Author: Amy Diaz

Amy Diaz is the executive editor and writes about movies and compiles the Kiddie Pool column. Reach her at adiaz@hippopress.com.

Nightmare Alley (R)

Nightmare Alley (R)

Step right up and enjoy the thrills, chills and stylish miasma of dread concocted by director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro in Nightmare Alley.

It’s 1939 when we first see Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper). He’s dragging a body into a hole in the floor of a dilapidated house and then lighting the house on fire. Walking away from the flames, he eventually boards a bus and rides until the end of the line, which happens to be very near to a low-budget carnival. He wanders around, ducking out of the geek show (man eats live chicken) before Clem (Willem Dafoe) can collect the 25-cent admission. Carnival boss Bruno (Ron Perlman) catches him but takes pity on him, offering the nearly wordless Stan a job helping to break down the sets and tents and haul the carnival to the next town. Stan does alright with the job, and they keep him around. At first he helps out Clem but later he worms his way into the act of Zeena (Toni Collette), who does mystical readings and psychic-type work. She and her partner Pete (David Strathain) used to have a more elaborate mind-reading act, but Pete is now too lost in his alcohol addiction to help Zeena that much. Stan, however, sees the potential in starting their act up again. He also woos quiet performer Molly (Rooney Mara). He even helps her improve her act by building an electric chair with a lot of accompanying set design that gives the whole thing an air of mad-science and danger.

Eventually, Molly and Stan do strike out on their own, taking their mind-reading act on the road and performing in hotels. But then Stan stumbles into doing a bit of medium work, helping a rich couple (Peter MacNeill, Mary Steenburgen) communicate with their son who died during World War I. It’s a trick he performs with help from Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), a psychiatrist who has been treating the couple. Stan realizes that with inside knowledge from Ritter about patients’ deepest secrets, he can have a very profitable side gig of helping the wealthy obtain peace. But, as several of the carnival workers warn him, that kind of con has a lot of potential dangers.

I feel like this movie is built backward from Cate Blanchett’s femme fatale stylings (which are great because she’s always great styled that way), the mood of descending doom created by situating the movie during the early days of World War II and the blend of con-artistry and implied magic of a traveling carnival. Those are the ingredients, now build a meal from that — is what Nightmare Alley feels like. But it’s a bit like building a meal from gravy, whipped cream and nuts. Sure, there’s something there, but it doesn’t feel substantial enough to justify the giant serving dish.

Nightmare Alley is long — two and a half hours — and feels it. I feel like it could have made its points about the darkness of the human heart in at least 45 fewer minutes. The movie loads up on Chekov guns (including a literal gun that appears in the second act), and we have to wait a long time to watch each one go off in a way that is neither dramatically satisfying nor particularly necessary. I get why, with sets and costumes and a score this noirily gorgeous, the movie would want to include as much of the atmospherics as possible. But I think the performances here — Bradley Cooper feels particularly flat — are not helped by giving us more of them.

Nightmare Alley has plenty of that del Toro vibe — dark, creepy, beautiful, with interesting touches of humor — but it is otherwise fairly ho-hum. B-

Rated R for strong/bloody violence, some sexual content, nudity and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Guillermo del Toro with a screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Kim Morgan (based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham), Nightmare Alley is two hours and 28 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Searchlight Pictures.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m. and Friday, Jan. 7 through Sunday, Jan. 9, at noon, 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 13, 3:30 & 7 p.m.

• The Tragedy of MacBeth (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Jan. 7, through Sunday, Jan. 9, at 1, 4 & 7:30 p..m.; Thursday, Jan. 13, 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• The Metropolitan Opera — Cinderella on Saturday, Jan. 1, at 12:55 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $26.

• Nanook of the North (1922), a silent documentary, on Sunday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• For Heaven’s Sake (1926), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Suggested donation of $10.

• Dark Mountain (2021) on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets cost $12.

• Blood and Sand (1922), on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

Featured photo: Nightmare Alley.

Kiddie Pool 22/01/06

Family fun for the weekend

Winter fun

• Snow tubing opens Thursday, Jan. 6, at McIntyre Ski Area (50 Chalet Court, Manchester), from 4 to 6 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on its “Bonneville Thrill Hill.” Special rates are $23 and can be purchased at McIntyre’s Guest Services (tubing tickets are available for purchase 30 minutes prior to each session). You can also dress in your favorite neon-colored clothing for a special ’80s-themed race on Saturday, Jan. 8, from 5 to 7 p.m., which is open to all ages and abilities. Registration is $20 (includes your lift ticket) and $15 for season passholders. Visit mcintyreskiarea.com or call 622-6159.

