time with her two sons.  

Spencer is as cold and unwelcoming as the royal family's treatment of Diana, anchored by a Stewart performance in which she more often than not whispers her lines barely to the level of audible speech.  I'm not sure if this is the actor's choice or director's, but it is distracting.   The reason for this technique is unclear.   Is Lorrain saying Diana has to speak in hushed tones because the royal family has squelched her freedom of expression?   Or was Diana soft-spoken in general?   

Spencer also speculates that Diana experienced hallucinations of Anne Boleyn and of favorite servants who may not exist.  Ten years of marriage to the aloof Prince Charles and by extension to the royal family has taken its toll on her mental and physical health.   Diana vomits up every meal and then wolfs down the next one only to throw it up again.   One of these scenes would have been enough.

If you didn't know much about Princess Diana before watching Spencer, you will watch Spencer without much context which detracts from the overall effect.   You may not even know that Spencer was Princess Diana's last name.   Spencer depends on the viewer to have a decent working knowledge of Princess Diana's story before going in.   Without it, you may not get much from Spencer.   I found myself not caring much, even when I was supposed to be overjoyed by Diana's albeit temporary escape from her fate.  

Antlers (2021) * *

 

Directed by:  Scott Cooper

Starring:  Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Scott Haze, Sawyer Jones

Director Scott Cooper has specialized in making films with atmosphere and eeriness, even with non-horror films like Black Mass and Out of the Furnace.   Antlers almost has a fog descended over it.   It is grey, murky, dark, and not much fun.   The characters cannot seem to fight through the impenetrable cloudiness onscreen.   And then there is the icky creature an infected person turns into which has antlers growing out from the inside like a poor man's Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Yuck.

Not much happens in Antlers except for its flawed people trying to fight off the creature who was once human but infected by an alien life force.   A young boy (Thomas) sees his father and brother turn into the antlered beings and is rightfully scared.   His recovering alcoholic teacher (Russell) and her sheriff brother (Plemons) try to protect him from the monsters who were once his loved ones.   No wonder the boy is conflicted.  

Confession time:  After a long day of work, a hearty meal of Chinese food, and then indulging in popcorn and a soda while lying back in a comfy leather recliner, I was enveloped in the cozy fogginess of Antlers and drifted off.   My snore eventually woke me up.   Did I miss the best parts of the movie?   I'll never know.   I have a feeling I saw everything I needed to see in Antlers and wouldn't be surprised by anything I might have missed.   This just isn't the type of movie with twists and turns.  

Worth (2021) * * *

Directed by:  Sara Colangelo

Starring:  Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Amy Ryan, Laura Benanti, Chris Tardio, Tate Donovan

What is a life worth?  This question is posed by attorney Kenneth Feinberg (Keaton) to his law class.  He watches his students negotiate with each other over a person's price tag.   Then, 9/11 happens and with lives lost and others maligned forever, Kenneth's query is put the ultimate test.   Congress soon implements the 9/11 Victims' Compensation Fund in order to compensate families of 9/11 victims and also to head off lawsuits of the airline industry which may cripple the economy.  Feinberg volunteers to head up the distribution of funds, relishing the challenge of coming up with a formula which will make every victim's family members' happy.   He finds this is not the case.  One size does not fit all.  

Should a CEO at the height of his earning power when the Twin Towers collapsed be paid more than a dishwasher working in a restaurant in the same building earning a fraction of the CEO's salary?   Is the suffering greater for a firefighter's family than a delivery person's?   While his overworked staff listens to the testimony of the families he needs to sign up for the fund before the signup deadline, Kenneth stays aloof and above the fray.   He doesn't feel the need to sit with these grieving families and hear their stories.   He  urges them to take the money and run because lawsuits against the airlines will take years and most certainly bankrupt them long before the airlines will settle.   However, these families don't necessarily want compensation.   They see accepting a payday as an insult to the memory of their loved ones.  

Feinberg's aloofness is hit home when he is busy listening to an opera on his headphones while the rest of the passengers on the commuter train to work look out the window astonished at the smoke from the World Trade Center towers.   Keaton is his usual effective self, finding out he is unable to wheel and deal his way into the hearts and minds of the families.   His most outspoken opponent is businessman Charles Wolf (Tucci), whose wife perished in the towers and starts a website called FixTheFund.org.   Charles, with sheer intelligence and sympathy, is able to convince people not to sign up for the fund until its compensation can be just for all.   Kenneth resists until his deadline to sign up eighty percent of eligible families approaches and he is nowhere near that goal.   Tucci doesn't play Wolf as an injured blowhard, but as a caring man who sees what Kenneth cannot...that no one formula can fit each family's unique situation.  He tries in vain to have Kenneth see the error of his ways.   

