Dressed to Kill (1980) * * *

 

Directed by:  Brian DePalma

Starring:  Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, Angie Dickinson, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz

Alfred Hitchcock died a few months before Dressed to Kill's release in 1980.  Brian DePalma's thriller borrows from, pays homage to, and even steals a few tricks from Hitch's arsenal to create a savvy, suspenseful thriller.   There's blood, but not much, and DePalma is more intrigued by the idea of waiting for a bomb to go off instead of just rushing to see it explode.   Who knows?  Maybe Hitchcock would've gotten around to making a movie just like Dressed to Kill had he lived.   

DePalma focuses the first thirty minutes of Dressed to Kill on Kate (Dickinson), a sexy blonde who has joyless sex with her husband and an insatiable lust.  She attends a therapy session with Dr. Elliott (Caine), who exhibits a cool, analytical detachment from Kate, but we can clearly tell he is attracted to her.  Kate then visits a museum, where she catches the eye of a handsome stranger whom she follows around and hopes to ensnare.  When she thinks she's lost sight of him, she finds him in a taxi and the two have passionate intercourse in the back seat.   Their tryst extends further to his apartment, and when she wakes up to find she's out too late and doesn't even know the man's name, she finds he has syphilis from a medical document in his desk drawer.  She no doubt feels guilty, and the possibility of having contracted a venereal disease means the encounter will follow and haunt her.  

However, when Kate boards the elevator, she finds her wedding ring is still in the apartment, but before she go back to retrieve it, a mysterious blonde stabs her to death.   A high-price prostitute named Liz (Allen) stumbles across Kate's body and for a while even becomes the prime suspect because she is a hooker.   Dr. Elliott, meanwhile, listens to recordings on his answering machine from a transvestite patient who wants to have a sex-change operation.  The man is promising to kill others until the doctor approves his surgery, which Dr. Elliott has been reluctant to do.   You'll see why later, or maybe you won't. 

While the identity of the killer is apparent early, even if the movie tries to hide this fact, DePalma borrows from Psycho:  The icy blonde who is killed early in the film when we think the movie will be about her, a shower scene (even if it is a nightmare), and then the psychiatrist who explains why the killer was driven to murder and all of the feelings which accompanied that.  I liked Allen's offbeat performance of the woman in danger who can hold her own by using her wits and her sexiness to get out of a potentially deadly situation or two.  Keith Gordon also stars as Kate's son Peter, a techno whiz looking to find out who killed his mother.  He and Liz strike up a friendship which may or not blossom one day into a romance.  

DePalma called himself "The Master of the Macabre", but judging by the diversity of his work, he is a master, period.  There is no doubt he loves those who influenced his work, but he would soon become a great director in his own right with a few tricks up his sleeve of his own.  DePalma is not shy about going big and going for broke.  He isn't interested in timidity and even his failures draw a fascination.  Dressed to Kill isn't necessarily original.  It was made as a tribute to the recently deceased Hitchcock, and there are holes in the plot which you would drive yourself mad thinking about, but as a suspenseful thriller, it works very well. 

Thelma (2024) * * *

 

Directed by: Josh Margolin

Starring:  June Squibb, Richard Roundtree, Fred Hechinger, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Malcolm McDowell

Thelma Post (Squibb) is a ninetyish grandmother who still lives alone on her own and besides not being aces at a computer, she is self-sufficient.  She has a close relationship with her grandson Danny (Hechinger), who teaches her how to use the computer and drives her to where she needs to go.  One day, Thelma receives an urgent call from someone sounding like Danny and is instructed to send $10,000 to a PO box in order for him to avoid any trouble with the law.  Thelma obliges, but soon learns she was the victim of a scam.  

With her daughter and son-in-law loudly mulling placing Thelma in a nursing home, Thelma fights back by enlisting her friend Ben (Roundtree-in his final screen performance) and his scooter to travel to another part of town to track down who scammed her.  Ben reluctantly goes along, mostly because Thelma took his scooter, while Thelma's family contacts the police and listens for any news of her whereabouts.  When Thelma locates her scammer (McDowell), she handles him diligently and swiftly while he attempts in vain to reason with her.  "Someone has to keep the lights on," he argues, as if that justifies his operation of ripping off the naive and elderly. 