Stories and shows

• Join the Bookery (844 Elm St., Manchester) for a Saturday storytime and snowflake craft event on Saturday, Jan. 8, at 11:30 a.m., featuring a reading of Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett. Admission is free and all ages are welcome. Visit bookerymht.com or call 836-6600.

• Tickets are on sale now to the Palace Youth Theatre’s production of Matilda Jr., which runs from Wednesday, Jan. 12, through Thursday, Jan. 20. The show is performed by student actors in grades 2 through 12. Visit palacetheatre.org or call the box office at 668-5588 to buy tickets.

State of the art

• New Hampshire residents receive free admission to the Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester) on Saturday, Jan. 8, when the galleries will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., including an exhibit from local children’s book author and illustrator Tomie dePaola that runs until Feb. 13. As of Thursday, Jan. 6, Covid vaccination cards are required for all visitors ages 5 and up. Masks are also required for those ages 2 and up. Visit currier.org or call 669-6144.

• The Studio 550 Art Center (550 Elm St., Manchester) will hold a family clay sculpting workshop on Friday, Jan. 7, at 4:15 p.m. that’s available to all ages and skill levels. Choose between one of three projects: pinch pot animals, a slab mug or bubble jars, animals or fairy houses. Most projects are widely customizable, and the instructor is also available to help. The cost is $25 for the one-hour session. Visit 550arts.com or call 232-5597.

Cold-blooded friends

• Join New Hampshire Audubon for cold creatures and hot cocoa, a special event happening on Saturday, Jan. 8, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Massabesic Audubon Center (26 Audubon Way, Auburn). Attendees will meet some of the center’s animal ambassadors and learn all about the survival strategies of snakes, turtles, frogs and other cold-blooded animals during New Hampshire’s harsh winter conditions. Hot cocoa will be provided. The cost ranges from $12 for Audubon members to $15 for non-members and masks are required. Visit nhaudubon.org or call 668-2045.

Out of this world

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive, Concord) is holding its next Super Stellar Friday event online via Zoom on Friday, Jan. 7, at 7 p.m. Presenter and museum education director Mirka Zapletal will explore the climates of the Moon and Mars, as well as the conditions that astronauts have to contend with as they journey away from Earth. Admission is free but registration is required. While its Super Stellar Fridays are virtual, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Now through Feb. 23, applications are being accepted for the museum’s annual Alex Higgins Memorial Space Camp Scholarship. Visit starhop.com or call 271-7827.

The Matrix Resurrections (R)

The Matrix Resurrections (R)

Keanu Reeves is once again Neo — or is he Thomas Anderson, sometimes delusional but wildly successful video game developer? — in The Matrix Resurrections, a nearly 20-years-in-the-making sequel to the late 1990s/early 2000s Matrix trilogy.

Was Neo the hero who fought for the freedom of humans stuck in a machine-run simulacrum called the Matrix (which placated people while sucking their energy to power the machines)? Or was Neo simply the main character in a trilogy of hugely popular video games called The Matrix, designed by Thomas Anderson? Mr. Anderson doesn’t seem entirely sure of either answer but he’s willing to believe option B — that he is a wealthy video game developer who has somewhat stabilized his mental health with the help of his analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) and some blue pills. But then his boss/business partner Smith (Jonathan Groff, really doing a great job of capturing the oily evil of Hugo Weaving) tells him that Warner Bros. wants to make a new entry in the Matrix franchise and Thomas will have to lead the team, no matter how much he finds the subject of the Matrix triggering. There a lot of fun here about the nature of sequels and the commodification of art into “content” and we get a perfect Christina Ricci cameo that feels like the working out of some frustration about studio notes on the part of Lana Wachowski (this movie’s director and co-writer and half of the Wachowskis sibling duo that wrote and directed the first three movies).

As Thomas gets deeper into the in-movie Matrix 4 project, he finds himself clearly questioning reality again, in particular his relationship to Tiffany (Carrie-Anne Moss), the married mother of two who does not answer to the name “Trinity” but does seem to feel some kind of connection to Thomas.

All the while, as Thomas takes his blue pills and checks his mirrors for liquidity, Bugs (Jessica Henwick), who is exactly what you’d picture if I said “scrappy hacker type,” and Sequoia (Toby Onwumere), the guy whose job it is to look at the code-covered computer screens and give ominous warnings, are trying to convince Thomas that the Matrix games aren’t just valuable IP but his actual memories. They are aided in this by an agent who hunted them but then, like, awakened as Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), but a younger and hotter version (no disrespect intended, Laurence Fishburne).