The beginning of Worth made me wonder how interest can be gleaned from such material.   A drama about a compensation fund?   It couldn't possibly work.   Worth does, although some of the subplot resolutions lean towards the unconvincingly melodramatic.   But Worth is intelligent and perceptive, focusing rightly on the victims and not the lawyers.   How they found ways to move on and live their lives in the face of such overwhelming sorrow makes them the real heroes. 

YOU (Season 3 on Netflix) * *

 

Starring:  Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, Shalita Grant, Travis Van Winkle, Scott Speedman, Dylan Arnold, Michaela McManus

After a lackluster second season, YOU returns with a third season which feels more like a retread of a retread with each passing episode.  The first season was a fascinating portrait of a man's obsession; a damaged soul who would rather desire than possess the woman who was the apple of his eye.   His obsession segues into multiple murders.   We heard his thought process and point of view in voiceover narration.   Now that season three has come and gone, I almost want to hit the mute button to avoid hearing one more rambling Joe monologue about his latest "you", how much he can't stand Love, and how he will do his damndest not to kill anyone else so he could be a great father.   

Love and Joe are now married and living in an idyllic Northern California suburb where the houses must run close to $1 million.   It appears Love and Joe can make the mortgage payments with Joe working as a library assistant and Love opening a startup bakery in town.   If you consider Love's family money is now gone thanks to bad investments, you wonder how the couple can make ends meet.   Joe laments his suburban existence which most people would envy.  

Joe's eyes wander to his comely neighbor Natalie (McManus), but Joe balks on carrying on a full-blown affair with her due to a sudden, but brief clash with his conscience.   This doesn't prevent Love from taking extreme measures to ensure Natalie won't have contact with her husband again.   Joe, feeling a sense of duty to not have Love thrown in prison for the rest of her life, assists in disposing of Natalie and concocting a story to shift blame to her cold husband (Speedman).   The Goldbergs strike again.   

Other obstacles are thrown in the way, and at least three people find themselves trapped in the plexiglass prison cage which has now grown ridiculously overused.   Doesn't anyone notice the Goldbergs dragging knocked out bodies from their car to the basement of Love's bakery?   The glass box has lost its shock value, much like YOU itself.   With Natalie out of the way, Joe finds another woman to pine for, his boss, who is going through a nasty, bitter custody hearing with her television news reporter ex-husband.   However, unlike season one in which we were convinced of Joe's need to possess Beck, this stalking is going through the motions.   What Joe does to ensure a life with his latest obsession is scarcely believable.  There's no chemistry and Joe himself sounds bored of it all.   By this point, so are we.  

Walking Tall (2004) * * *

 

Directed by:  Kevin Bray

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Neal McDonough, Johnny Knoxville, Ashley Scott, Michael Bowen, John Beasley

Walking Tall is a simple story told previously in the 1970's Walking Tall series in which Joe Don Baker played wooden club-toting Sheriff Buford Pusser, who in real life cleaned up corruption in a small Southern town many years ago.   In this version of Walking Tall, Dwayne Johnson (who then was still going by his wrestling moniker "The Rock") plays Chris Vaughn, a Special Forces veteran returning to his hometown after eight years to find the local mill has closed and a sleazy casino has opened and serves as the main employer and drug distributor for the town.   

Chris' onetime friend Jay Hamilton (McDonough) is the guy who runs the casino and manufactures the drugs sold in the casino.   Before Chris knows any of this, he plays against Jay in a, ahem, friendly game of football.   Soon, Chris and Jay become enemies after Chris smashes up the casino and Jay's thugs with an oak club after Chris' nephew overdoses on drug sold there.   Chris is tried, found not guilty, and displaces the current corrupt sheriff (Bowen) in the next election.   Chris hires his longtime buddy Ray (Knoxville) as his deputy and goes on a mission to destroy Jay and the casino.

Walking Tall wasn't made with complexities in mind.  It is an action picture with Johnson, sturdy as the club he wields, as its hero.   McDonough's Jay is as corrupt and amoral as Johnson is strong, determined, and just.   He attempts to lure Chris into working for him, but no dice.   The only suspense Walking Tall offers is how badly Chris will kick his ass in their final showdown.   A local stripper (Scott) who at first works for Jay but then leaves her job, is Chris' love interest, who in a movie like this exists to be endangered by the villains and have a steamy sex scene with Chris in his office.   Well, as steamy as a PG-13 movie can allow.   