Thelma never lapses into silliness or gives us an "aww, isn't she cute?" hero.  Squibb, so memorable in 2013's Nebraska (for which she received an Oscar nomination), gives us a resourceful, kind, and determined protagonist.  Roundtree hits notes of sweetness and sensitivity we never got to see in his previous work.  He is a man who understands the limitations placed on him by age, and isn't afraid to ask for help.  I would love to see Squibb and Roundtree receive Oscar nominations for their roles.  The question is:  Will Thelma be remembered come nomination time?  It's a small-scale, tender movie with a heart, and one released in June to a scattering of theaters.  The studio will have to work overtime on this campaign. 

The Bikeriders (2024) * * *

 

Directed by: Jeff Nelson

Starring:  Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus, Boyd Holbrook, Damon Herriman, Toby Wallace    

The Bikeriders tells the story of a Chicago motorcycle club in the style of Goodfellas or Carlito's Way.  I'm not suggesting it is as good as either movie, but it draws favorable comparisons.  I was reminded of these classic crime dramas while watching The Bikeriders, which is a compliment.  

Sure, The Bikeriders has its flaws.  Jodie Comer's over-the-top Midwestern accent is a distraction, especially while narrating her story of how fell in love with Benny (Butler), a member of the Vandals motorcycle club.  She's no Karen Hill.   In the beginning of The Bikeriders, Benny is sitting at a bar nursing a beer when two toughs tell him not to wear "his colors" in there.  Benny unequivocally states that he won't and is beaten to within an inch of his life.   The movie then backtracks to the origins of the Vandals and introduces us to the characters.  

There's the Vandals' leader Johnny (Hardy), a man who says what he means and means what he says.  He has a full-time job and a family, which we rarely see, but what he says goes when it comes to the Vandals.  If you want to usurp his leadership, you have to challenge him.  Johnny casually says, "Fists or knives," as if he has been through more challenges then the movie even cares to show us.  Hardy's performance keeps The Bikeriders going.  He is the soul of the movie, someone we are drawn to, and his story arc takes on elements of tragedy...and Carlito's Way.  

One of Johnny's young challengers is a punk (Wallace) who is rebuffed by Johnny when he expresses a desire to join the Vandals.   Any allusion to Benny Blanco from the Bronx is surely not coincidental.  One of the pleasures of watching The Bikeriders is how it incorporates writer-director Jeff Nelson's love for those aforementioned crime movies.  Those elements are the best parts of The Bikeriders.  

Based loosely on a book by Danny Lyon, who was embedded with the gang over many years, The Bikeriders features Danny (Faist) interviewing the group's members and mostly Kathy (Comer), who marries Benny soon after meeting him in the Vandals' hangout bar.  If Kathy is no Karen Hill, Benny is no Henry Hill.  Butler is rarely seen without a cigarette dangling from his lips, and speaks fewer words than almost any lead with a speaking part in recent memory.  He is all presence, but not necessarily a fascinating one.  Johnny derived inspiration for starting the Vandals after watching Marlon Brando in The Wild One.  Benny could easily have answered, "What do you got?" when asked what he's rebelling against, but we'd much rather spend time with Johnny than any of these other guys.  

Ezra (2024) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Tony Goldwyn

Starring:  Bobby Cannavale, William A. Fitzgerald, Rose Byrne, Robert DeNiro, Tony Goldwyn, Whoopi Goldberg, Rainn Wilson, Vera Farmiga

The Ezra of the title of Tony Goldwyn's road movie is an autistic child taken on a cross-country ride to Los Angeles by his stand-up comedian father Max (Cannavale), who will perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live.  In the beginning of Ezra, Ezra (Fitzgerald) is having trouble adapting at school and will soon be placed in a different one.  Ezra's mother Jenna (Bryne), approves of the move, while Max thinks it will ultimately harm him.  Ezra, who lives with Jenna, sneaks into his bedroom one night and takes him on the road.  Neither Jenna nor Max's father Stan (DeNiro) can reach him, and soon the police and the FBI are called.  Now, Max is a fugitive with Ezra not fully understanding what is happening.

Max and Ezra bond as expected during the trip where they elude the authorities long enough to assure they do.   Ezra, however, becomes more about Max's dreams than it does Ezra's character.   For most of the time, Ezra takes a back seat to Max and the adults who are trying to get him home.  Why not have Max steal a car or punch someone then hit the road, and leave Ezra out of it altogether?   Ezra is based on a true story, but while the movie contains substantial performances by brilliant actors, it never achieves liftoff.  