The story here has a real “big bag of things” feel that includes commentary about being forced to make a sequel, some genuine fondness (and maybe just a little too much reverence) for the original Matrix movies, some self-awareness about the lasting impacts of the Matrix movies and maybe even a little bit about how insufferable parts of Matrix fandom, and everything that’s happened with the term “red pill,” have become.

The movie offers a fair amount of exposition, about the world it’s set in now and story points from the original movies, so I don’t think you’ll be lost if you’ve never seen a Matrix movie before. But you will get a lot of story, a lot of “after this thing happened, here’s a bunch of explanation about these other events which leads to this,” that drags on this two-hour-and-30-minute movie.

I would also estimate that about half the action is fun — Keanu Reeves, particularly old Keanu, doing martial arts is both a skillful display of choreography and, like, a hoot — and half feels like the part where you’d go look for drink refills. I like the young new Matrix Babies just fine but I think I most enjoyed the parts of the movie that are focused on Reeves and Moss. I was reminded that even through all of the slick Matrix costumes and slo-mo fighting, the two actors have actual chemistry (maybe not super-hot romantic chemistry, but good screen-duo chemistry).

The Matrix Resurrections has a lot of interesting ideas — more than it’s able to really examine. Nostalgia and the general quality of the storytelling here make it a fun enough watch. B-

Rated R for violence and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Lana Wachowski with a screenplay by Lana Wachowski & David Mitchell & Aleksander Hemon, The Matrix Resurrections is two hours and 28 minutes long and distributed by Warner Bros. in theaters and on HBOMax.

The King’s Man (R)

The government-unaffiliated intelligence service known as the Kingsmen gets its World War I-set origin story in The King’s Man, a movie you’ve probably been watching trailers of for two and a half years.

At least two and a half years, maybe more — Wikipedia says the movie originally had a November 2019 release date before being moved into February 2020 and then later playing Covid-related hopscotch through the calendar. I know there have been at least two, maybe three, widely released versions of the trailer and I mention all of this because I don’t think that seeing this much advance footage of this movie did it any favors.

Duke Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes) and his wife Lady Emily (Alexandra Maria Lara) are pacifists who work with the Red Cross. Though dedicated to non-violence, Emily is killed while in South Africa, making Oxford promise her that he will keep their son Conrad (Harris Dickinson as an adult) out of war.

Years later, as Europe is on the precipice of World War I, Conrad is eager for any kind of action in life but Orlando is still trying to shelter him. What Conrad doesn’t know is that Orlando has started a sort of proto-Kingsmen that uses a network of domestic service workers to attempt to advance the cause of peace. It is in this spirit, and at the behest of Field Marshal Kitchner (Charles Dance), that Orlando and Conrad are in Sarajevo when Franz Ferdinand is shot. Despite all attempts at smoothing over the egos of the U.K.’s King George, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm and Russia’s Tsar Nicholas (all Tom Hollander), Europe slides into war but Orlando and his team, including Polly (Gemma Arterton) and Shola (Djimon Hounsou), continue to work for peace. Conrad, meanwhile, remains eager to serve as a soldier — even after a trip to Russia and a visit with Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) give him a taste of the spy life.

The King’s Man is festooned with real-life people and events but this has the odd effect not of rooting it in history but of making it seem even more outside it. If you remember even a little history from high school, the movie doesn’t offer much in the way of tension. The movie creates the idea of a sprawling sinister force but other than name-check historical features, its goals are not even as exciting as the villains of the modern-day Kingsman movies.

The movie does have some fun action set pieces — a mission involving a mountain-top-located, goat-filled barn is fun logistically even if I didn’t care about the story related to it, a couple of stretches set in the trenches of the battlefield were surprisingly emotionally rich and had some good edge-of-your-seat moments. But it also has some real draggy stretches — I have definitely seen the Rasputin parts in too many trailers and the whole deal with him goes on too long with ultimately little payoff.

This movie just overall has less zip than the first, silly-but-fun Kingsman movie. C

Rated R for sequences of strong/bloody violence, language and some sexual material, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Matthew Vaughn with a screenplay by Matthew Vaughn & Karl Gajdusek, The King’s Man is two hours and 11 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by Twentieth Century Studios.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Nightmare Alley (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 2, at 12:30, 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 2, at 12, 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• The Tragedy of MacBeth (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord on Friday, Dec. 31, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 1, and Sunday, Jan. 2, at 1, 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, Jan. 6, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• The Metropolitan Opera — Cinderella on Saturday, Jan. 1, at 12:55 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $26.

