Category: Film Reviews

I Care A Lot (R)

Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage.

This recent Netflix release feels like half of a good idea: Perfectly coiffed, razor-sharply attired Marla Grayson (Pike) steals the assets of old people, legally, by getting them declared incapable of taking care of themselves and getting herself named as their guardian. She has a network of people wittingly (and maybe a few unwittingly) helping her get them locked into care facilities and incapable of reaching family or legal representation. Marla liquidates their assets “to pay for their care” — and for her own guardianship services, of course — until they slowly waste away. She is slick and insincere and basically evil and I never once rooted for her.

The possibility of comeuppance is introduced when Marla commits Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), a woman who appears to be quite wealthy but without family. Messing with Jennifer, who turns out to have shadowy “friends,” is a mistake, several people try to tell Marla, and that’s before a murderous Peter Dinklage character gets involved.

Of all the characters here, I guess I rooted for Wiest, who is sidelined for way too much of the movie, and maybe for Dinklage, who is one of those “always fun” actors for me but also didn’t feel like he was given the best material. This movie has a strong cast (including some nice work by Alicia Witt and Chris Messina). It sets itself up as a comedy, maybe, or at least a darkly comic drama about villain versus villain, but I felt like some of that went off the rails in the movie’s second half and maybe wanted us to see Marla as one of those peak TV anti-heroes that have moral layers (maybe just let the villain be a villain?). But Marla to me always felt like a flatter version of Pike’s Gone Girl character without the wit or the relatable rage. The movie feels like it wants to make a statement about Capitalism or The System or something but by the time we get to the big climax I found that I didn’t really care much at all. C+ Available on Netflix

Supernova (R)

Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth.

Tusker (Tucci), an American writer, and Sam (Firth), a British pianist, are a longtime couple who hit the road in an RV through the countryside in England, where they have lived for decades. We can tell by the way Sam gazes adoringly at Tusker that all their complaints about each other’s driving and navigation is the banter of a couple deeply in love. And, even before it is openly stated, it’s clear that there is an underlying current of grief to this trip. Tusker has a degenerative disease, one that is affecting his memory and abilities to write (and maybe read) as well as his physical abilities. He is getting worse and there is a bit of a “last hurrah” tone to the trip from the beginning, with the couple visiting a favorite camping spot and then Sam’s family home for a big get-together.

Exactly how Tusker and Sam are individually coping with Tusker’s illness and how they plan to handle it as time goes on is the topic they keep returning to throughout the trip but it’s one that both of them are not quite ready to deal with directly, at least to each other. Their relationship is the center of this movie and the performances of Tucci and Firth are what make this lovely, gentle movie worth watching. Both actors fill in all the corners of these characters, we can see the layers of emotion, we can see all the things they’re saying to each other even when they’re chatting about something meaningless. It’s all such good work that it carries you through this bittersweet story. A- Available for rent or purchase.

Locked Down (R)

Anne Hathaway, Chiwetel Ejiofor.

A couple stuck in lockdown in London eventually plan a half-baked diamond heist in a movie that is just so much more pie crust scraps than pie.

Paxton (Ejiofor) and Linda (Hathaway) have broken up but are still stuck living together in the same (really pretty, with multiple stories and a garden) London townhome early in the pandemic. Linda, an American, is working remotely at her job as a luxury goods executive and Paxton has been laid off, I think, from his usual job as a delivery driver. After a lot of unnecessary shagginess, we get to the action, which is that Linda has to assist with the pack-up of high-end clothes and accessories from Harrods, which is locking away all its goods during this quarantine era. One of the items she is charged with packing up is a very large diamond that has been sold to a Bad Person and is going to be sent to a vault in New York City where it is unlikely to be even looked at for decades. Coincidentally, Paxton has been tasked by his old employer to help transport these items.

According to the little sneak peek of this movie on HBO Max, the film was not only made in a house with minimal crew during Covid (actors like Ben Kingsley, Ben Stiller, Stephen Merchant, Mindy Kaling and Dulé Hill appear in Zoom or FaceTime sequences) but filmmakers were given access to the inner workings of the closed Harrods. But this gem of a setting doesn’t show up until the last 30 minutes. That’s 90 minutes of not-heisting in this heist movie.