We find ourselves hoping that Max can make it to Jimmy Kimmel for his big break more so than he patches things up with Ezra.  We care somewhat, but only to a certain point.  Rain Man it isn't.  

The Garfield Movie (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Mark Dindal

Starring: (voices of) Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Snoop Dogg, Gregg Berger, Cecily Strong, Ving Rhames, Harvey Guillen, Nicholas Hoult

Who is this cat and what have they done with Garfield?  The Garfield of The Garfield Movie is a glutton, yes, and loves his lasagna and hates his Mondays, but this one is more chipper and upbeat.  He's less sarcastic and doesn't prank Odie.  In fact, Odie is his best buddy.  The edge is gone.  Garfield is simply too...happy.  

One of the endearing aspects of the Garfield comic strip was how he grudgingly displayed affection, as if there wasn't much more from where that came from.   He loved food more than his human Jon or definitely Odie.  Garfield was cranky, put-upon, and we loved him for it.  The Garfield of this movie is cuter than the comic-strip version, but it seems like we are watching a wholly different cat.  

Garfield (Pratt) in the beginning of the movie is abandoned on a dark and stormy night by his father Vic (Jackson).  Garfield makes his way to an Italian restaurant where Jon (Hoult) sits alone at a table.  Garfield eats everything in sight and Jon takes him home.  Garfield's home life is one of luxury, napping, television, and eats.  However, he and Odie and kidnapped (or is it catnapped and dognapped?) by cats working for Jinx (Waddingham), who once was an "associate" of Vic's and forces Garfield, Vic, and Odie to plot a milk heist.  They are assisted by Otto (Rhames), a cow put out to pasture who is in love with another cow on the farm and thinks the robbery will help win her back.

It's fun to know Jackson and Rhames, who famously co-starred in Pulp Fiction, are together again even if it's just their voices.  The robbery itself is nothing we care much about.  Garfield is a movie kids will like, since there are bright colors and action sequences which will keep them occupied.  Of course, we also learn that Vic's story is not what it seems, and he becomes an addition to Garfield's happy family.  I hate to review an animated movie and sound churlish about it, but I saw the movie and that's what I signed up for.  I paid the ticket, now I have to take the ride. 

Happy Gilmore (1996) * *

 

Directed by:  Dennis Dugan

Starring:  Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen, Richard Kiel, Bob Barker, Carl Weathers, Allen Covert, Joe Flaherty, Frances Bay, Dennis Dugan, Verne Lundquist

Happy Gilmore (Sandler) is a failed hockey player with a vicious temper who transitions to a golfer who can hit off the tee a mile but has a terrible short game.  Gilmore spends many scenes punching, kicking, fighting, and yelling at others.  He's the hero of the movie, but like a lot of early Adam Sandler roles, he's unlikable, hostile, and not funny.  Yet, Happy Gilmore keeps going to the repetitive well of Gilmore assaulting anyone who disrespects him.  

Shooter McGavin (McDonald) is the movie's supposed villain, the top golfer in the world who resents Gilmore's presence on the tour.   The association tolerates Happy's antics because the ratings are up and Happy moves merchandise, but Shooter wants to make Happy's life a living hell.  However, I found Shooter a funnier character who is at least honest about being a prick.  He gets his comeuppance in the final match with Happy, and I guess we are expected to be elated by that because Happy is able to save his grandmother's house from IRS foreclosure due to unpaid back taxes.   I'm in the minority, but I liked Shooter more than Happy.  

Sandler would go on to make better movies and play more likable characters, but until then much of his movies' humor is based on raging out against anyone who offends him.  This doesn't generate a single laugh.  Watching Happy wrestle and fight Bob Barker, his Pro-Am partner, has been lauded as one of the movie's highlights.  It is, but not necessarily in an amusing way.  It simply becomes another Happy Gilmore fight of which by now we've grown exceedingly tired. 

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) * * *

 

Directed by:  Judd Apatow

Starring:  Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Banks, Romany Malco, Jane Lynch, Leslie Mann, Kat Dennings, Mindy Kaling, Shelley Malil, Gerry Bednob

The 40-Year-Old Virgin cheerfully follows the exploits of Andy (Carell), a 40-year-old electronics store employee who to the amazement of everyone is still a virgin.  His friends and co-workers Cal (Rogen), Dave (Rudd), and Jay (Malco) do their damndest to correct this, including setting him up on dates, hiring a prostitute (who turns out to be a man), and other assorted plots which result in Andy still being a virgin.  The hope on the horizon is the arrival of Trish (Keener), a single mother who works at the eBay store across the way and takes a liking to Andy.  

