The Studio (2025) * *

 

Directed by:  Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Starring:  Seth Rogen, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, Catherine O' Hara, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Chase Sui Wonders, Bryan Cranston

The Studio's first episode is a satirical skewering of Hollywood.  Even a legend like Martin Scorsese isn't immune to being screwed by Continental Studios head Matt Remick (Rogen), who is tasked by his boss Griffin Mill (Cranston) to make a movie about Kool Aid.  Scorsese later brings Matt a script about Jonestown.  What did Jim Jones' followers drink?  Cyanide-laced Kool Aid, so Matt kills two birds with one stone by convincing Scorsese to name his movie "Kool Aid" and away we go. 

Naturally, the foolproof plan experiences hiccups, with Griffin killing the deal to finance a Kool Aid movie with any connection to Jonestown, so Matt now has to break the news to Scorsese that his movie is dead in the water.  The first episode of The Studio crackles, but the subsequent episodes lean more on slapstick and schtick than satire.  It grows tiresome and the early promise dissipates.  

However, it is fun to see Ron Howard playing against his "good guy" image in an episode in which Matt is reluctant to propose that Howard change the boring ending to his passion project.  He tries to pass the responsibility off to his underlings, mostly because Howard freaked out on him years ago when he suggested a change to A Beautiful Mind which was truly a head scratcher.  There are loads of amusing celebrity cameos in which they actors and directors play themselves.  Rogen is up to the task of a generally nice guy who finds running a studio can be a pride-swallowing siege, to quote Jerry Maguire, and that's on its good days.  

The Studio finds a consistent tone, but it's mostly harried and physical.  Watching Rogen and company screaming at each other while bungling another project or task only reminds us of how the opening episode packed such promise, only to fizzle later. 

Can You Keep a Secret? (2019) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Elise Duran

Starring:  Alexandra Daddario, Tyler Hoechlin, Laverne Cox, Robert King, Sunita Mani, Kimiko Glenn, David Ebert

Can You Keep a Secret? isn't the worst of romcoms.  It is serviceable, understands the assignment, and doesn't aspire to be anything greater.  Its leads are appealing enough to carry it, but it refuses to ascend into greatness.  It's decently entertaining, predictable, and it's happy to be just that. 

Can You Keep a Secret? stars Alexandra Daddario as Emma, who works as a junior sales executive in a boutique New York marketing company small enough to keep all of its employees in one room, so they'd be able to stay within shouting distance of one another and keep up with everyone else's business.  Emma is returning on a flight from a disastrous business meeting when the plane experiences heavy turbulence.  Fearful that she will die, she confesses all of her secrets to the handsome guy next to her named Jack (Hoechlin).  These are more like things she wished she was more honest about, such as how she and her boyfriend have no sexual chemistry, or whenever her office buddy asks her to "look at numbers" then that means they play hooky from the office for a while.  

Emma's embarrassment soon grows the next morning when she learns the man she confessed to is in fact her company's new CEO.  She can barely face him and he amusingly asks her about co-workers just to watch her squirm and lie about them while he knows the truth.  Nonetheless, Jack finds Emma attractive, and it's not hard to see why.  She has a sunny smile and general attractiveness plus a boyfriend who is a nice enough guy but only exists to be dumped.  Emma and Jack then get together, break up over a misunderstanding, and then reconcile.  It's all part of the formula.  Jack has secrets of his own, but not what you think, and they're pretty innocuous, much like the movie itself.  

Hulk Hogan: Real American (2026) * * * 1/2

 

Featuring:  Hulk Hogan, Linda Hogan, Jesse Ventura, Kevin Nash, Nick Hogan, Vince McMahon (archive and voice), Jake Roberts, Jimmy Hart, Bret Hart, Donald Trump, Paul Levesque, Eric Bischoff 

Hulk Hogan passed away last summer and it still feels odd saying that.  As a wrestling fan growing up in the 80's, Hulk Hogan was bigger than life and even wrestling itself.  He ventured into television and movies, but once his WWF run was finished, he reinvented himself and made WCW a ratings juggernaut for several years.  His later years were filled with controversy, but even his harshest critics can't deny his impact.  