All I can say about Walking Tall is that it's a typical genre movie done well which furthered Johnson's career as not only a bankable action star, but the biggest movie star on the planet.   It's a ninety-minute movie you with which you can satisfactorily munch your popcorn or snacks.  

Last Night in Soho (2021) * * *

 

Directed by:  Edgar Wright

Starring:  Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Diana Rigg, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Michael Ajao

The protagonist of Last Night in Soho, a London fashion school student named Ellie (McKenzie) dances in her bedroom to a song playing on her record player.   The entire scene suggests the movie takes place in the late 1960's, but it is indeed the present day.   In many ways, Ellie is a walking, talking anachronism.  She feels a strange, inexplicable connection to the 1960's, possibly because she can see her late mother in mirrors and in the shadows.   Ellie sets out for London to attend fashion school and doesn't fit in with her condescending classmates.   Instead of staying in the dorms, Ellie rents a top floor bedroom in the home of no-nonsense Ms. Collins (Rigg-in her final screen performance before her death in 2020).   It is here where Ellie's fascination with the 1960's takes a bizarre turn.

When Ellie falls asleep in her room, she vividly dreams she is present in late 1960's London.  She transforms (sort of) into Sandy (Taylor-Joy),  a vivacious blonde who dreams of singing stardom.  She meets the slickster Jack (Smith), who "handles" budding singers but not in ways she anticipates.   He woos Sandy, beds her, and soon turns her out into the sleazy world of prostitution.   The closest Sandy gets to singing is as a backup singer in a local musical.   The rest of her money she earns on her back.  Her world turns from hope to despair.   At times, Ellie only observes Sandy and at others she feels she is Sandy.  However, Ellie wakes up in the present day with the nightmare of Sandy's life fresh in her mind.

Each night, Ellie learns more of Sandy's story and may have even witnessed her murder at the hands of Jack.   The visions of Sandy's faceless male tricks soon haunt not just her dreams, but terrify her in her waking life as well.   Sandy's past is now a puzzle to be solved in the present.    A creepy old man (Stamp) who frequents the bar where Ellie works sure does seem like he is the aged Jack and maybe knows what exactly happened to Sandy.   Soon, the two eras converge on Ellie in a nightmarish fashion.

Last Night in Soho plays as a supernatural mystery which doesn't attempt to explain how Ellie can connect so thoroughly to events from fifty years ago.   Her grandmother understands Ellie can see her dead mother and perhaps this serves as the portal for others to reach out for Ellie's help.  The 1960's London era is vividly recreated, with a soundtrack of the time permeating the film.  McKenzie, who played the Jewish girl hidden by a Hitler Youth candidate in 2019's JoJo Rabbit, is a sympathetic hero who wishes she didn't see dead people.   Anya Taylor-Joy, fresh from her triumph in The Queen's Gambit, delivers a portrait of a young woman growing disillusioned and victimized before our very eyes.   Sandy's transformation nearly mirrors Ellie's own disillusionment with the 1960's, a period which she at first idealized but now sees how it contains as much seediness as any other time.   It was just disguised with more faux elegance and flashiness. 

Last Night in Soho is stylish, sleek, and suspenseful with plot twists that come with the territory and are more or less as logical as can be expected.   Director Wright finds a way to assemble a seemingly unrelated jumble of parts into a cohesive experience where the past bleeds sometimes gushingly into the present. 

Dune (2021) *

 

Directed by:  Denis Villeneuve

Starring:  Timothee Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgard, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Javier Bardem

I don't know how long-awaited this remake of the 1984 flop based on Frank Herbert's 1965 novel has been awaited or whether it was awaited at all.   Ready or not, here is the 2021 version and it is a boondoggle.   I saw the 1984 version in bits and pieces.   Nothing of what I saw made me want to double back and watch the entire movie.  

I viewed the entire 2021 version.   I remember when watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy that I wished they provided the audience a list of characters and places so we could keep them straight.  Dune sorely needs that.   Even the voiceover narration in the beginning of the film does not help.   I was able to ascertain that there is a galaxy-wide fight over desert planet Arrakis which produces spice, a profitable hallucinogen.   A young man named Paul Atreides (Chalamet), son of an honorable duke (Isaac) is Destined to lead the way in the fight against the Emperor and Baron Harkonnen (Skarsgard) either to gain to control of the planet to take over the spice production or to destroy it.   I couldn't quite gather exactly what the endgame was.   The list of what I was unable to gather from Dune is extensive indeed.

Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner: 2049), is visually stunning with first-class production values and a stellar cast of terrific actors, but to what end?   The actors recite lines with conviction as if they know what's going on, but we in the audience are lost in a sea of clunky dialogue, no forward story momentum, and no payoff we care about.   I suppose we are supposed to be happy for Paul as he Fulfills His Destiny, whatever that destiny entails, but we're left feeling indifferent about Paul and the entire movie for that matter.

This is only part one.  A Dune Part Two will surely follow and maybe then the pieces will come together and the morass of characters and plotlines will coalesce into something tangible and enjoyable.   Doubtful, but you never know.   That's why I go to the movies, because I try to be an eternal optimist. 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Steven Spielberg

Starring:  Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Jim Broadbent, John Hurt, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone

The fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series is only able to sparingly recapture the essence and exciting spirit of the first three films.    It has the look, but not the feel of an Indiana Jones adventure.  Perhaps it isn't possible to sustain that energy for a fourth film.   We have action, but the scenes are kicked off in the same fashion actors in a musical would burst into song.   In between the chases and fights, Indiana Jones spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the plot to his younger sidekick Mutt (LaBeouf).   This is likely for our benefit as well.  

Crystal Skull begins in 1957 with Dr. Jones racing the Soviets (the new villain du jour now that the Nazis were defeated) to find missing archaeologist Dr. Harold Oxley (Hurt), who was last seen in the Amazon jungle locating a crystal skull which may prove the existence of an alien race which landed on Earth hundreds of years ago.   According to the villain, Dr. Spalko (Blanchett), whomever reunites the skull with its race will grant that lucky person unlimited powers.   

Indy and Mutt are soon joined by Mutt's mother Marion Ravenwood (Allen), whom series fans will recall was Indy's feisty girlfriend in Raiders.   She is every bit a firecracker here.   It shouldn't come as much of a stretch that Mutt is actually Indy's son whose existence he wasn't aware of until now.   Dr. Oxley is found, but possession of the skull has rendered him muttering incoherently.   Meanwhile, Spalko is not far behind in her quest to gain whatever powers the skulls promise.  

The action scenes are well-choreographed but missing the hair-raising fun of similar scenes in the first three films.   Harrison Ford, of course, is indefatigable despite his advancing age.   The movie has some amusing scenes which show Indy can't necessarily do everything he used to.   But as a whole, Crystal Skull isn't exactly "been there, done that", but it sure feels that way through most of it.  

Halloween Kills (2021) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  David Gordon Green

Starring:  Jamie Lee Curtis, Anthony Michael Hall, Judy Greer, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Charles Cyphers, Nick Castle, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, Andi Matichak

The sequel to the Halloween reboot (or direct sequel to the 1978 horror classic actually) has its share of grisly killings which are par for the course.   I'm learning quickly that criticizing movies like Halloween Kills for its blood and gore is like chastising a dog for not picking up on geometry.   However, Halloween Kills has other issues.   The Halloween series and reboots have forgotten what made the 1978 original such a horror masterwork.   It was an excellent work of suspense; the stuff nightmares are made of.   A movie like Halloween Kills forgoes shock for gory violence.   The killings aren't entertaining or provocative.  

Halloween Kills picks up right after Michael Myers is seemingly incinerated in Laurie Strode's basement which was transformed into a quasi-crematorium.  Not only does Michael survive, he thrashes a group of firefighters trying to fight the blaze.   In the meantime, Laurie and her daughter and granddaughter arrive at the local hospital (the same one that was infamously near-vacant in 1981's Halloween II, which we are supposed to forget ever happened) thinking Michael is dead.   They should know better.   It's a laugh when other characters try to beat Michael to death with a baseball bat.  This guy survived an inferno, being shot more than a dozen times, and falling off a balcony way back in 1978.   Do they think a few bats are going to do him in?   Apparently so.  

While Laurie and her family are transported to the hospital, a group of survivors from Michael's 1978 spree reunite each year at a local bar.   The group led by Tommy Doyle (Hall), whom Laurie babysat on that fateful Halloween night, is seemingly unaware of Michael's latest spree.   No one in the bar, or in Haddonfield, Illinois for that matter, uses Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or even seems to own a cell phone in 2018.   This is especially helpful when one character has to break bad news to Laurie, such as "Michael Myers is alive".   I believe the phrase "haven't you heard?" is uttered at least three times in this movie.

