Only Murders in the Building (Season 5-2025) * * 1/2

 

Starring:  Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Michael Cyril Creighton, Meryl Streep, Christoph Waltz, Logan Lerman, Renee Zellweger, Keegan Michael Key, Dianne Weist, Tea Leoni, Bobby Cannavale, Da'vine Joy Randolph

Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building ended with the death of Lester, the head doorman at the Arconia building, following Oliver's wedding.  The death was originally ruled accidental, but Charles, Oliver, and Mabel have different ideas.  They have a podcast, an insatiable love for being detectives, and apparently unlimited amounts of money and time to spend because they don't have jobs and can devote their energies full-time to solving murders.  Even the NYPD defers to them.  

I've stated in previous seasons that any tenant with any sense would move out of the Arconia because four previous murders occurred there.  They don't need a doorman; they need a SWAT team on the premises.  Nonetheless, Martin, Short, and Gomez attack the task at hand with glee and energy, while the supporting players and guest stars especially Waltz and Zellweger are having the time of their lives as zillionaires who manipulate the proceedings from the sidelines and trick the trio into not being able to discuss them on their podcast in a brilliant way.  That won't stop them from trying to solve the murder before Zellweger's Camila White buys the Arconia and turns it into New York City's first casino.  

Season 5 is an improvement over the past couple of seasons of the show, with some of the twists and turns being fun, but the show has not been able to recapture the magic of the first season.  It's my understanding that next season will bring the trio to London.  Good.  Give the Arconia a break.  They've been through enough.  

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Scott Cooper

Starring:  Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, David Krumholz, Stephen Graham, Gaby Hoffman, Matthew Anthony Pelicano, Odessa Young, Paul Walter Hauser

Deliver Me from Nowhere takes a curious but fascinating approach to a biopic about Bruce Springsteen.  It covers a dark period between 1981 and 1982 in which Bruce, fresh off his most successful tour and first top 10 hit, retreats to a secluded New Jersey home and records songs which would wind up as the basis for Nebraska.  Nebraska, despite not have any singles, videos, or even much press coverage at Bruce's demand from his record label, was still a top 10 album, but the record label didn't have songs like Atlantic City in mind when they wanted a follow-up to The River.  The record company wanted hits and singles to strike while the iron was hot.  Bruce defiantly gave them Nebraska. 

Springsteen was coming face to face with his inner demons, which his father Douglas "Dutch" Springsteen (Graham) battled when Bruce was a child.  Dutch wasn't outwardly abusive, but he drank and the threat of violence seemed to hover over the household.   Bruce finds inspiration in watching Terence Malick's Badlands and visiting his abandoned childhood home, but not relief from his own depression.  His manager Jon Landau (Strong) doesn't see Bruce as a meal ticket, but someone he cares deeply about and someone he has to talk off the ledge more than once.  Jon doesn't quite understand Bruce's need to write such melancholy songs, but he adheres to Bruce's vision and even tells CBS records that it's either Nebraska or nothing.  

Bruce also wrote and recorded songs for Born in the USA, the album which made him a global phenomenon, but shelved them in favor of the non-commercial elements of Nebraska, even to the point of transferring his home recordings to vinyl to retain the darkened, weary soul of those songs.  Bruce also begins a relationship with a single mom/waitress named Faye (Young), who of course falls for Bruce quickly and he finds he can't reciprocate, although he wishes he could.  Throughout all of this, Jeremy Allen White, the last actor you would suspect could recreate Springsteen's aura and moves, is more than up to the task of providing us with a sympathetic Springsteen with warts and all.  However, I think Strong's performance will generate the most awards buzz, as Strong gives us almost the anti-Roy Cohn (his Oscar-nominated role in last year's The Apprentice) in Landau, whose fierce loyalty and friendship to Bruce is touching.

We know that Bruce Springsteen became immortalized after Born in the USA, but Deliver Me from Nowhere shows us that Born in the USA wouldn't have possible without the downward spiral which produced Nebraska.  The movie, written and directed by Scott Cooper, gives us Springsteen's fall and winter before he emerges with a glorious spring and summer in both his career and his personal life.  Many battle depression silently and without the outlet and resources of a Bruce Springsteen.  Could you imagine if he was unable to express himself through music?  It's horrible to think about. 