• Grandma’s Boy (1922), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Sunday, Jan. 2, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• Nanook of the North (1922), a silent documentary, on Sunday, Jan. 23, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• For Heaven’s Sake (1926), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 6 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Suggested donation of $10.

• Dark Mountain (2021) on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets cost $12.

• Blood and Sand (1922), on Sunday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), a silent film starring Marion Davies, on Sunday, Feb. 20, at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation of $10.

• Girl Shy (1924), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Thursday, Feb. 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.

• Smilin’ Through (1922) on Sunday, March 13, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

• Robin Hood (1922) on Sunday, March 27, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

• Flesh and Blood and The Man from Beyond (1922) on Sunday, April 10, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

• Othello (1922) on Sunday, April 24, at 2 p.m. at the Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Suggested donation $10.

Featured photo: The Matrix Resurrections.

Movies of comfort and joy

A look at the funner films of 2021

The best movie of 2021 is Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

Is it really? Who knows. But the urge to elevate the delightful over the seriously artistic is particularly strong this year. And I think backed up by experience: Several of the Serious Fil-uhm year-end movies (Being the Ricardos and Nightmare Alley or even legitimately good The Power of the Dog for example) have left me feeling sorta “shrug” while I fairly regularly rewatch the Barb and Star scene with Jamie Dornan powerballading to some seagulls because it’s never not joy-inducing.

I am as much of an awards-season completist as the next Oscar nerd, so while I haven’t seen The Card Counter, Spencer, The Green Knight, Respect, Licorice Pizza, Annette and The Lost Daughter they are definitely on my list to see soon (though I did say that last year about This Had Oscar Buzz candidate Ammonite and never got around to it). But I did see plenty to cheer about — from the high art to the “this movie will pair perfectly with popcorn, booze and a couch.” Here are some good, great and goofily entertaining movies I saw in 2021 — and where (as of late December at least) to find them. (Many will also be available for rent or purchase.)

• Let’s call these the “2020” movies: Every year I spend a good part of the first quarter watching some of the better movies that technically (and for Oscar purposes) have the previous year as their release date. That phenomenon was even weirder this year since some movies that actually did get an early 2021 release were in the extended Oscar qualifying window. I talked about a lot of these during Oscar season but these are worth searching for if you haven’t seen them yet. Sylvie’s Love (Amazon Prime) is a really swoony love story starring Tessa Thompson. Promising Young Woman (HBOMax) is a really angry grief story with a solid performance by Carey Mulligan. One Night in Miami (Amazon Prime) is a fascinating bit of historical fiction directed by Regina King. Judas and the Black Messiah (HBOMax) won Daniel Kaluuya his Oscar. Nomadland (Hulu) won director Chloé Zhao and lead actress Frances McDormand Oscars and is truly beautiful. Minari (Showtime) features a great Steven Yuen performance and a highly relatable family story. Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime) is a real showcase for actor Riz Ahmed. I won’t pretend that The Father (Starz) is a birthday party of a movie — it’s full of sadness and loss — but it also features one of Anthony Hopkins’ best performances.

• Good enough? Of course, most movies I saw this year are probably not Oscar-bound. Quite a few, however, fit the “decent entertainment from your sofa” bill. Thunder Force (Netflix) with Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer as sudden, middle-aged superheros was not as good as I wanted but it had its moments. Netflix’s zombie movie and its prequel, Army of the Deadand Army of Thieves, are good lazy-day-on-the-couch fun. I probably liked the second even more than the first. The Ice Road(Netflix) contains exactly what it says on the label: Liam Neeson driving a big truck on an ice road. Red Notice (Netflix) is a very dumb movie that does not live up to the promise of Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds but I still laughed many times. VacationFriends (Hulu) is another dumb but fun outing with good comedic reluctant-buddy chemistry between Jon Cena and Lil Rel Howery. I know that Camila Cabello’s Cinderella (Amazon Prime) wasn’t, you know, “good,” but it was fun and her life’s ambition was more plucky than just “marry a prince.” Also on Amazon Prime, The Tomorrow War is a totally fine Chris Pratt-led action movie.

The winner of the “I’m not gonna say good but it’s worth a watch” prize this year might be an actual Oscar contender, House of Gucci, which is still in theaters and which the internet says will be on Paramount+ at some point in January. Come for the tacky-glam 1980s everything, stay for the “givin’ her all she’s got, Captain” Lady Gaga performance.