Hulk Hogan: Real American to its credit doesn't shy away from controversy.  It isn't hagiography.  Bret "Hitman" Hart didn't have many kind things to say, especially after a perceived snub backstage at Wrestlemania IX.  Jesse Ventura, the former pro wrestler and governor of Minnesota, has been on record countless times expressing his dislike for Hogan.  However, it is heartening to see that perhaps the two did reconcile enough for Ventura to participate in the documentary.  The makers of Real American had full access to Hogan in the months before his passing.  Hogan revealed the warts and all concerning his career and his home life.  His ex-wife Linda, with whom he had a messy public divorce, isn't afraid to be honest either.  She may even still love him.  

The travel of any WWF wrestler in the 80's and 90's was difficult enough.  For the WWF Champion and top draw like Hogan, you had to mix in public appearances, television, and then movie shoots.  One TV appearance on Richard Belzer's talk show days before Wrestlemania ended in a lawsuit and Hogan placed Belzer in a front face lock and then allowed him to drop unconscious to the floor.  Hogan's later controversies involving his divorce, a sex tape, and another recording in which Hogan used racial slurs made him a pariah in the eyes of some fans.  In his last televised appearance on WWE Raw in January 2026, Hogan was booed out of the building by the California crowd.  Why?  Some say it was because of his unapologetic support of President Donald Trump (who also makes an appearance as an interview subject-rare for a sitting president) at the 2024 Republican National Convention.  Others say the stories of Hogan politicking in the locker room and his later ordeals turned off his fans.  Six months later, Hogan died from cardiac arrest and you wonder how many of those fans who booed wished they could take it back.

The documentary itself is four parts, enough to cover Hogan warts and all.  It flows well and it isn't afraid to be honest.  Whether he was cheered or jeered, many would say Hogan earned all of it.  There was the famed Gawker trial in which Hogan sued the online magazine for the unauthorized publication of the leaked sex video.  Hogan differentiated himself between his onscreen persona and Terry Bollea (his real name).  You would think this would be a ludicrous defense, but even his ex-wife didn't know where Terry ended and Hulk began.  Even Hogan himself might not have been able to tell anymore. 

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  David Frankel

Starring:  Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, BJ Novak, Lucy Liu, Patrick Brammall, Simone Ashley

As far as sequels no one asked for go: The Devil Wears Prada 2 is quite entertaining.  It's fun to see this group together again and the sequel even has something to say about today's media.  Runway magazine in 2006 carried a great deal of influence in the fashion world and its editor-in-chief, the all-powerful Miranda Priestly (Streep) was the final word in whether a designer would become famous or infamous.  She wielded such power that no one in the building would dare share an elevator with her.  

In 2026, Runway is now mostly online with very few physical copies available and the office atmosphere is such that Miranda can no longer throw her coat at her assistants and has to watch the phrases she uses.  It's amusing to see Miranda hanging up her own coat and afterward looking drained.  Why is she hanging up her own coat?  Because of HR complaints.  How Miranda lasted this long in a changing environment is beyond anyone's comprehension, but one thing we know about her:  She is a survivor. She can adapt.  

The moral center of the Devil Wears Prada universe remains Andy Sachs (Hathaway), who begins the movie as a journalist who is fired via text (as does the rest of the magazine's staff) as she's receiving an award for Journalist of the Year.  Her expletive-laced rant goes viral, and soon she's back working at Runway as a features editor much to Miranda's displeasure.  Miranda at first doesn't remember Andy and has to be gently reminded by her ever-loyal right-hand Nigel (Tucci-who is great as always) that "she was one of the Emilys" (code name for the assistants at which Miranda would toss her coat and purse).

Runway is in dire straits due to the ever-changing media landscape and a recent story linking Runway to sweat shops.  Miranda's boss Ira soon passes away, and his son (Novak) wants to sell the conglomerate to billionaire Benji (Theroux), who is the new beau of Emily Charlton (Blunt), who now works for Dior and still harbors resentments towards Miranda, Andy, and Runway.  Emily would love nothing more than to take over Runway.  When everyone finds themselves in Milan, games are afoot to determine the future of Runway and therefore Miranda, Nigel, and Andy.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 isn't as good as its predecessor, but it has charms of its own.  Miranda is allowed to have more emotions and dimensions (although her performance was wickedly funny in the first film).  The subplots involving Runway's fate bring due intrigue, and although The Devil Wears Prada 2 ends more or less happily, you know in the real world it wouldn't be so tidy.  

