The Woman in the Yard (2025) * 1/2

Directed by:  Jaume Collet-Serra

Starring:  Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson, Russell Hornsby, Estella Kahiha

Ramona (Deadwyler) is a recently widowed mother of two who has thrown the towel in on life.  Her children are mostly neglected in a farmhouse in which the electricity was shut off.  The dog and the kids are starving and to make things worse, a veiled woman in black sits in a chair in the yard giving ominous and cryptic warnings.  She doesn't leave even after being asked to, instead moving incrementally closer to the house as the day wears on.

Who is the woman?  Why is she there?  We witness flashbacks in which Ramona and her late husband (Hornsby) argue over moving to a fixer-upper in the heartland which doesn't ease Ramona's depression.  Even at eighty-five minutes of running time, The Woman in the Yard drags.  The suspense is brief and then tests our patience as we just want to learn who the woman is and how this will all be resolved so we can go one with our lives.  The explanation is underwhelming.  

Deadwyler gives it her best shot as the grieving widow, but after a while, we just don't care much.  A while is not accurate.  We lose our desire to care after about fifteen minutes and there is still over an hour to go.  Jaume Collet-Serra has made much stronger movies in the past which combined suspense and action.  The Woman in the Yard has very little of either.  

Purple Violets (2007) * * *

 

Directed by:  Edward Burns

Starring:  Selma Blair, Patrick Wilson, Edward Burns, Debra Messing, Dennis Farina, Donal Logue

Purple Violets is the story of two former couples trying to make a go of it again years later.  The first couple is writer Brian Callahan (Wilson) and former writer turned realtor Patti Petalson (groan).  The second is lawyer Michael "Murph" Murphy (Burns) and teacher Kate Scott (Messing).  Brian and Patti broke up following the commercial failure of Patti's first novel.  She is now married to a cheating chef husband named Chazz (Logue) and would like to hook up with Brian again.  Brian's new novel is a departure from his successful detective series and is being met with a lukewarm response by fans and critics.

Murph, a mutual friend of both Brian and Patti, had a less-than-amicable breakup years ago with Kate and she is not receptive to his attempts at reconciliation.  He has quit drinking and womanizing and wants to settle down.  Kate is not an easy target and fears Murph hasn't changed at all.  Brian and Patti are more welcoming to a reunion, even though Patti is married.  Purple Violets mostly involves these four characters navigating these complexities.  I've stated previously Edward Burns reminded me of Woody Allen in his writing and his ability to tackle the lost art of the romantic comedy.  I admired The Brothers McMullen, She's the One, Sidewalks of New York, and now Purple Violets, all of which involve interlocking characters and storylines aimed at these people trying to find love at the right time with the right person.

Burns knows how to move scenes along and his presence as the fast-talking New Yorker is a stabilizing force in his movies.  He speaks plainly and has a natural screen presence.  He wouldn't fly in a British accent like Logue's Chazz and he wouldn't even attempt it.  Wilson, Blair, and Messing are also actors at home in this type of movie.  They're wounded but unbowed in their quest for love.  Let's also not forget the late, great Dennis Farina, whose no-nonsense style cuts through the bs and gives us authenticity in every scene he steals.  He plays Glen Gilmore, the owner of the real estate company Patti works for, and his scene where he dresses down Patti for being rude to a client allows us to see why he was a treasure and why we miss him.  

Drop (2025) * * *

 

Directed by: Christopher Landon

Starring: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Reed Diamond, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson

Drop is ninety minutes of suspense with a bonkers plot that keeps you on edge nonetheless.  It mostly takes place in a high-rise restaurant overlooking Chicago.  Its principal players are Violet (Fahy), a psychologist who survived an abusive relationship with her son Toby's father, and Henry (Sklenar), who works for the mayor's office.  They met on a dating website and chatted for months before taking the plunge on this fateful first date.  

The high-end restaurant looks beautiful and all seems to be right until Violet receives "drops" from an app which appear to be spam at first, but then they take on a sinister tone.  We learn the drops can only be sent within a finite parameter of fifty feet or less, so they must be coming from someone in the restaurant.  Who is not known, but the why is made evident when the person sending the drops demands Violet poison Henry or else her son will be killed by a masked intruder at her home.  As is customary with such a plot, Violet is being watched at every turn, and each attempt she makes to get help is met with ramifications and chidings from the sender.   Oh, and of course, she can't tell anyone.