• Supermen & wonder women: For me, Zack Snyder’s Justice League (HBOMax), the longer, slower director’s cut of the 2017 movie, is probably more accurately in the previous category — not great but worth a watch. I felt very “oh now I see what’s supposed to be happening” and while it’s still not fun, it’s sort of an interesting historical document.

Things were much better over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eternals (in theaters and headed to Disney+ on Jan. 12, according to Wikipedia) offered an interesting new group of characters — probably too many to allow us to really focus on the characters with the most potential (Kumail Nanjiani) but I’m willing to ride this branching-out-the-MCU ride. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney+) has a compelling lead in Simu Liu, an even better supporting character in Awkwafina and an excellent villain (sorta) in Tony Leung. Yes, I know Black Widow’s (Disney+) whole deal is setting up other Marvel stuff, but I still enjoyed this stand-alone about Scarlett Johansson’s character (and I’m always excited to see Florence Pugh, “Russian” accent and all). The Marvel standout was probably the recently released Spider-Man: No Way Home (in theaters), which gives a nice completion to the three-movie MCU-Spider-Man arc and gave me a new appreciation for the previous Spider-Man series.

My favorite action franchise outing this year, though, might be No Time To Die(rent or purchase), the send off for Daniel Craig’s iteration of James Bond. I feel like he had more fun than he has in a while and the movie had some fun with the character.

• Family movie night:There was a particularly good crop of kids movies, specifically kids animated movies, this year. Raya and the Last Dragon(Disney+) is a fun adventure tale featuring a talking dragon but also beautiful animation and a lovely score. The Mitchells Versus the Machines(Netflix) is a fun family-on-a-quest tale and it makes fun of Big Tech and it looks great. Lin-Manuel Miranda had songs in two animated movies this year: Encanto (Disney+) and Vivo (Netflix), where he also voices a kinkajou. Both were a delight. Beautiful and soulful, Luca (Disney+) centers on the friendship between two mer-boys who want to check out life on land in Italy. After you watch it, check out the excellent short Ciao, Alberto (Disney+). And while you’re watching shorts on Disney+, check out Olaf Presents…, which features Josh Gad’s snowman doing his recaps on Disney movies and cracks my kids up every time. I know people have all sorts of opinions about James Corden but I really enjoyed this year’s live-action/CG mix Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (Netflix), more even than the first movie.

• Christmas movies! I support this weird Christmas movie arms race happening across TV and streaming. Sure, there’s a lot of blah, but there’s also a lot of solid seasonal fare. This year, I enjoyed Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (Netflix), another all-ages friendly, sweet-hearted entry in the Shaun the Sheep Aardman Animation canon. A Boy Called Christmas (Netflix) is darker but does some good work looking at kids and grief. 8-Bit Christmas (HBOMax) stars Neil Patrick Harris offering us the A Christmas Story-riff I didn’t know I wanted about life way back in the 1980s. Single All the Way (Netflix) is an absolute charmer of a Christmas rom-com.

• How do you do, fellow kids? These teen movies were not made for me but they delighted me all the same. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (Amazon Prime) used a Groundhog Day concept to examine a teen romance and teen grief. He’s All That(Netflix) was a fun riff on the 1990s teen makeover movie. Moxie (Netflix), with its zines and its riot grrrl music, seemed at least as aimed at X-ers like me as the teenager it portrayed. Netflix also offered some solid teen horror movies — There’s Someone Inside Your House and the trilogy Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and Fear Street Part Three: 1666. Everybody’s Talking about Jamie (Amazon Prime) gives you a coming of age story (a teen developing his drag persona) and a joy-filled musical.

• “Above average” is not faint praise: With Monster Hunter (Starz), you get the very Resident-Evil-style Milla Jovovich punching monsters, like what else do you need? Dream Horse (Hulu) is the big-hearted a-town-pulls-together underdog story that feels like cozy socks in movie form. Worth (Netflix) is a bummer about the aftermath of Sept. 11 but features a great performance by Michael Keaton. In my review, I described No Sudden Move as “ a very Soderberghian cool crisp cocktail of capering and doublecross with just a dash of dry humor.” Nobody (rent or purchase) from the John Wick writer is basically John Wick as a suburban dad — and is fun in the same way. I liked Idris Elba’s performance in Concrete Cowboy (Netflix).