Somewhere here is 72 minutes of a tight, light, fun movie of the “heck, let’s make something” style of Covid-era creation. But way too much time is spent underlining the unhappiness in Paxton and Linda’s relationship and the crazy-making state of being locked down (which, and this won’t be true in 10 years but it is true now, movies don’t need to explain; like, we’re here, we get it). C+ Available on HBO Max

Bliss (R)

Owen Wilson, Salma Hayek.

Wilson is either a man experiencing drug addiction and mental illness or a volunteer caught in an experiment in this odd sci-fi, I guess, movie. Wilson plays Greg, a man who has recently, in his words, messed up his marriage and is spacing out at work but still tries to convince his grown daughter, Emily (Nesta Cooper), that he is OK. But then a meeting with his boss goes fatally wrong and Greg runs to a bar, where he meets Isabel (Hayek), a woman who seems to have the power to move things with her mind. She claims that the world and most of the people in it are not real but that Greg is real and, like her, can manipulate objects after popping some yellow crystals. He stays with her in her tent under the underpass and together they grift food and get into petty trouble. When his faith in her claims about “simulations” and “crystals” starts to falter, she takes him back to the “real” world, which unlike the “simulation” (basically this world, with its pollution and income inequality and muted gray color scheme) is a brilliantly colored place of universal wealth, a healthy environment and so much happiness it’s turned people into ungrateful jerks. There, Isabel is actually a doctor who has developed the Brain Box, a device that sends people to the unhappy simulation existence so they can see how lousy things could be, to appreciate what they have. Greg is her boyfriend or husband or whatever and together they live in a beautiful house, like the one he’s been sketching during his “life” in the simulation. “Real” life is perfect and Greg never wants to leave — but he can’t shake thoughts of his children back in the simulation.

I’m not totally sure what this movie is doing, if it’s trying to say something about the state of our world, how it feels not be able to trust your own perceptions, or something about the reason people fall into addiction. Whatever it’s doing, Bliss is not doing a great job of it. It also never made me care about the central characters of Greg and Isabel. Ultimately, I didn’t really care which world was real; I was just happy when the movie was over and I could leave both of them behind. D Available on Amazon Prime

Palmer (R)

Justin Timberlake, June Squibb.

Palmer (Timberlake) is released from prison and returns to his small hometown to live with his grandmother, Vivian (Squibb), and try to start over in life. The small town-ness makes that extremely difficult — everybody knows his trajectory from promising high school quarterback to man who took part in a burglary that went bad. But his grandmother’s reputation in her church also helps to get him his job as janitor at the local elementary school.

Vivian is strict with Palmer but a giving person; when Shelly (Juno Temple), the woman renting a neighboring trailer from Vivian, takes off, Vivian watches Sam (Ryder Allen), her elementary school-aged son. Sam is sweet and happy despite his family turmoil and loves all things fancy, especially a cartoon princess show and its costumes and toys. This makes school difficult for him but he is confident in his personality and his interests, despite the bullying from kids and some adults — and he has a caring teacher in Miss Maggie (Alisha Wainwright).

When Vivian dies, Sam is basically left alone. Though Palmer initially plans to send Sam to child services, his own childhood experiences with family upheaval lead him to agree to take care of Sam while they wait for Shelly to return. Palmer, Sam and to some degree Miss Maggie, who sort of hovers on the edges (initially, it seems, to make sure Sam is all right but later because, you know, Palmer is played by Justin Timberlake), become a kind of found family, with Sam and Palmer helping each other to find some stability.

For all that this movie has some grim and violent moments, it is a kind and gentle story — but sweet fancy molasses, is it slow. You know the joke that goes “I spent a year in [some boring place] one weekend”? Palmer is the movie version of that. It goes exactly where you think it will but it takes so very long getting there. This movie sets the scene just fine but then hangs around making sure “Do you get it? Do You GET IT?” an unnecessarily long time and it does this repeatedly. You could cut a good 30 minutes out of this movie and lose nothing. B- Available on Apple TV+

Finding ‘Ohana (PG)

Kea Peahu, Alex Aiono.

Pili (Peahu), a geocaching champion, sets out on a real treasure hunt to help pay her family’s bills in this adventure-packed kid-friendly movie set in Hawaii.