Your Friends & Neighbors (2025) * *

 

Starring:  Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, Corbin Bernsen, Mark Tallman, Aimee Carrero, Olivia Munn, Hoon Lee, Lena Hall

One of the funniest (and that's a short list) jokes of the more recent Oscar telecasts was host Amy Schumer (I believe it was her) stating how she watched The Power of the Dog three times and is still only halfway through it.  You now know how watching the first season of Your Friends & Neighbors feels.  I'm nine episodes in and what a slog it has been.  

The series starts out promisingly enough with Andrew "Coop" Cooper (Hamm) playing a familiar type as a well-off suburbanite who works for a Manhattan hedge fund that finds himself ousted on trumped-up sexual harassment charges after sleeping with a colleague.  He needs this like a hole in the head.  In order to prevent further litigation against him, he agrees to a two-year non-compete clause so finding another job in the financial world is not happening.  His wife Mel (Peet) cheated on him with his best friend Nick (Tallman) well before his tryst with his subordinate, so his marriage was already in shambles.

Coop finds he wants to maintain his lifestyle and the respect of his children, so while attending a party at one of this friend's homes, he discovers the jewelry his friend leaves lying around upstairs and how easy it is for him to sneak up there and lift some of the items.  Surely a guy who has a huge collection of watches won't miss one measly watch.  This is the Raising Arizona logic that applies to watches instead of kids. Coop steals the jewelry from all of the homes which magically do not have their security alarms engaged and tries to fence them at a local pawn shop which quickly catches on that Coop doesn't own these fancy, expensive items.

Coop spends the remainder of the series evading the law, being charged with the murder of a former friend, and steering clear of further trouble.  Jon Hamm can play smooth in his sleep, and Coop is sympathetic despite being a criminal.  But, the tension which we would expect would arise from such events doesn't exist.  Your Friends & Neighbors drags to the point that getting through the first season will be a monumental task, and maybe too big an ask from yours truly. 

Big Mistakes (2026) * * *

 

(Netflix series)

Starring:  Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf, Elizabeth Perkins, Abby Quinn, Boran Kuzum, Mark Ivanir

Big Mistakes, like Ozark, connects its ordinary people with ruthless mobsters and find themselves unable to break free.  It's a comedy, though, and that takes the edge off somewhat, but these folks are trapped in a criminal underworld following a petty crime against the sort of people who don't like to be stolen from.  

In Ozark, Jason Bateman's Marty Byrde stole money from a cartel.  His penance in exchange for his life was to work for the cartel laundering their money through various means in the Ozark Mountains.  If he can't do it, the penalty is death, although it was amazing how often Marty and his family were able to avoid this consequence.  In Big Mistakes, Morgan (Ortega) steals a necklace from a store operated by Yusuf (Kuzum) she gives to her dying grandmother to wear at her funeral.  Yusuf soon shows up with a gun demanding the necklace back.  Morgan's brother Nicky (Levy), who is the pastor at the local church, assists Morgan so they don't wind up dead.  Morgan and Nicky are unable to steal the necklace from the grandmother's body prior to the casket being buried, so it looks like a night of shoveling for the two bickering siblings.

They retrieve the necklace, return it to Yusuf's boss Ivan (Ivanir), and expect that their servitude to the mob is complete.  Not so fast.  They are assigned burner phones and are expected to be available at a moment's notice for whatever job the mob needs them to do.  Nicky is far more panicked about this than Morgan, mostly because he's a pastor and supposed to be a man of God.  How would it look for the pastor to be in the mob's pocket?  You would think a comic tone would undermine the danger Nicky and Morgan, plus their mother Linda (Metcalf) who is running for town council, are in, but the stakes still remain pretty high.  

Big Mistakes is briskly paced and sometimes slapstick, with Levy having a ball nearly hyperventilating at the trouble he finds himself in.  Morgan appears to like this type of drama as an antidote to her otherwise boring life.  Levy and Ortega play well off each other.  While it takes an episode or two to catch its rhythm, Big Mistakes turns out to have enough twists to be worth the sometimes bumpy ride.