• The 2021 standouts: Comedy (or maybe dramedy?) Shiva Baby (HBO Max) is an entertainingly claustrophobic look at early adulthood. Plan B (Hulu) is another hilarious movie about teen-girl female friendship and the unnecessary difficulties of obtaining health care. Belfast (theaters and for rent or purchase) is Kenneth Branagh’s warm-hearted, semi-autobiographical look at life in Belfast in the late 1960s. That movie is in black and white and so is Passing(Amazon Prime), though it gives you race in America in the 1920s shades of gray along with a tense psychological, er, thriller? However you’d label it, it sticks with you. The Harder They Fall (Netflix) is a top-notch Western full of excellent performances (Regina King, Idris Elba, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz). If you like Wes Anderson and his little model train worlds, you’ll enjoy the short stories collected in The French Dispatch(available for rent). Madres (Amazon Prime) is a horror movie that packs a real (real world) gut punch. Pig(Hulu) is the excellent Nicolas Cage performance you didn’t know you were waiting for.

But my favorite of this group may be CODA (Apple TV+), featuring a truly great performance by Emilia Jones as the only hearing member of an otherwise deaf family. Her love of singing and her urge for independence have her parents (equally excellent Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) afraid of losing her to a world they can’t access.

• Great docs: Val (Amazon Prime) is a fascinating memoir from Val Kilmer. Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It (Netflix) will remind you why the actress is so beloved. Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (HBO Max) is a fun look at a revolutionary show. And speaking of revolution, Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Hulu) is part documentary and part concert film, and according to iTunes, an accompanying album is slated for Jan. 28.

• Speaking of song:We got more music-filled movies this year. As someone who does not live in New York, I support any opportunities to bring Broadway to my living room. Thusly, I was charmed with Come From Away(Apple TV+). Of course, I can’t help loving West Side Story(still in theaters) and I even like the slight tweaks. And, yes, as mentioned up top, from culottes to Andy Garcia as Tommy Bahama, I love Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar(Hulu) and all of its music (“Edgar’s Prayer” but also everything from the hotel lounge singer).

• Most joyful:But OK, at the end of the day, I guess I won’t give those midwestern besties the absolute top spot. I guess that one goes to In the Heights (HBO Max), another Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, this one adapted for the big screen (versus Hamilton’s filmed stage production). This movie was bright and beautiful and absolutely joyous.

2022?

Look, who knows what the movie schedule will look like in January, much less the rest of 2022. But for now, here are a few things on the calendar that I’m excited to see:

• Scream (Jan. 14 in theaters) Yes, Scream, like the original, with Courtney Cox, Neve Campbell and David Arquette. I guess I am a sucker for some kinds of nostalgia.

• The Tragedy of Macbeth (Jan. 14 on Apple TV+) In theaters now (including Red River Theatres in Concord starting Friday, Dec. 31), this Joel Coen-directed version of Shakespeare’s play starring Denzel Washington will stream right into your home, for the convenience of current and former lit majors.

• Cyrano (late January) This movie starring Peter Dinklage has appeared on some year-end lists but won’t really get a release until January.

• Downton Abbey: A New Era (March 18, Peacock 45 days later, according to Wikipedia) I don’t know how I feel about this but I will still watch with some polite excitement this latest chapter.

• The Batman (March 4) Robert Pattinson dons the cowl.

• Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (May 6) Our next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.

Featured photo: Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar.

Kiddie Pool 21/12/30

Family fun for the weekend

Head to the museum

Get the family out of the house by sending them to a museum.

• The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St. in Manchester; currier.org, 669-6144) is closed on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Otherwise, the museum is open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Fridays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission costs $15, $13 for 65+, $10 for students and $5 for ages 13 to 17 (children under 13 get in free) and can be purchased on site (masks for all are required), according to the website. This Thursday, Dec. 30, Kevin Horan will perform from 5 to 8 p.m. as part of the museum’s weekly Art After Work programming (admission to the museum is free after 5 p.m.). On Sundays the Winter Garden Cafe offers a special brunch menu starting at 10 a.m. featuring mimosa flights, according to the website. Current exhibits include “As Precious As Gold: Carpets from the Islamic World,” “WPA in NH: Philip Guston and Musa McKim” and “Tomie dePaola at the Currier,” featuring the works of dePaola, writer and illustrator 270 children’s books.

• SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org, 669-0400) is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays (it will be closed New Year’s Day) and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Current displays and exhibits with hands-on examinations of science include BiologYou. Purchase reservations in advance via the website (masks are required for all visitors age 2 and up); admission costs $10 per person ages 3 and up.