Once Tommy learns Michael is alive, he organizes a mob which for inexplicable reasons makes it way to the hospital.   If the hospital was damn near empty in 1978, it is packed now with nearly every town resident.   Michael Myers may be a lot of things, but he doesn't seem stupid, so he wisely avoids being at a place where everyone is looking for him.   "Evil Dies Tonight" is the mob's rallying cry, which we hear more often than "Haven't you heard?"  

On top of all of this silliness, Laurie spouts profundities about Michael's nature and how she will ultimately kill him or at least remove his mask.  Good luck with that.  The only modicum of suspense left in this franchise is what Michael looks like without a mask.   It's amusing how the camera avoids capturing his entire face once his mask is briefly removed.   Or how the picture of Michael is blurred out when the local TV news provides updates on the night's events.   I'm reminded of the contrived pains Sex and the City took not to reveal Mr. Big's actual name.   

The Last Duel (2021) * *

 

Directed by:  Ridley Scott

Starring:  Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck, Zeljko Ivanek

The Last Duel subjects us to this listless, lifeless story not once, but three times.   The tale of how France's last sanctioned duel came to pass is told first from Jean de Carrouges' (Damon) point of view, then through Jacques Le Gris' (Driver), and then from Marguerite de Carrouges' (Comer) viewpoint.  Aside from some slight differences in character perceptions, there is little to distinguish between them.  Because of that, The Last Duel plays at a bloated 153 minutes instead of a taut and tense 100 minutes if it hadn't decided to go all clever on us.  

Asking us to spend this much time with these people truly overestimates our goodwill.   The Last Duel has zero scenes which aren't played to overcast skies and a gray pall pressing down on everything.  It is a nasty piece of business; brutal, bloody, and without anyone to care about.   Marguerite has the unfortunate fate of being coveted by these two men who began as friends but soon grew to be blood enemies fighting to the death when Marguerite accuses Jacques of rape.   The only dispute is whether Jacques committed sexual assault or consensual rough sex.   Upon further review, if it looks like rape, it likely is rape.

The Last Duel could have been told without all of the extra subplots involving Count Pierre de Alencon (a blonde Affleck) and even all of the business about land bequeathed to Jean but soon usurped by Pierre and given to Jacques as payment of debt.   The friendship was already torn apart by the time Jacques decided to chase Marguerite all over her home in hopes of assaulting her.   There could have been more captivating dramatic possibilities if the two men weren't already at each other's throats before Marguerite appeared on the scene.   These guys were itching to fight anyway.

Directed by Ridley Scott, The Last Duel's high-quality technical elements are overshadowed by the ugliness of the violence and the characters' unlikability.   Mind you, characters don't have to be loved, but we should at least care about them.   The movie takes so long to arrive at the duel that we forget there is one.   The duel happens, one of the fighters is killed in a particularly gruesome way, and then the happy ending occurs when we read about another character's fate in the epilogue.   We wait all this time to have to read our happy ending on the screen.   

The Guilty (2021) * *

Directed by:  Antoine Fuqua

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Riley Keough (voice), Ethan Hawke (voice)

Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal) is a Los Angeles cop on suspension awaiting a trial.   We don't learn until later in The Guilty exactly why Joe is facing charges, but he is hoping to work his last shift as a 911 emergency responder until he receives a call from a woman who may have been kidnapped.  She speaks in a hushed tone and in vague terms about her dilemma.   Joe has to ascertain what's happening and piece together the gravity of the situation through limited evidence.    The woman's daughter is soon involved and potentially in danger.   Joe grows obsessively determined to save the woman and her daughter from what seems like an unhinged ex-husband.

The Guilty takes place (except in slivers) within the confines of the emergency response center with 911 operators working frantically to save lives in the midst of deadly wild fires overtaking the city.   Unlike 2013's The Call, the center doesn't look like it belongs in NASA, but the movie itself draws comparisons to the forgettable 2013 film, which isn't a good thing.   The Guilty centers on a capable and nuanced performance by Gyllenhaal as a man under intense pressure and ready to snap.   He has more burdens on him (mostly caused by his anger) than most, but the character isn't enough to carry the day.   