The Crossing Guard (1995) * * *

 

Directed by: Sean Penn

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, David Morse, Robin Wright, Piper Laurie, Richard Bradford, Robbie Robertson, Kari Wuhrer

The Crossing Guard contains moments of pure power and emotion which resonate with anyone who has lost a child.  The Crossing Guard is not merely a tale of a father seeking revenge on the drunk driver who killed his daughter, but it muddies the waters by making Freddy Gale (Nicholson) an alcoholic himself and by having John Booth (Morse), the drunk driver be sympathetic and trying to redeem himself.  Does it have lapses?  Yes, but none that are unforgivable, mostly because the underlying story is compelling enough.  

The Crossing Guard takes place roughly seven years after John killed Freddy's seven-year-old daughter Emily in a drunk driving accident.   John is released from prison, and Freddy informs his ex-wife (and Emily's mother) Mary (Huston) that he intends to kill John on the day of his release, which is met with horror from Mary.  As the onion layers are peeled back, we learn Freddy has never visited Emily's gravesite and his inability to heal and move on as best he can have been drowned in drink and nuzzling with strippers.  Is he going to kill John for revenge or to impress his ex-wife?  

John, meanwhile, takes up residence in a trailer behind his parents' home.  Freddy greets him with a gun and finds that John barely seems surprised.  When Freddy's gun jams, John asks for three days to tie up loose ends and to experience a bit of freedom before dying.  Freddy grants him the three days and marks the days on the calendar to when he can find John again and finish the job.  This tangent is not entirely convincing, and the movie veers off course as John meets a potential future girlfriend in Jojo (Wright), who realizes John's guilt may be too much for an obstacle to overcome.  But John, after some soul searching, decides that Jojo may be someone worth living for, while Freddy finds himself in the midst of drunken stupors and unhappiness. 

The final thirty minutes contain an angry heart-to-heart between Freddy and Mary which ends on a sour note and a long chase on foot in which John isn't running away from Freddy as much as leading him somewhere.  The payoff is worthy of the sometimes-uneven execution, with Nicholson's and Morse's performances providing the emotional resonance to propel the story forward, even if it seems at times, it seems stuck.  The final shots show us a moment in which John and Freddy can truly find the strength to heal together, although in such a scenario, you are never fully healed.  

Black Phone 2 (2025) * * *

 

Directed by:  Scott Derrickson

Starring:  Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Demian Bichir, Arianna Rivas, Jeremy Davies, Miguel Mora

The Grabber (Hawke) was killed at the conclusion of The Black Phone (2022), so what do we do for a sequel?  Since The Grabber's previous victims managed to contact Finney from beyond the grave via the black phone in Grabber's basement, then The Grabber can play by the same rules.  What we have is Black Phone 2, which continues the story in a suspenseful, hellish way and further illuminates the pure evil of The Grabber.  He is beyond redemption or any semblance of humanity.  

There is no question Black Phone 2 borrows its plotline from Nightmare on Elm Street as The Grabber terrorizes Finney and his clairvoyant sister Gwen (McGraw) from the depths of hell.  "Hell isn't flames.  It's ice," says The Grabber.  Gwen is tormented by dreams of a secluded camp in Colorado where it turns out her late mother worked years ago.  Why is she dreaming of the camp?  Why is she receiving calls on a black phone in her dream from her deceased mother?  Gwen is determined to find out and travel to the camp in the middle of a blizzard.   

Black Phone 2 takes place in 1982, four years after the original, and Finney is a lost soul suffering from PTSD who takes his anger out on weaker kids at school and smokes weed to self-medicate.  He goes along to help Gwen and soon finds himself answering a black pay phone at the camp which hasn't been operative for a decade.  Who is on the other end?  Well, The Grabber of course, while Gwen is dealing with visions of three missing kids from the camp who were The Grabber's first victims.  If the group can find their remains, then The Grabber's power from the beyond will be reduced or eliminated.  

Come to think of it, how was it that the remains WEREN'T found over the course of 15 years considering the location of their bodies?   Instead of quibbling over such logistics, I instead found Black Phone 2 to be a worthy sequel to the original, which was itself riveting.  This installment provides us with an icy, snowy hell and an aura which operates as one long nightmare.   It isn't just a slasher film with buckets of blood, but it was made with great care with Ethan Hawke again giving us a villain as evil as the nights are long. 