• The Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; 622-7531, manchesterhistoric.org/millyard-museum) is closed New Year’s Day but otherwise open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to the Millyard Museum costs $8 for adults, $6 for 62+ and college students, $4 for children 12 to 18 and free for children under 12. In addition to the permanent exhibits about Manchester’s history, the museum currently features the “New Hampshire Now” photography exhibit.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; nhahs.org, 669-4820), featuring exhibits about the people and events of New Hampshire’s aviation history, will be closed for New Year’s Day but open Wednesday, Dec. 29, through Friday, Dec. 31, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 2, from 1 to 4 p.m., and thereafter Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. Exhibits include the annual “Festival of Holiday Toy Planes and Model Aircraft.” Admission costs $10, $5 for 65+ and children (6 to 12) and a family max of $30; children 5 and under get in free (masks are required), according to the website.

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) is closed New Year’s Day but will be open daily through Friday, Dec. 31, and Sunday, Jan. 2, and Monday, Jan. 3, with sessions from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The center recommends purchasing timed tickets in advance; admission costs $11.50 for adults, $10.50 for students and seniors and $8.50 for kids ages 3 to 12 (admission is free for children 2 and under; masks required for visitors over the age of 2). Planetarium show tickets are also available and cost $5 per person (free for children 2 and under); see the website for the schedule of planetarium shows.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (2 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org, 742-2002) requires pre-purchased admission (which costs $11 per person, $9 for 65+ and no charge for children under 1). The museum will be open Tuesday, Dec. 28, through Thursday, Dec. 30 (from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m.) and Sunday, Jan. 2 (from 9 a.m. to noon). Masks are required for all guests over 24 months, the website said.

The museum will hold its annual family New Year’s Eve celebration on Friday, Dec. 31. Two time slots are available to reserve, from 9 a.m. to noon or from noon to 3:30 p.m. Museum staff will stage four “countdowns to midnight,” at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. during the morning session, and at 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. during the afternoon session. Everyone will receive a noisemaker and will get to create their own sparkly party hat.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (PG-13)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (PG-13)

Peter Parker is introduced to the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a solid third part to the saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s teenage Peter Parker.

The movie more or less picks up where 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home ended, with Peter’s (Tom Holland) Spider-Man alter ego being revealed to the world. Far from becoming a celebrity, a la Tony Stark post-“I am Iron Man,” Peter is suspected of crimes related to his fight with fake hero Mysterio in the last movie and related to missing tech from Stark Industries. On his first day of senior year, he finds himself hounded by news media and phone-wielding fellow students and also learns that not only are colleges reluctant to accept him, but best buddy Ned (Jacob Batalon) and girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) are also being turned down because of their association with him. Life would be better if he could just go back to a time before everybody knew he was Spider-Man, Peter thinks mopily. And then he realizes that he actually knows somebody who can mess with time: Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the MCU’s New York City-dwelling wizard.

When Peter goes to see him, Strange explains that he doesn’t have the time stone (the doohickey that allowed him to manipulate time) anymore but does think he can conjure a spell to help the world forget that Peter is Spider-Man. Oh, but wait, Peter says as Strange is conjuring, I do want MJ to know, and Ned and Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and Happy (Jon Favreau) and…. Too late, Strange realizes all of these last-minute exceptions have caused the spell to go wonky. He thinks he’s contained it before disrupting the fabric of reality but later, while Peter tries to get an official from MIT to reconsider not admitting his friends, he is confronted by Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), looking to fight Spider-Man. Ock, the scientist who went villainous in 2004’s Spider-Man 2 due to a mind meld with his metallic tentacles, knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker but he is surprised when the Peter he sees isn’t the Peter Parker he remembers.

As you may have seen in trailers, more villains appear — the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Electro (Jamie Foxx), others — representing both live-action, 21st-century pre-MCU Spider-Man franchises. They are from the multiverse, Strange tells Peter, and Peter has to hunt them all down and send them back to universes they belong in.

This could have gone a bunch of different ways but in the end I think this element of the movie works. While I didn’t always feel like the road to getting us all these different iterations of the Spider-Man story was particularly smooth (some of the choices the characters here make do not make sense for people with the recent MCU time-related experiences — Thanos and the blip — that these characters have), I felt great affection for how the movie uses the idea of bringing all these worlds together. It manages to bring something to those pre-MCU movies’ story arcs that wasn’t there before and is mostly fun in its own right. As with the (unrelated, so far) animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the different realms of Spider-Man help to examine basic elements of the character — the choices he has to make, the way he wants to live his life.

And I think this movie does right by its core trio of Peter, MJ and Ned and their relationships with each other. They work well together, Scooby-Doo-ing the problem, as Stephen Strange says, and what they’re given to do makes sense with how their characters change and grow as near-end-of-high-school teens.