As much as Fuqua attempts to ratchet up suspense in a limited milieu, there isn't much to be had.   The puzzle involving the kidnapping and Joe's past come into focus, and how much do we find ourselves moved or caring?   Despite the tense Gyllenhaal performance, The Guilty is all for naught. 

Psycho (1960) * * * *

 

Directed by:  Alfred Hitchcock

Starring:  Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, Vera Miles

Yes, Psycho's shower scene will live for all time as the definitive moment for the film and a watershed moment in movie history.   Please don't read further if anything I write going forward could be construed as a spoiler.   Marion Crane (Leigh) is the movie's protagonist and up until her untimely stabbing death while taking a shower, Psycho was about her attempts to get away with stealing a suitcase full of ill-gotten money.  She pulls into the run-down Bates Motel in the middle of nowhere, chats with the motel's owner Norman Bates (Perkins), and plots her next move.   She won't get very far, as Norman (dressed as his mother), stabs her to death while she showers.   

Janet Leigh receives top billing and was indeed the "star" of Psycho, until she disappears halfway through the movie in one of many twists Psycho offers.   Hitchcock delighted in pulling the rug out from under moviegoers.    Once Leigh leaves the scene, Psycho becomes Anthony Perkins' movie.  His iconic Norman Bates is then fully seen.   At first, Norman is a shy, awkward presence who looks at the ground, stumbles over words, and seems harmless.   We then learn how wounded and disturbed he is.  He is clearly under his mother's thumb, who lives (maybe) in the ominous, spooky house on the hill overlooking and dwarfing the motel.  

Psycho isn't simply a movie about a killer.   The murders are not the story, but why Norman Bates commits them.   He is haunted and tortured by a mother who may not even be alive.   The violence is in response to his inner torment.   He must lash out at someone and soon the unfortunate victims pile up.  The brilliance in the Perkins performance is that we identify and even somewhat pity a tormented soul who can't be at peace.  If Perkins played Norman as pure evil, then Psycho becomes a Halloween sequel made twenty years earlier. 

Psycho relies on pure Hitchcock themes of guilt and how a past taints the present.   The icy blonde, the fear of being caught, and with the Bernard Hermann score ratcheting up the suspense; Psycho is almost the definitive Hitchcock.   The question is:  What is the bigger surprise?   Killing off the star halfway through the movie or establishing her killer as the more sympathetic of the two?   

The French Connection (1971) * * * *

 

Directed by:  William Friedkin

Starring:  Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony LoBianco

Aside from one of the most famous chase scenes in movie history, The French Connection boasts a cold, stark realism about police work.   The chases and gunfights punctuate the hours upon hours of surveillance, dead-end leads, and grunt work which are all part of the game.   Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) is a veteran on the hunt for a multi-million dollar drug shipment coming into New York from France.   He's not a heroic cop; just flawed, dogged, possibly racist, and determined. 

Doyle is as ruthless in his attempts to break the French Connection as the smugglers are in moving their shipments.   If you think about it, the famed chase in which Popeye tries to chase down an elevated train in his car is the Law of Diminishing Returns writ large.   The risks far outweigh the rewards, but not to Doyle, whose single-mindedness borders on obsession.   If you witness his life outside of the job, you see how the job is his life.   What else is there to live for?  

At Doyle's side is loyal partner Buddy Russo (Scheider), whose best scene involves the tearing apart of one of the smuggler's impounded Lincoln Continental.   It is torn to shreds in hopes of locating the heroin stash, with Buddy insisting it has to be in there somewhere.   He approaches Doyle's zeal for nailing the dealers, but not quite because he has some semblance of sanity left.  Hackman won his first Oscar for The French Connection in a take-no-prisoners performance full of relentless indefatigability.  What defines Popeye Doyle is action.   You can see it during the train chase scene how he simply won't quit, and perhaps occasionally he should. 

The French Connection, directed by Oscar-winner William Friedkin, takes place in the coldest, grayest of New York winters contrasted with the Marseilles sun of the south of France.   The characters in New York are in bleak surroundings while the drug lords live it up in expensive suits and large, flashy cars.  A critical scene which reflects the power imbalance between the cops and crooks is a scene where Charnier (Rey) eats with his friends in a fancy restaurant while Doyle surveils him while eating in a pizza joint across the street.   Is this what drives Doyle to take down Charnier and his gang?  Or is it something which Doyle doesn't know himself?   It doesn't much matter, because The French Connection is a taut, exciting thriller make all the more engrossing by its flawed hero.