Andy falls for Trish, but doesn't reveal that he has never had sex.  When Trish advises to wait twenty dates until being intimate, Andy is beyond relieved.  The 40-Year-Old Virgin isn't built for realism.  It's made for laughs and there are plenty of them, not necessarily with the slapstick scenes (although the hairy Andy getting his chest hair waxed is funny) or the bodily fluid bits, but from the witty dialogue and one-liners.  Andy, as played by Carell, is a kind fellow whose life was uncomplicated and even happy before his buddies decided to try and get him laid.  Each of the performances by Rogen, Rudd, and Malco suggest their stubborn attempts to rid Andy of his virginity hide deep insecurities, which makes them both funny and a little sad.   Dave, for example, still hasn't gotten over a breakup from two years ago.  He has the misfortune of running into his former flame at a speed-dating event.  (Remember those?)

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a product of another time.  It doesn't have any issues with being raunchy or even offensive.  Most of the gags hit, some miss, but Judd Apatow isn't afraid to try.  His later comedies didn't reach the heights (or depths) of the 40-Year-Old Virgin, but he appreciates some good old-fashioned humor which isn't afraid to offend.

 

Crocodile Dundee (1986) * * *

 

Directed by:  Peter Faiman

Starring:  Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, John Meillon, Mark Blum, Reginald VelJohnson, Michael Lombard

Crocodile Dundee is purely a fish-out-of-water story with some big laughs that gets by on the sheer charm of Paul Hogan, who plays the friendly, outgoing Australian Mick Dundee.  He is brought to New York from the Outback by New York Times reporter Sue Charlton (Kozlowski), who flies to Australia to do a feature on this man who wrestled with a crocodile and lived to tell about it.  The first 45 minutes of Crocodile Dundee takes place in the Outback, with Mick providing Sue a guided tour of the rough terrain.  They also fall in love, which likely informs Sue's decision to bring him back to New York.  

There are complications, naturally, including Sue having a jerk fiance (Blum) and the New York scene which Mick handles with his unflappable demeanor.  When being mugged with a switchblade, he calmly and amusingly declares, "That's not a knife," and then pulls out a giant one from his vest, "That's a knife,"  Crocodile Dundee was never accused of being complicated or anything but lighthearted.  The obligatory scene in which Sue dumps Richard is never seen, but we do get satisfaction from seeing Mick punch his lights out when he tries to make a fool of Mick at a high-priced Italian restaurant.   Mick throws one hell of a jab. 

The light comic aspects of Crocodile Dundee work better than the romantic ones.  Hogan and Kozlowski later married in real life, but in the movie they feel thrown together as a couple.  The final scenes have Sue chasing Mick into the subway and communicating through go-betweens since Mick is standing so far away with hundreds of people in between them.  Sue tells Mick she loves him, they get together, and that's the end of the movie.   Hogan is effortlessly likable to the point that he couldn't play a villain with training from Christopher Walken and Robert DeNiro.  This helps Crocodile Dundee rise above its formula for long stretches of the movie.  

Novocaine (2001) * * *

 

Directed by:  David Atkins

Starring:  Steve Martin, Helena Bonham-Carter, Laura Dern, Elias Koteas, Lynne Thigpen, Scott Caan, Keith David, Kevin Bacon

Dr. Frank Sangster (Martin) runs a thriving dental practice, has a loving, albeit high-strung fiancee who works with him, and is bored.  We should all have his problems.  Frank finds excitement when he lays eyes on Susan (Bonham-Carter), a new patient who seems to want root canal or the drugs which treat it and not in that order.  Frank prescribes her five painkillers.  The pharmacist calls questioning why he prescribed fifty, with Susan obviously altering the prescription.  Frank is outraged, until he sees Susan again and starts listening to the impulses originating from below his waist.  