Drop runs at a taut pace with Violet (and us) trying to decipher who is pulling the strings and why he or she wants the ever-patient and kind Henry to die.  And why her?  Drop takes on the form of a whodunit in its own Hitchcockian way.  Fahy and Sklenar are likable and we care about them.  Anyone who has ever said they were on a "first date from hell" didn't go through what Violet and Henry endure.  I wouldn't wish that on anyone, except maybe for the person who orchestrated all of this in the first place.  You wonder if this person couldn't have figured out a more efficient way to knock off Henry, but then small pleasures like Drop wouldn't have been made.  

The Amateur (2025) * * *

 

Directed by:  James Hawes

Starring:  Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne, Holt McCallany, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Stuhlbarg

CIA analyst Charles Heller (Malek) has a job he loves and a wife he loves even more.  However, his life is shattered when his wife is killed during a terrorist attack in London.  His grief is evident, but his desire for revenge more so.  He demands from CIA Assistant Director Frank Moore (McCallany) that he be trained and be allowed to locate the terrorists who killed his wife.  Moore is less than receptive to this, but relents and allows Charles to train under Henderson (Fishburne), who understands quickly that Charles isn't the assassin type.  

Moore is using Charles' "training" as a way to cover up the agency's use of the same terrorists on other black ops jobs, and figures Charles would be killed before anything happens.  He underestimates Charles' desire and his wherewithal to use other methods to kill his targets, including somehow setting explosives underneath a rooftop hotel pool to collapse it, and using pollen to subdue one who is allergic.  We can sympathize with Charles and his quest for vengeance.  He hooks up with an informant (Balfe) who has been providing him information for years anonymously and goes to work.  

Meanwhile, there is agency intrigue, in which the director (Nicholson) suspects Moore is lying to her about Charles and even more about the agency's involvement in using terrorists to carry out missions.  McCallany gives yet another strong performance as an authority figure with something to hide.  Fishburne's Henderson is ambivalent towards Charles from the jump, so we know he will not be able to dispose of them when ordered.   Poor Brosnahan is relegated to flashbacks when we know she can do so much more.   

The Amateur gets the job done.  The finale is yet another one in which the hero is able to kill the underlings throughout the film without issue, but when he has his chance to shoot the main villain, he is unable to do so.  But, perhaps Charles was playing chess, and knows killing the baddie will not serve the greater good of bringing down Moore as well.    

Into the Wild (2007) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Sean Penn

Starring:  Emile Hirsch, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Jena Malone, Hal Holbrook, Kristen Stewart, Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker, Vince Vaughn

Christopher McCandless was someone who lit out for the territories after graduating college in 1990.  He wanted to see the country and live freely without being tied down to a career, so he said.  He burned his ID, birth certificate, and wandered as a hitchhiking nomad.  He saw this as a romantic journey, and left behind his family without any hint of his whereabouts.  In 1992, he made the pilgrimage to Alaska, which looked as beautiful as he envisioned.  He set up shop in an abandoned bus in the middle of nowhere, where he lived off the land.  However, he would eventually succumb to starvation after ingesting the wrong plants and berries.  

This is not a spoiler.  Into the Wild begins with Christopher (who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp in his travels) finding the "Magic Bus" and making it his home.  There are no people anywhere in sight, and this is how he wanted it.  One of the strengths of the movie is how writer-director Sean Penn never fully buys into Christopher's vision that this is all one important rebellious gesture.  With voiceover narration by Christopher's sister Karine (Malone), who like her parents was left agonizing for two years over Christopher's fate.  His actions take on a certain level of cruelty towards those who love him.  We sense he is running from his past, in which his father (Hurt) was abusive to his mother (Harden) and were on the verge of divorce.  Dad straightened up his act, but Christopher never forgave him.  One day, he snapped and decided to run away under the guise of rebellion against society.  

Christopher remained true to his journey.  He would take on odd jobs, meet people, befriend them, and then break their hearts by leaving.  One such person is Ron Franz (Holbrook), a lonely man with a sad history and a wife and son that died in a car crash years ago.  He grows to love Christopher, but worries for him because he understands Christopher is running away and holding on to anger instead of forgiving.  He also knows Christopher will not compromise with his choices.  He is set on a path, and not even Ron's proposal to adopt him and become his grandfather would sway him.  This is among the most heartbreaking scenes in the movie, and Holbrook's performance earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination.   