Good Fortune (2025) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Aziz Ansari

Starring:  Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves, Keke Palmer, Sandra Oh

Good Fortune begins with a lone angel named Gabriel (Reeves) standing on a high-above building overlooking vast Los Angeles.  This isn't City of Angels, although Gabriel, a "low level" angel who is in charge of preventing people from texting and driving, wants to do more to help humanity.  He focuses his energies on Arj (Ansari), a college graduate and out-of-work documentary editor who holds multiple demeaning jobs and lives in his car whose life feels meaningless to him.  Gabriel wants to show Arj that his life is meaningful.  How?  By having him switch lives with his former boss, tech bro Jeff (Rogen), who fired him as his assistant for using the company credit card to buy his date dinner.  

The plan backfires when Arj learns that money buys happiness for him, and Jeff doesn't seem to mind being Arj's assistant all that much.   In the meantime, Gabriel loses his wings and is forced to become human, where he holds multiple jobs and becomes a chain smoker.  The goal is to restore Jeff to his former life, have Arj understand that his life is worth something, and have Gabriel regain his wings.  This is It's a Wonderful Life with one additional character.  It would be like George Bailey switching places with Mr. Potter.  Do these things happen?  Of course, but it happens in a series of awkward transitions where the screenplay kicks in because it's getting late in the picture.

Good Fortune is sweet and has a heart, and the three leads are likable.  One fault is that Jeff, even though he's rich and has a penchant for switching between saunas and plunges in ice-water bathtubs to improve circulation, is generally a nice guy.  Yes, he gets to see how the other 98% of people live, but does he deserve it?  One improvement would have been to make him an insufferable prick.  I liked Ansari, who wrote and directed, as a down-on-his-luck guy who just can't get ahead.  We sympathize with him, and then there's Reeves, whose character oozes sincerity and kindness.   We enjoy their company, though the movie they're in is uneven.  

HIM (2025) *

 

Directed by:  Justin Tipping

Starring:  Tyriq Withers, Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox

HIM is incoherent and utterly lost.  It is Whiplash but inexplicably given the horror treatment.  There are demonic visions and hallucinations, gore, blood spurting everywhere, and a half-assed ending which is supposed to tie everything together but results in even more confusion.  If HIM would've treated its material with even a Jacob's Ladder explanation, that would've made at least some sense.

But alas, HIM tells the story of Cameron Cade (Withers), a college quarterback standout who is in line to be drafted by his hometown San Antonio Saviors pro football team, whose current quarterback Isaiah White (Wayans) has won eight championships and is considered the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).  Cameron will have big shoes to fill, and even more so after he is attacked at practice and suffers a horrific head injury which threatens to derail his career before it even starts.

Cameron is invited by Isaiah to train with him for one week in a compound in the middle of the desert.  This is no ordinary compound, and the training takes on gory and violent dimensions as Isaiah determines whether Cameron has what it takes to succeed him.   But there are creepy vibes and goings-on which should have alerted Cameron to head for the exit and hitchhike home, but then we wouldn't have a movie, and this case that's just fine.  HIM soon degenerates into a sloppy mess in which we give up even attempting to figure out what's going on, and we find we don't care that much anyway.  

Cameron is a blank slate with little appeal.  Isaiah is a merciless taskmaster, and one question (among many) is how the Saviors, last year's champions, are able to draft number one overall and snatch Cade.  Maybe they're trading up and found a real sucker as a trade partner.  The movie never explains, not that it has much practice at that.  The ending is a gore fest and then cuts to a black screen where the credits begin rolling.  What the hell just happened?  I assume the movie is saying you have to sell your soul to Satan to be the GOAT.  I suggest that anyone wanting to be the GOAT at anything should be subjected to watch HIM.  If you can stomach that, then that's sufficient. 