Susan is a drug addict as is Frank's brother Harlan (Koteas), whom Frank takes in even though he once tried to rape Jean (Dern), Frank's aforementioned fiancee.  Or at least that's her story of what happened.  Throughout Novocaine, we see Jean isn't as she seems, while Susan, while troubled, is more up front about her issues.  One of Susan's biggest concerns is her wild-card brother Duane (Caan), whose need for drugs is more pronounced than even his sister's, and may have incestuous feelings for her.  Duane shows up at the practice one day making a scene and then is soon found murdered in Frank's home. The troubles for Frank don't end there.  He's clearly being set up, but by whom?  One of the joys of Novocaine is how it toys with numerous possibilities. 

Frank is the prime suspect, even though he's innocent, but he also doesn't want to reveal his affair with Susan or the other developments which occur for fear of going to prison or even losing Susan.  The movie concludes with an unlikely series of events including Frank pulling all of his teeth out and switching them with a dead man who was murdered at his office.  I'm not sure I buy the final act.  However, the first 85-90 percent of the movie is comic noir at its finest with performances by Martin, Dern, and Bonham-Carter which reveal hidden dimensions telling us that we thought we knew these people, and were delighted to find out we didn't.  

 

Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

Starring:  Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Jacob Scipio, Eric Dane, Vanessa Hudgens, Rhea Seehorn, Paola Nunez, Alexander Ludwig, Ioan Grufudd, Tasha Smith, Melanie Liburd, Tiffany Haddish, Dennis McDonald

Mike and Marcus are back in the fourth installment of the guaranteed hit making franchise.  It is no better or worse than the others.  There's action, comedy, and even spirituality thrown together in an ungainly package.  It'll more or less get the job done for its intended audience.  Will Smith and Martin Lawrence don't have the chemistry of Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy or Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, but they have their moments.  I found myself enjoying some of the supporting characters more.  

The movie begins with Mike and Marcus racing in Mike's sports car.  They are late to Mike's wedding, but Marcus needs to stop for a ginger ale before he throws up.  This leads to Mike and Marcus foiling a robbery before the nuptials.  Marcus then suffers a heart attack at the reception and nearly joins his late beloved Captain Howard (Pantoliano) in the hereafter before returning to the living.  Marcus feels immortal and invincible, and Bad Boys: Ride or Die puts that theory to the test.  Captain Howard was set up as a crooked cop on the take from the cartels.  It turns out, in a video message from the late Cap himself, that he was getting close to finding out who from Miami's finest was in the cartels' pockets. 

One was definitely a rogue cop called Banker (Dane), a ruthless killer who wires payoff money to Howard's account to set him up.  No one seems to notice this was done well after he died, but nonetheless the media suspects Howard of being corrupt.  When Mike and Marcus work to spring Mike's son Armando (Scipio) from prison, they are framed for the murder of the guards aboard the plane and the three find themselves on the run in the deep South.  A run-in with gun lovers in a trailer park hanging a Confederate flag goes nowhere.  Mike's newlywed bride barely registers and is offscreen most of the time.  

I admired Scipio's smoldering anti-hero quality and the movie also introduces Marcus' Marine soldier son-in-law Reggie (McDonald) as a John McLane-like bad ass when tasked to protect his family from home invaders.  Let's say he's handy with a gun.  I enjoyed the freshness of these players and would like to see more of them.  Maybe in Bad Boys 5, which there will almost assuredly be.  

An American Werewolf in London (1981) * * *

 

Directed by:  John Landis

Starring:  David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, John Woodvine, Griffin Dunne, David Schofield

An American Werewolf in London begins on the English moors where college buddies David (Naughton) and Jack (Dunne) are hitchhiking.  They come across a remote pub where the locals warn them to "stick to the road".  They don't and are soon attacked by a werewolf.  Jack is killed, while David is hospitalized with severe injuries.  He recalls little about the attack, but has eerie nightmares, but soon Jack's decomposing corpse appears to him in his hospital room warning him that he will turn into a werewolf at the next full moon.  David questions his own sanity and ignores Jack.  Wouldn't you know it?  David indeed turns into a howling, ravenous werewolf with convincing visual effects and makeup that still impress forty-plus years later.   An American Werewolf in London's Rick Baker was the first recipient of the Best Makeup Oscar.  

David kills several people during his night as a werewolf.  The next morning he awakens naked in a zoo. Jack soon visits David again in a furthering state of decomposition urging him to kill himself to spare innocent lives.  David believes him now.   What makes An American Werewolf in London work, besides the visuals, is director Landis' use of humor which lightens the mood.  You wouldn't think humor and horror could coexist, but they can.  Horror films these days are depressing enterprises full of doom, gloom, and gore.  An American Werewolf in London tames the bloodlust and actually makes David someone we care about.

