Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Paul Downs Colaizzo

Starring:  Jillian Bell, Micah Stock, Michaela Watkins, Alice Lee, Lil Rel Howery, Kate Arrington, Utkarsh Ambudkar

The last thing Brittany would ever consider trying is running.   That would interfere with her middling life in which she ekes out a living at a New York theater usher job she hates, coupled with nights hanging out with friends where she drinks and eats too much.   She pays a visit to the doctor one day to score some Adderall, and leaves with distressing news:  she is overweight and needs to lose about fifty pounds, which shouldn't come as a surprise to her.   Brittany's self esteem is already lower than a snake's ballbag, but this news spurs her surprisingly into action.    Jogging on sidewalks in New York can be a challenge, but Brittany conquers them one block at a time.

Brittany Runs a Marathon has a title which gives away the ending, but the story is her personal journey from unhappiness to happiness.    It isn't easy for her to recognize and eschew the defense mechanisms she has employed over the years to keep from being hurt and from realizing her potential.    The path is never a straight line.   Brittany makes gains, falls back, rebounds, falls back again, and then triumphs.    This is not the type of movie where Brittany has a eureka moment and never reverts to her old ways again.  

Jillian Bell, from 22 Jump Street and Rough Night (2017), is a vulnerable, touching, and totally human Brittany.    We root for her, and hope she finds her way.    When she suffers an emotional setback or gains a few pounds back, we feel for her.    Bell finds the right notes and involves us in her quest.    Less compelling is her budding relationship with a squatter (Ambudkar) who has moved in to the posh apartment where Brittany watches the family dog while the family is away.   Their chemistry never meshes, and I wish Brittany could've continued on her path without a distracting
budding romance.

After overcoming numerous obstacles, it is heartening to see Brittany achieve her goal of running in the marathon.   This isn't a Rocky movie where she finds a way to win the race.   Instead, the goal is entering the race and finishing it, which is the goal of 99.9% of those who participate.    This isn't handled in a hokey manner, but with heart and pluck.   

Hustlers (2019) * 1/2

Directed by:  Lorene Scafaria

Starring:  Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo, Cardi B, Mercedes Ruehl

I remember when Jennifer Lopez was simply Jennifer Lopez and not "J-Lo", this overly stylized, overly glamorized brand I can't relate to or identify with.    Lopez was effective in her early movies such as Out of Sight and Selena when she was merely an actor, but now I can't separate her from J-Lo, and it stunts the credibility of any movie in which she stars.   Her most recent movie was Second Act, in which J-Lo played a supermarket assistant manager who dressed in ensembles far too expensive and flashy for someone of her means.    She even wore makeup in the shower.    In Hustlers, J-Lo is always seen in attention-grabbing clothing, even at home.   Does she ever just wear a t-shirt and sweatpants like the rest of us?   Can she not just enter a room without the entrance being shot in slow motion and having two other women following behind her, as if her mere room entry is a cinematic event?

Lopez isn't the only thing wrong with Hustlers, a dull crime drama in which a group of strippers hustle drunk, unsuspecting guys out of their money in the years following the 2008 market collapse. 
Before the seismic worldwide economic downturn, J-Lo's Ramona and Constance Wu's (from Crazy Rich Asians) Destiny are making dollar bills rain down on them in a hot Manhattan strip club. 
Destiny is new to the game, Ramona is a veteran, and Ramona shows Destiny the ropes on how to maximize every client for every dollar.

Hustlers alternates between different years, as we see Destiny years later spilling her guts to a new York Times reporter (Stiles) about what went down.   We know things will end badly, as they are wont to do with these scams, and we witness how the same greed which blew up Wall Street in 2008 also led to the self-destruction of these women who wanted to take these hucksters for all they had.
But unlike Goodfellas, or even The Godfather, Hustlers never takes the journey to the amoral edge
with these characters.    The mobsters in Goodfellas and The Godfather were amoral villains, and the
movies never pretended otherwise.   The women in Hustlers hide behind some moral code which frankly isn't convincing.    The strippers want to take these guys for all they're worth because they bilked millions of hard working people out of their hard earned money with their stock manipulation and legalized thievery.   Uh huh.

So, the women who are making beaucoup dollars off of these Wall Street creeps are in it for the little guy?   To stand up for all the oppressed peoples who lost their homes and jobs thanks to shady business practices?   Give me a break.   Hustlers would've better served its people, and the audience, by simply making them hardened con artists from the start, albeit in a different industry.   It would've been more fun to watch these working-class women cheat the cheaters and using their own criminal methods to do it, without trying to soften the whole enterprise.