Superhero Movie (2008) * *

Directed by:  Craig Mazin

Starring:  Drake Bell, Christopher McDonald, Sara Paxton, Leslie Nielsen, Marion Ross, Robert Hays, Kevin Hart, Miles Fisher

Superhero Movie is a laffaminit spoof on the tail end of the Scary Movie parodies of the 2000's.  Is it worse than the recent Marvel movie slate?  No.  In some ways, it's 75-minute running time is a relief.  Movies like Thunderbolts are only halfway over at that time.  At least Superhero movie knows when to exit gracefully, or exit in any respect. 

The plot covers your average superhero movie with awkward teen Rick Riker (Bell), who pines for the comely Jill Johnson (Paxton) at his high school and is bit by a radiation-altered dragonfly on a school trip.  He then develops superpowers (except for the ability to fly) and fights crime while trying to battle the evil Lou Landers aka Hourglass (McDonald), who is terminally ill and injects himself with chemicals from his company and develops an insatiable appetite to kill.  So far, it's Spider-Man with the infusion of nonstop sight and verbal gags being hurled at the viewer relentlessly.  Some of the gags stick, most flop, and then we're left with a parody that doesn't much feel differently from the real thing.

Superhero Movie throws its jokes at us in Airplane! style, and it's worth noting that two of that movie's stars, Leslie Nielsen and Robert Hays, both appear in this movie.  They have no scenes together, but I think their off-screen reunion was probably more engaging than Superhero Movie.  Oh, and yes the Miles Fisher impression of Tom Cruise is spot-on, leading to a fun payoff in a movie where such gags that land are few and far between.  

Roofman (2025) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Derek Cianfrance

Starring:  Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple

Roofman is a wild true story about Jeff Manchester (Tatum), a former Army ranger who fell on hard financial times in the late 1990's and resorted to robbing 45 McDonald's franchises in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.  He then attracts attention with his sudden upward mobility and buying the sort of items Jimmy Conway warned against after the Lufthansa heist in Goodfellas.  He's not your typical armed robber, though.  He has a heart, demonstrated when he locks one McDonald's staff in a refrigerator and gives his coat to the manager who didn't have one.  The judge doesn't see this mitigating factor and sentences him to 45 years in prison.  

Jeff, however, finds a way to escape from prison and live on the lam for many months hiding out in a North Carolina Toys R'Us circa 2004.  However, he falls for Leigh (Dunst), a recently divorced mom of two who has to deal with the prickly store manager Mitch (Dinklage), whose tactlessness and lack of sympathy is mistaken for good management skills.   Jeff manages to create a relationship with Leigh while living in the Toys R'Us where she works (unbeknownst to everyone) and evading capture, although it is telling that the manhunt for him tends to go away long enough for this story to be told.

Tatum is endlessly charming as our nice-guy hero.  There is also a sad element in which Jeff loses contact with his three children from his first marriage after going to prison, and he almost adopts Leigh's children as substitutes.  Dunst is effortlessly appealing.  But, the story itself suffers from its own limitations.  It can't end happily or in any other fashion than how it concludes.  How else would you make a movie based on this story?  Is he suddenly pardoned or does he escape capture by fleeing to another country?  Roofman is all setup and carries itself for a little while, but then we realize we aren't really going anywhere satisfactorily with this story.  

The Smashing Machine (2025) * * *

Directed by: Benny Safdie

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten

The Smashing Machine is the story of MMA pioneer Mark Kerr (Johnson), who came on to the scene in the late 1990's as the next big thing, and for a while he was until steroids and losing matches in Japan began to wear on him and his girlfriend Dawn (Blunt), who has substance abuse issues of her own.  The movie is well-crafted, an insider's movie that still manages to keep you somewhat outside, with Johnson transformed into Kerr courtesy of a jet black wig and makeup.  He looks like The Hulk minus the green body paint, but he has dimensions and an outwardly charming appeal.  But once the steroids and drugs take hold, they have the effect on him as gamma radiation did on The Hulk.

Johnson is up to the task of playing the affable Kerr, who goes out of his way to show love and respect to his fans and opponents, but his relationship with Dawn remains rocky.  The pre-release hype penciled in Johnson for a surefire Oscar nomination, but I think that may be hyperbole.  It's an effective, quirky performance in an effective, quirky movie.  The Smashing Machine isn't a typical sports biopic.  There is a "big match" at the end, but the match ends on a sour note and not with heroism or swelling music.  We see the real Kerr circa early 2025, and he's still living in the Phoenix area with a smile for everyone and a gait which suggest years of physical scars from the battles in the ring.