We feel for David, who is stuck in a predicament not of his own choosing, and must make a decision very few would have the courage to make.  The actors have some fun with this material.  Sure it takes place in cloudy, rainy England, but the atmosphere is one of schlocky horror, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  

The Watchers (2024) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Ishana Night Shymalan

Starring:  Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouere, Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan

M. Night Shymalan's daughter Ishana delves into the filmmaking foray with her adaptation of A.M. Shine's novel.   The movie is a gloomy enterprise heavy on atmosphere and light on an engrossing story.  It is also part of a new trend in movies in which American characters live in places like Ireland and Australia (The Fall Guy, Arcadian, Anyone but You).  Why?  Tax credits of course.

The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, a troubled woman who works at a pet store by day in remote Galway, Ireland.  Her mother died fifteen years ago and she still hasn't come to terms with this because she blames herself.  Mina also avoids her sister's phone calls.  One day, Mina is driving in a dense forest where she breaks down and seeks shelter.  She finds a lone dwelling, but it is also occupied by three other people who have been there for some time.   They are Madeline (Fouere), the most senior of the bunch and who lays out the rules to the others, Ciara (Campbell), who came there with her husband who is now lost, and Daniel (Finnegan), the most recent denizen before Mina arrived. 

What rules?  At night, the four must line up so the "watchers" can view them.  No one has seen these creatures, but Madeline gives Mina instructions such as:  You can go out during the day, but be home by nightfall, etc.  Are these watchers or gremlins?  No matter.  There are deadly consequences if you don't follow the rules.  We soon see the watchers and they look not unlike the aliens from A Quiet Place, but they also resemble the humans they see every night.  The Watchers borrows from other horror movies like A Quiet Place or Us to the point the big revelations seem recycled.  

The Watchers tries to provide Pasts for the characters, but there just aren't any reasons to care about them.  Like her father's films, Shymalan builds the story on suspense but it tests our patience.  Horror movies lately have become deadly dull and tough sledding to sit through, with generic titles like The Watchers which sound like dozens of horror movies we've seen previously and are virtually indistinguishable from the others.   

Young Woman and the Sea (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Joachim Ronning

Starring:  Daisy Ridley, Stephen Graham, Lilly Aspell, Glen Fleshler, Christopher Eccleston, Sian Clifford, Kim Bodnia, Jeanette Hain, Tilda Cobham-Hervey

I can imagine people want to swim the English Channel for the same reasons they want to climb Mount Everest...because it's there.  In 1926, Trudy Ederle (Ridley) became the first woman to successfully swim the grueling, freezing, dangerous, maybe even suicidal 21-mile stretch from France to Dover, England. Young Woman and the Sea is the depiction of Ederle's journey from nearly dying from measles as a teenager to becoming the world's greatest swimmer. 

Trudy is a quiet woman with obviously steely determination and grit.  You have to be in order to even attempt to swim the English Channel.  Like with many movies based on a true story, you have to fact check afterward.  It's standard.  I won't go over the minutiae of combing through details because they won't matter anyway.  What Young Woman and the Sea captures is the life-threatening swim which only two people in the world had completed at that time, and the toll it takes on the swimmer and the team which only follow her so far until she has to manage the last five miles of shallows in the dark with increasingly cold water.

Even if the swimmer makes it to land, there is no guarantee he or she won't die from cumulative trauma later.  Oh, and then there is section of the channel where jellyfish gather and sting the hell about of the unfortunate soul who swims through there.  Ederle was taught to swim along with her sister Meg after a New York ferry sank and almost everyone on board died.   Trudy at first learned awkwardly, but soon excelled enough to win races and set world records.  According to the movie, Trudy's 1924 Paris Olympics performance was subpar with one bronze and other races in which she doesn't medal.  Well, she actually won a gold and two bronze medals, but this storyline fuels her desire to swim the channel.

Her "coach" in the Olympics (who instead kept the female swimmers locked away on the boat over) and assigned to her for the channel swim is former swimmer Jabez Wolffe (Eccleston), who tried 21 times to swim the channel unsuccessfully and resents Trudy.  He works to sabotage her during the swim and succeeds in doing so.  Young Woman and the Sea focuses heavily on the idea of Trudy facing a patriarchal backlash to her efforts and the double standard in which Trudy's bathing suit is scrutinized while swimmer Bill Burgess (Graham), who swam the channel, practically wears a thong while doing so. 