Wu appears she is on the verge of crying in many scenes.   She doesn't have it in her to play such a character.    We can believe Ramona could do this all day long, but because Lopez is presented in such an overprotected, off-putting style, we are distracted from the performance.   Ramona is far from glamorous, so why film her like she is one of the Victoria's Secret models in one of those lame network TV specials?   Even her pole dance looks overly choreographed. 

As the women do their thing, I cared less and less.    They get rich while maxing out these schnooks' credit cards, but soon the feds catch wind of it and brings the whole enterprise crashing down. 
Maybe because these ladies are as inconspicuous as a cockroach crawling across a white rug.   They
dress like they are attending a cocktail party at the Playboy mansion while combing seedy Manhattan bars for their next victims. 

Don't Let Go (2019) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Jacob Estes

Starring:  David Oyelowo, Storm Reid, Mykelti Williamson, Alfred Molina, Bryan Tyree Henry,
Byron Mann, Shinelle Azoroh

Don't Let Go is a generically titled time-bending fantasy which calls to mind the superior Frequency (2000).    Both movies deal with the loss of a loved one who died violently, and figure a way to align the cosmos to allow the living person to somehow communicate with the dead person via technology.  No ghosts, thank goodness.

Frequency wasn't simply a masterfully crafted thriller, but the relationship between a modern-day cop and his long-dead father over ham radio airwaves is at its heart.    Because of this, Frequency worked magically.    Don't Let Go strives, but doesn't establish the emotional arc other time travel fantasies have.    It is more interested in solving its whodunit element, which shouldn't have been too difficult since I've listed practically anyone in the movie who had a speaking part.

The story focuses on Los Angeles detective Jack Radcliff (Oyelowo), who has a close relationship with his niece Ashley (Reid) and a not-so-close relationship with his brother Garrett (Henry), who may or may not be abusing drugs again and putting his family in danger by associating with shady people who drop by the house.    One night, Ashley and her parents are found brutally slain.   It appears to be an open-and-shut case of murder/suicide, but Jack thinks there may be more to the story.    His grief combined with his job duties force him to examine the crime scene much more closely.

Weeks later, Jack is contacted on his cell phone by Ashley.    Yes, the same one who was murdered weeks before.    How is this possible?   Jack soon determines Ashley is calling from a time before the murders, and he may able to help stop them from ever happening.   What happens next is both mildly engrossing and at times needlessly complicated.    The movie ends satisfactorily enough, but what's missing is the heart. 

Oyelowo is a solid center; a lonely detective whose only meaningful relationships in his life are snatched away from him in one form or another.   Storm Reid is the perky teen who realizes the danger she's in both before and after her slaying (after to us and Jack anyway, you know what I mean).   At first, I noticed how empty the streets were in Los Angeles, which made it significantly easier for someone to chase another with a loaded shotgun on foot, but in a way this adds to the effect while limiting the potential suspects who may have committed the murders.   I haven't seen Los Angeles this underpopulated since Her. 

IT: Chapter Two (2019) * 1/2

Directed by:  Andy Muschietti

Starring:  Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Jay Ryan, Sophia Lillis, Bill Skarsgard, James Ransome, Andy Bean, Teach Grant, Isaiah Mustafa

At a nearly three hour running time, the filmmakers of IT: Chapter Two seriously overestimate our desire to watch Pennywise and the adult Losers battle it out onscreen.   I reread my review of IT (2017) and in it, I pleaded against a sequel.   Thanks to the money the initial movie made, a second chapter in which the kids, now grown up of course, return to Derry, Maine to take on the evil clown Pennywise twenty-seven years after the events of the first film.   We get more blood, more vile exercises in brutal slayings, and plenty of boredom.

Pennywise is an uninteresting villain who is never fleshed out as a character.   We want him to see him meet his demise so the movie can finally end, rather than taking satisfaction in his downfall.    Since Pennywise doesn't seem to be governed by any set of physical or logical rules, he can be anything or anyone at any time.    He can be dream or real, or neither.   He can be a cackling sadist one minute and a shape shifter who can make the T-1000 Terminator envious the next.    He's just there, about as multi-dimensional as the final antagonist one must overcome in order to conquer a video game.