So that leaves us with the question:  Why make a movie about Mark Kerr?  Most people, with the exception of MMA insiders and hardcore fans, would know who he is.  The movie doesn't follow the traditional sports biopic arc of success, then failure, then a rebirth after dealing with the setbacks.  The movie doesn't conclude with Mark getting his hand raised in victory, but a a subtle laugh while taking a shower following another heartbreaking defeat.  The Smashing Machine isn't moving necessarily, but it is mostly involving enough to make it worth your while.  

Bone Lake (2025) * * *

Directed by:  Mercedes Bryce Morgan

Starring:  Maddie Hasson, Marco Pigossi, Alex Roe, Andra Nechita

Airbnb rentals are becoming the new stage for horror (see Barbarian, or at least the first thirty minutes).  There is always the possibility of a double booking in error going horribly wrong.  Bone Lake is a movie covering that ground which plays deftly as a tense psychological thriller involving two couples with one terrorizing the other over a weekend in a small mansion overlooking a serene lake.  

Bone Lake begins with a naked couple being hunted by an unseen assassin wielding a crossbow.  The arrow pierces the man's nether regions before switching over to the present day, where long-time couple Diego (Pigossi) and Sage (Hasson) are traveling to the lake in hopes of a quiet weekend away from the world's (and their own) troubles.  That ends quickly with the arrival of Will (Roe) and Cin (Nechita-short for Cinnamon and not Cindy), who also booked the home for the same weekend.  Rather than getting a refund, Diego and Sage decide to let Will and Cin stay.  At first, Will and Cin are overly friendly and ask a lot of personal questions before it becomes apparent to us, if not Sage and Diego, that Will and Cin are subtly and then overtly attempting to seduce Diego and Cin and make them question their love for each other.

That would be creepy enough, but there are sinister motives afoot and revelations about Will and Cin which play a role in the proceedings.  I didn't know what to expect from Bone Lake.  I'm glad there are no ghosts or supernatural forces at play, and the movie stays grounded in suspense rather than gore (until the end when comeuppances occur), in which case the blood spurts.  But Bone Lake is well-acted by four appealing actors who know their roles well.  Diego and Sage are sympathetic, while Will and Cin are quietly menacing.  We know they're up to something, but aren't sure what.  Bone Lake patiently plays out without dragging out, and that's saying something. 

The Patriot (2000) * * *

 

Directed by:  Roland Emmerich

Starring:  Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Chris Cooper, Tom Wilkinson, Jason Isaacs, Tcheky Karyo, Joely Richardson, Adam Baldwin, Peter Woodward

Mel Gibson channels the same rage which fueled his performance in Braveheart (1995) in the Revolutionary War epic The Patriot.  In The Patriot, Gibson is Benjamin Martin, a Southern farmer twenty years removed from his service in the French and Indian War, where he discovered his capacity for violence during some crucial battles.  He fathered seven children, his wife recently passed, and now the Redcoats are knocking at his town's doorstep.  The town favors war, but Benjamin argues for peace.  Soon, though, Col. William Tavington (Isaacs) kills his son, takes the other hostage to be hung for being in the Continental Army, and burns his home.  An enraged Benjamin seeks revenge, and so much for pacifism.

Gibson is at home in such a role.  We've seen the genesis of it in the Lethal Weapon movies and Braveheart, and now in The Patriot.  He's really good at these types of roles with his command of the screen.   The Patriot isn't a documentary of the Revolutionary War, but an action movie in which the Revolutionary War is a backdrop.  Col. Tavington is so malevolent and vicious that even his commanding officer Lord Cornwallis (Wilkinson), who wants the British Army to fight "a gentleman's war" admonishes him...to a point.  Meanwhile, Martin undoes all of his own arguments against fighting, which is understandable considering the circumstances. 

We have a competent, solid hero in Benjamin Martin versus evil personified in Col. Tavington.  The Patriot follows this formula to a tee, and delivers in that regard.  Some of the more personal subplots allow things to drag a bit, and if those were erased, The Patriot would be two hours of gripping action.  Even so, The Patriot still works as a skilled revenge picture.