The movie works because of Ridley's quiet power and intensity.  We root for her, not because the evil men want her to fail, but because swimming the English Channel is exhausting to watch, let alone perform.  On that level, Young Woman and the Sea is a success at capturing the swim's grind. 

 

Sight (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Andrew Hyatt

Starring:  Terry Chen, Greg Kinnear, Mia Swaminathan, Fionnula Flanagan, Jayden Zhang

Sight is based on the true story of Dr. Ming Wang, who survived the Cultural Revolution of Mao's China to become a world-renowned eye surgeon.  He mastered a procedure to restore sight using placenta along with Dr. Misha Bartnovsky (Kinnear).   Their first patient is an abused Indian girl named Kajal (Swaminathan), who despite her trauma provides inspiration and hope to Dr. Wang.  Wang, however, is still Haunted By His Past, and no wonder.  Ming wants to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor, but the revolution makes that difficult with the threat of closing universities looming. 

Wang also befriends a classmate who becomes his girlfriend.  One day, the revolutionaries take her away and she is never seen again.  Wang, however, thrives when the universities reopen and is able to procure a scholarship in the United States.   When Sight opens, he is a famous surgeon with a Nashville practice when Kajal is brought to him.  In the prologue, we witness the harrowing abuse which causes Kajal to lose her sight.  This is not uplifting stuff, but Sight tries its best. 

Terry Chen gives us a Dr. Wang still troubled by his upbringing forty years earlier.  While his family relocated with him to Tennessee, he still walks around as if lead weights are tied to his ankles.  His friend and partner Misha is far more positive.  Sight itself is a gloomy picture that can't lift itself up off the mat even when Dr. Wang successfully performs the surgery which will restore sight to numerous patients in the ensuing years.  Sight attempts to lighten things up with talk of inspiration, faith, and healing, but the results are a mixed bag.  

The real Dr. Wang appears at the end of Sight to implore people to "pay it forward" and buy someone else's ticket to see Sight, a marketing campaign which worked for Angel Studios with Sound of Freedom from last year.  I don't think Sight will achieve the same box office.  You can only dip into that well once, and Sound of Freedom was a better movie. 

Couples Retreat (2009) * * *

 

Directed by:  Peter Billingsley

Starring:  Vince Vaughn, Kristen Bell, Malin Akerman, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau, Kristin Davis, Faizon Love, Kali Hawk, Jean Reno, Carlos Ponce, Ken Jeong, John Michael Higgins, Peter Serafinowicz

Couples Retreat is one of those comedies that grows on you.  At first viewing, it was a slight comedy with a feel-good ending.  Something made me go back and view it again, and I found it more palatable and funnier the second time around.  These are appealing comic actors and they elevate the material. 

The movie centers around four sets of couples at different stages of marriage doldrums.  Dave (Vaughn) and Ronnie (Akerman) aren't unhappy, but are just in a passionless groove.  Joey (Favreau) and Lucy (Davis) are itching to find other sex partners.   Shane (Love) is divorced and has a younger girlfriend named Trudy (Hawk), whom he can't keep up with.  The couple in the most dire state is Jason (Bateman) and Cynthia, who are mulling a divorce and want all four couples to attend a retreat on a paradise island.  Jason's motives aren't entirely friendship-driven.  If four couples go, it's half-price.  

The retreat is gorgeous, with blue water, palm trees, sandy beaches, and top-notch food.  I can figure even half-price is more expensive than a trip to Tahiti.  The island is run by Marcel (Reno), an expert in couples counseling who includes therapy, couples activities, and yoga in their itineraries.  These are not optional.  Marcel's second-in-command is Cstanley (Serafinowicz), who tells the group in no uncertain terms that they must partake in what's on the itinerary if they want to enjoy the benefits of paradise. 

There is also the other side of the island, where temptation and hedonism await, which suits Joey just fine.  Do we know that the couples will make it to the other side and only then will they realize they love each other?   Will there be reconciliations?  Is the sun hot?  The plot is predictable, but there are some funny moments like Dave's "shark attack" and Joey popping a boner during his massage session.  Because these actors are so comedically skilled, they make Couples Retreat fun.