My biggest problem with this movie is that the mechanics of getting us from this situation to that situation, of bringing in certain sets of characters, is so very choppy. To use Martin Scorsese’s comparison of superhero movies to amusement park rides, this one has that jerky, stop-start feel of something hastily constructed and not entirely passing code. That the movie could feel this way and still basically be fun — and fun for almost all of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime — is I think a credit largely to the characters and the way the movie builds its relationships more than the way it builds its story.

Spider-Man: No Way Home does offer the grand blockbuster movie experience that you want from a Marvel movie and that has still been relatively rare since March 2020. Even when the movie’s execution of its story wasn’t perfect, I enjoyed being back in this world. B+

Rated PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, some language and brief suggestive comments, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jon Watts and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, Spider-Man: No Way Home is two hours and 28 minutes long and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Christmas at the movies

Even this year, we’re getting a rush of new releases over the next week.

On Wednesday, Dec. 22, The Matrix Resurrection is scheduled for release in theaters and on HBO Max for 30 days. The movie, the fourth in the Matrix series and the first since 2003, brings back Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss.

Also scheduled for release on Wednesday are the much-rescheduled The King’s Man, the prequel to the Kingsman movies starring Ralph Fiennes and Harris Dickinson, and the animated sequel Sing 2, featuring oodles of big-name voices including Reese Witherspoon, Matthew McConaughey, Taron Egerton and Scarlett Johansson.

Celebrate Christmas Eve, Friday, Dec. 24, with the Adam McKay-written and -directed Don’t Look Up, a comedy about the impending destruction of all life on Earth via comet starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Jonah Hill, which will be released on Netflix.

On Christmas Day, Saturday, Dec. 25, new movies include American Underdog, a biopic of football player Kurt Warner starring Zachary Levi and Anna Paquin, and A Journal for Jordan, directed by Denzel Washington and starring Michael B. Jordan.

The Tragedy of MacBeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand and directed by Joel Coen, is also slated to open on Christmas in limited release and will be on Apple TV+ on Jan. 14.

FILM

Venues

AMC Londonderry
16 Orchard View Dr., Londonderry
amctheatres.com

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, banknhstage.com

Capitol Center for the Arts
44 S. Main St., Concord
225-1111, ccanh.com

Cinemark Rockingham Park 12
15 Mall Road, Salem

Chunky’s Cinema Pub
707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Dana Center
Saint Anselm College
100 Saint Anselm Dr., Manchester, anselm.edu

Fathom Events
Fathomevents.com

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

LaBelle Winery
345 Route 101, Amherst
672-9898, labellewinery.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

O’neil Cinemas
24 Calef Hwy., Epping
679-3529, oneilcinemas.com

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Regal Fox Run Stadium 15
45 Gosling Road, Newington
regmovies.com

Rex Theatre
23 Amherst St., Manchester
668-5588, palacetheatre.org

The Strand
20 Third St., Dover
343-1899, thestranddover.com

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) will screen at the Music Hall in Portsmouth on Wednesday, Dec. 22, at 3 and 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for seniors age 60 and up, students, military and first responders.

• The Grinch (2018, PG) will screen at the Music Hall in Portsmouth on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 3 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for seniors age 60 and up, students, military and first responders.

• House of Gucci (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 6 p.m.

• Nightmare Alley (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 6:30 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 24, at noon and 3:30 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 25, at 4 & 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 26, through Sunday, Jan. 2, 12:30, 4 & 7:30 p.m.

• Last Christmas (2019, PG-13) will screen at the Music Hall in Portsmouth on Thursday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $12 for seniors age 60 and up, students, military and first responders.

• Licorice Pizza (R, 2021) will screen at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Dec. 24, 4 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 25, 3:30 & 7 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 26, through Sunday, Jan. 2, 12, 3:30 & 7 p.m.

• The Strong Man (1926) starring Harry Langdon and directed by Frank Capra, a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Dec. 26, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free; $10 donation suggested.

• The Senior Movie Mornings Series at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St., Manchester) presents White Christmas(1954) on Tuesday, Dec. 28, at 10 a.m. Tickets cost $10. Call 668-5588 or visit palacetheatre.org/rex-theatre.

• The Metropolitan Opera — Cinderella on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, at 12:55 p.m. at Bank of NH Stage in Concord. Tickets cost $26.

• Girl Shy (1924), a silent film starring Harold Lloyd, on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester, featuring live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission costs $10.

• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ(1925), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, April 21, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rex in Manchester. Tickets cost $10.

Featured photo: Spider-Man. Courtesy photo.

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