As played by Hirsch, Christopher is not played as a tormented soul (although he is one, but he keeps that hidden).   He is friendly, open, and would appear outwardly untroubled and unburdened.  But when is dying in the Alaskan bus from starvation, we see him finally unburden himself, although by then it is too late.  His journey sags in the middle at points, but then Into the Wild propels forward again after many pit stops along the way.  Christopher's story was tragic in nearly every sense you can imagine.  

The Alto Knights (2025) * * *

Directed by:  Barry Levinson

Starring:  Robert DeNiro, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, Michael Rispoli

Robert De Niro has played so criminals in his career that he could be an honorary mob member.  I've never seen him play two mob bosses in the same movie, though, and The Alto Knights gives him an opportunity to relish in playing both reasonable boss Frank Costello and hot-headed Vito Genovese.  They're done seamlessly and allows the audience to enjoy The Alto Knights, directed by Wag the Dog's Barry Levinson.  It is a mob movie, with violence, hits, and feuds, but it feels different in its atmosphere.  

Frank and Vito were lifelong friends who grew up in the New York mob together.  Vito controlled a portion of Carlo Gambino's family, and bequeathed it to Frank when he was forced to flee the country.  When Vito returns over a decade later, Frank is unwilling to relinquish power, mostly because he was able to stabilize the normally violent elements of the streets.  This begins the tension between Frank and Vito, which culminates in Vito putting out an unsuccessful hit on Frank which takes place in the film's opening scenes. 

Frank is cool and intelligent, using brains instead of muscle.  Vito is stubborn and unpredictable, which is reflected in his marriage and later divorce to his equally stubborn wife Anna (Narducci).   Frank is married to the supportive and steady Bobbie (Messing) and has been for years.  Their home lives are in direct contrast and it spills out into their public ones.  All of this is moved along steadily and assuredly by Levinson, who took on the inner workings of the mob in Bugsy (1991), the story of another wild card, mobster Bugsy Siegel, who founded Las Vegas but never lived to see it flourish.  

Levinson brings a special energy to The Alto Knights, which works most of the time, while occasionally lapsing into near self-parody.  However, it is amusing and gripping to see Frank stay one step ahead of those trying to bring him down; those who think he's a soft touch when in reality, he truly was able to run the mob like a business.  He's as close to a hero as you'll find in this world.  

Reacher: Season Three (2025) * * * 1/2 (streaming on Amazon Prime)

 

Starring:  Alan Ritchson, Sonya Cassidy, Maria Sten, Anthony Michael Hall, Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold, Olivier Richters

Reacher's season three is the first season in which Reacher (Ritchson) doesn't have all the answers and isn't the biggest or the baddest dude on the block.  It's refreshing to see Reacher sweat, something we didn't see in the first two seasons.  This is the first season which maintains our interest throughout, and the villains are thoroughly scary.  Granted, the concluding, inevitable fight between Reacher and the towering bodyguard Pauli (Richters) continues long past either person would be able to remain conscious, but we were waiting for it and it delivered. 

In the beginning of season three, Reacher is passing through a small New England town when he sees a young man named Richard (Berchtold) being kidnapped.  Reacher thwarts the crime and drives the scared kid home to his grateful father Zachary (Hall), who offers Reacher a job as his bodyguard after a thorough background search.   Zachary lives in a lush mansion with plenty of acreage, and is said to be a carpet dealer, but we soon learn he also deals in guns under the thumb of the vicious Quinn (Tee).  Reacher has a past with Quinn and assumed he killed him years ago, but this isn't the case.  Reacher seeks vengeance against Quinn while trying to assist DEA agent Susan Duffy (Cassidy) in finding her informant who was kidnapped by Quinn.  

How season three differs from previous Reacher seasons is how we sense Reacher is in danger and not always in control.  Ritchson's season three Reacher is vulnerable and more human than the previous seasons' iterations.  The human stakes are higher this season than in previous ones.  Anthony Michael Hall also gives us multi-faceted dimensions as a gun runner who is also a loving father.  He's someone we can sympathize with to an extent, while the villains are cold, nasty, and unsympathetic.   This is the best season of Reacher by far.  Now that we know how well it can done, I hope season four builds on it.