The now adult Losers prove that if you are dull characters as kids, you can grow up to be a dull grownup as well.    With the exception of Richie (Hader), who is now a standup comic with at least a little zinging wit, the rest of the Losers, who made a blood oath as kids to return to the town if Pennywise should ever show his face again, aren't exactly people we care much about.    IT: Chapter Two even begins with a troublesome, ugly hate crime in which two gay men are brutally beaten by bullies.   One is dumped into the river from a bridge and floats away to be devoured by Pennywise.

The bullies are never seen again, the victims are never mentioned again, and the incident is never referred to later.   You mean to tell me there was no other way to mark the return of Pennywise than that sickening display?

The lone member of the Losers who stayed in Derry, Mike (Mustafa), who lives in a church attic and surveys the crime scene as if he is a cop (it is not made clear whether he is one), contacts the other members of the group and asks them to come home and fulfill their vow made years ago.   Each of the Losers isn't exactly in a happy place, and cautiously returns home.    Some claim not to remember the oath, others only remember that horrible time in their lives sparingly, but yet there they are reuniting to dispatch of Pennywise and save the town from his evil.   They seem to have each other's cell numbers, but aren't close anymore.    Mike has to remind each of them who he is when he calls.

The bulk of the running time deals with each individual person facing the demons of his/her youth and exorcising them.   Each.  Individual.  Person.   I didn't care about them as kids.   I care even less about them as adults.    Pennywise's cruel henchman Bowers (Grant), who was the teenage town bully in the first film, is also sprung back into action to carry out Pennywise's terror.    He's just one more person to account for in a movie that already has too many.

The setup drags.   The payoff drags even longer.   Once the matter with Pennywise is settled (in an unconvincing fashion considering the powers he possesses), then we are treated to ten to fifteen minutes more of whimsy and reflection.    I guess we are supposed to be happy they all learned something from this ordeal which would likely scar each of them with PTSD for the rest of their lives.   This is a nearly three hour movie which could hardly qualify as epic.   I gave the original film one star and this sequel a half-star better.   Why?   Because Hader comes up with some pretty funny jokes and there is one moment which made me jump a little.    To say IT: Chapter Two is better than its predecessor is the faintest praise I can imagine.    

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) * * *

Directed by:  Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz

Starring:  Shia LeBeouf, Zack Gottsagen, Dakota Johnson, Thomas Haden Church, Jake Roberts, Mick Foley, John Hawkes, Bruce Dern, Jon Bernthal

Zak (Gottsagen) is a 22 year old man with Down Syndrome and no family placed in a nursing home by the state.    He does not wish to stay there.   He sees a videotape of a professional wrestling school run by Salt Water Redneck (Church) and decides he will break out of the home and pursue his dream of being a professional wrestler.   One night, with help from his resourceful, elderly roommate (Dern), Zak escapes wearing nothing but his underwear and his journey begins.

The similarities between The Peanut Butter Falcon and Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huck Finn are purely intentional, right down to the wooden raft which carries Zak and his newfound buddy Tyler (LeBeouf) to their freedom down a peaceful river.   For Zak, it's freedom from the home, while for Tyler it's freedom from his haunted past and troublesome present.    They meet by accident, and while Tyler wants to play the hardened loner at first, he and Zak form an impenetrable bond.    Each sees the good in each other, even if they don't see the good in themselves.    Their relationship is touching, and when you throw in Zak's caretaker Eleanor from the home who goes looking for him (Johnson), you have a makeshift family of outsiders who find a way to love one another.

Zak, Tyler, and Eleanor all once had families, or at least close loved ones who are no longer in their lives,   Tyler and Eleanor lost theirs to death, while Zak's family simply abandoned him.    Tyler undergoes the most changes, transforming from loser and loner to a loving, protective brother to Zak.
There are complications, including a gang of thugs hunting down Tyler for encroaching on their crabbing waters, and the possibility of not being able to locate the Salt Water Redneck.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is an uncomplicated story which tends to sag in the middle, but the sweetness of the central friendships pull it through.     This is LeBeouf's best work in years, while Gottsagen is a confident spark plug of a guy who doesn't let tiny things like having no food, clothes, or money get in the way of his dream.    For Zak, life isn't bogged down by regrets or negativity.   If there is any negativity, he doesn't suffer from its effects.    Eleanor acts as a witness to the growth of Tyler and possibly even a romantic interest for him.    In the end, the journey doesn't quite end as planned, but then again, which journey ever does?