Pili, 12, and her brother, Ioane (Aiono), an older teen, have come to Hawaii with their mother, Leilani (Kelly Hu), to visit their grandfather, Kimo (Branscombe Richard), who is recovering from a heart attack. The visit is their first one back to the family home since the kids were little and their father, who was in the Army, died. Leilani is frustrated to find that Kimo has a slew of bills that need paying, Pili is disappointed that she had to forgo a summer at geocaching camp and Ioane is all teenager-y about the lack of Wi-Fi — though he perks up a bit when he meets girl-teen Hana (Lindsay Watson). Pili is drawn to a journal she finds and a story her grandfather tells her about a long-ago explorer and some hidden treasure. She sets out with new buddy Casper (Owen Vaccaro) to find the mountain where a series of clues from an old journal should bring her to what she’s hoping is enough olden-days pirate-y gold and whatnot that she can pay her family’s bills without their having to sell their Brooklyn apartment (and possibly leave their city lives behind).

Mixing the best parts of The Goonies, the Indiana Jones sense of adventure and some Drunk History-style storytelling, Finding ‘Ohana is plucky fun with moments of well-executed family drama that manages to pretty seamlessly flow with the comedy and action. Other than some kissy business with the teens, the movie feels pretty older-elementary-schooler-friendly without being a chore for adults to sit through (it is just self-aware enough about its Goonies-ness to be charming in its nostalgia). B+ Available on Netflix.

Palmer (R)

Justin Timberlake, June Squibb.

Palmer (Timberlake) is released from prison and returns to his small home town (in, I think, Louisiana) to live with his grandmother, Vivian (Squibb), and try to start over in life. The small town-ness makes that extremely difficult — everybody knows his trajectory from promising high school quarterback to man who took part in a burglary that went bad. But his grandmother’s reputation in her church also helps to get him his job as janitor at the local elementary school.

Vivian is strict with Palmer but a giving person; when Shelly (Juno Temple), the woman renting a neighboring trailer from Vivian, takes off, Vivian watches Sam (Ryder Allen), her elementary school aged son. Sam is sweet and happy despite his family turmoil and loves all things fancy, especially a cartoon princess show and its costumes and merch. This makes school difficult for him but he is confident in his personality and his interests, despite the bullying from kids and some adults — and he has an understanding teacher in Miss Maggie (Alisha Wainwright).

When Vivian dies, Sam is basically left alone. Though Palmer initially plans to send Sam to child services, his own childhood experiences with family upheaval lead him to agree to take care of Sam while they wait for Shelly to return. Palmer, Sam and to some degree Miss Maggie, who sort of hovers on the edges (initially, it seems, to make sure Sam is all right but later because, you know, Palmer is played by Justin Timberlake), become a kind of found family, with Sam and Palmer helping each other to find some stability.

For all that this movie has some grim and violent moments, it is a sweet and gentle story — but sweet fancy molasses, is it slow. You know the joke that goes, “I spent a year in [some boring place] one weekend”? Palmer is the movie version of that. It goes exactly where you think it will but it takes so very long getting there. This movie sets the scene just fine but then hangs around making sure, “Do you get it? Do You GET IT?” for an unnecessarily long time and it does this repeatedly. You could cut a good 30 minutes out of this movie and lose nothing. The slow-pokey-ness of the pacing and the needless repetition of story points (that Palmer’s old friends are jerks, Shelly is a mess, Sam is bullied) cut into the impact of Timberlake’s basically average to above average performance and Allen’s realistic-kid-like performance as Sam. B- — Available on Apple TV+

Penguin Bloom (TV-14)

Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln.

Sam Bloom (Watts), an athletic Australian mother of three sons, becomes paralyzed from the bra-strap down during an accident on a family vacation. Months later, the family is still having a hard time coping: Sam is depressed, her oldest son Noah (Griffin Murray-Johnston) feels guilty about how the accident happened, Sam and her husband Cameron (Lincoln) haven’t figured out how to relate to each other and her younger sons, Rueben (Felix Cameron) and Oli (Abe Clifford-Barr), are just generally sort of missing their withdrawn mother. But then they find a young black-and-white magpie on the beach and name her Penguin. The bird and Sam’s role caring for the bird give the family something new and hopeful to coalesce around and help Sam find her way out of her grief.

There isn’t much to this movie, which is based on a true story. It is a pleasant movie with a palatable amount of inspirational storytelling. The Bloom family Australian home has a casual beach feel — which is sort of fun to look at, in an interior design magazine way, and consider things such as how machine washable all the upholstery looks (which feels accurate for a house with three young boys) but how uncluttered the house is (which feels more aspirational than realistic). Nobody’s performance is horrible. And … the bird is cute. There are worse things to fold your laundry to. B Available on Netflix.