Brightburn (2019) * *

Directed by:  David Yarovesky

Starring:  Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Emmie Hunter, Gregory Alan Williams, Meredith Hagner

Stop me if you've heard this story before.   A kindly, childless Kansas couple who own a vast farm (because don't all residents of Kansas live on one?) discovers a spaceship crashed in their backyard with an infant inside.   They raise the boy as their own and as he grows toward his teenage years, they discover he has vast, otherworldly powers.    I know, I know, we have another Superman story on our hands, right?   Not quite.   The boy, named Brandon Breyer (Dunn) uses his powers for evil and not good.   He turns into a quasi-slasher, gruesomely dispatching his victims with ruthless sadism.   

Brandon's parents Tori (Banks) and Kyle (Denman) love Brandon, and are a bit slow on the uptake as they notice Brandon's eerie behavior and chalk it up to teenage angst.    They seem perplexed that a child who arrived via spaceship might not be altogether normal.    He breaks the hand of a female classmate whose only crime was to take a liking to him, and other adults who got on the wrong side of him wind up dead in ugly ways.    One victim gets a shard of glass stuck in her eye, and we are privileged to witness the poor woman dislodge the glass and bleed all over the place.    For his next trick, Brandon lifts up a truck and drops it straight down, causing the driver to smash his open mouth into the steering wheel and essentially breaking off the bottom half of his face.    Why do we need to see this over-the-top display of gore and blood?  

Coming in at a taut 85 minutes, Brightburn (named after the town in which the bulk of the movie takes place) reminded me of The Omen in nearly every fiber of its being.   The pitch was probably "The Omen Meets Superman."   The kid should've been renamed Damian.   Denman and Banks play a grounded, sympathetic couple who bend over backwards to believe in Damian's, er, Brandon's innocence.    They are slow studies, yes, but because they wanted a child so bad and one fell into their laps a dozen years ago, they want to believe he is not a monster.   But, there comes a point in which you just want to shake them into accepting reality much faster than they do. 

But, a monster he is, and he accepts his nature with nary a second thought.   Brandon narrows his eyes and performs mayhem.   There is very little suspense, except to guess how Brandon will dispatch his next pitiful victim.    Despite my misgivings, I can't completely write off Brightburn as a waste of time.    The movie is briskly paced and creates an eerie atmosphere of dread.    A sequel has been proposed, and if one should come to fruition, I suggest less blood and guts and maybe the introduction of a hero who could thwart Brandon.    It will get boring just watching him off one poor schnook after another. 

Good Boys (2019) * *

Directed by:  Gene Stupnitsky

Starring:  Jacob Tremblay, Molly Gordon, Will Forte, Brady Noon, Keith L. Williams

It's refreshing that the Good Boys of the title don't turn into bad boys.    They mostly retain their innocence and naivete.    Thank goodness.   They encounter S & M paraphernalia, drugs, and porn, but still manage to come out no worse for wear (as do we), which is good.   The kids have plenty of time to learn about such things.  

Did I laugh in Good Boys?   A few times, but not enough to recommend it.    The "good boys" Max (Tremblay), Thor (Noon), and Lucas (Williams) swear and are naturally curious about grown-up stuff, but this isn't done for shock value.    Children that age learned cuss words years ago, and they flow effortlessly from their lips.    Except maybe for Lucas, the goody two shoes of the trio.    Max is the de facto leader and Thor is the poor guy whose parents engage in S & M, although these acts are unseen. 

The gags become repetitive.    The boys encounter adult items and mistake them for toys, jewelry, you name it.    In some cases, they learn the items' function and are grossed out or scream in horror.   There is a scene in which the boys enter a frat house to conduct a drug deal, and the entire scene is icky.   When dealing with this type of material, it is best to know there is a fine line between funny and downright unseemly.   

The plot of Good Boys is the boys' quest to buy and replace a drone belonging to Max's father, who went away on business for a few days.   If they are unable to replace the drone, Max will surely be grounded and be forced to miss an upcoming kissing party.   Drones are sold at the mall four miles away, and the guys cut school to walk there, encountering different obstacles along the way.   Some of it is amusing, more of it is ho-hum.   Tremblay proves, as he did in Room and Wonder, that can maturely deal with adult themes thrust his way even though he is not even a teen yet.    Noon and Williams are likable also.   Good Boys maintains a certain sweetness despite the adult humor, but the results of combining kids who don't know any better with clearly grown up themed bits are mixed at best.