The Dig (PG-13)

Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes.

Edith Pretty (Mulligan) hires excavator Basil Brown (Fiennes) to help her unearth archaeological finds in a field on her property in this movie based on a true story of a true dig in Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England.

The work was sort of a pet project of hers and her late husband’s. He didn’t live to see the uncovering of whatever is hiding in the large and centuries-old mounds in their field and now she has learned she doesn’t have long to live either. The project is also happening as the British Museum is securing all of its treasures elsewhere and another dig is rushing to finish excavation on a Roman site before the country plunges into war with Germany — this is summer 1939 and everybody knows they are weeks away from their world changing.

The Dig starts off as a slow look in on a Downton Abbey-ish world — Edith dresses for dinner by herself at the large country home tended by several servants. She and Brown slowly form a sort of friendship over their excitement about the dig and their desire to keep bigger museums and organizations from taking over. It’s interesting — the process of uncovering what they eventually realize is an Anglo-Saxon ship — but it is also a bit pokey with a lot of character beats that seem to go nowhere. About halfway through, we meet several new characters including Edith’s RAF-bound cousin, Rory (Johnny Flynn, the Mr. Knightley of 2020’s Emma), and a husband-wife archaeologist duo, Stuart Piggott (Ben Chaplin) and Peggy Piggott (Lily James). They add a welcome bit of soapiness to a movie that then becomes surprisingly story-filled and emotionally affecting in the final 30 or so minutes. The Dig is a nice bit of drama based on real history — if you can stick with it. B Available on Netflix.

We Can Be Heroes (PG)
Pedro Pascal, Priyanka Chopra. Other adults include Christian Slater and Adriana Barraza. But really, this movie is about the kids.
Missy Moreno (YaYa Gosselin) thought she had a deal with her dad Marcus (Pascal) that he wouldn’t be going on any more superhero missions since her mom passed away. But the day that aliens arrived on Earth, all of the heroes headed skyward to fight them off and all of them got captured. This leaves only their children — most of whom have magic powers, though varying levels of control of their abilities — to save the day.
This is part of writer-director Robert Rodriguez’s Shark Boy and Lava Girl cinematic universe — those kid characters from the 2005 movie are now a grown adult couple with a daughter, the super strong little Guppy (Vivien Blair), who can also manipulate water. Slo-Mo (Dylan Henry Lau) moves super fast but super slowly (it’s a cute visual effect), twins Rewind (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) and Fast Forward (Akira Akbar) can manipulate time, A Capella (Lotus Blossom) can move people and things by emitting different sound waves — and so on. This live action movie has a very Odd Squad energy, if you’ve seen that PBS Kids show, and while there is some cartoony-style violence (little Guppy kicking and punching human-appearing aliens) it’s a fairly peace-loving good-hearted take on little kid X-Men-style superheroes. And, as in the Spy Kids movies, the cast is diverse in an organic way that allows more kids to see themselves in this league of heroes. There’s some good messaging about confidence, teamwork and everybody having their own strengths and abilities as well. B+ Available on Netflix.

Shadow in the Cloud (R)
Chloë Grace Moretz, Beulah Koale. Moretz plays Maud Garrett, a female pilot who was part of the WASP program in World War II (the Wikipedia basics: the Women Airforce Service Pilots were federal civil service employees and they sound like bad-asses and why haven’t there been more WASP movies?). She shows up on a foggy New Zealand military runway with a mysterious bag, orders to get the bag to American Samoa on an airplane with the name “Fool’s Errand” painted on the side of it and a bunch of “it’s classified” responses to the questions of the men on board, none of whom are psyched to have her there. “For her safety” but probably also because it makes her an easier mark for hazing, they put her in the sperry (think a plastic egg stuck to the bottom of the plane with a gun mounted in it) as the plane takes off and begins its travel.
As the movie begins, it’s not clear whether this is a kick-butt lady-at-war movie, an improbable-mission thriller or a supernatural action movie. You’re in luck, it’s all three! The movie gets down to business and comes in at a tidy hour and 23 minutes (of which at least six minutes are credits; the first part of the credits feature images of actual WASPs and their British counterparts and, again, here is your next action movie franchise right here). This might not be the highest-budget movie ever but it makes up for its shortfalls by using Moretz’s spot in the sperry wisely (she’s hanging in the wide-open sky but actually all of the action is taking place in a chair) and keeping some things in shadow for a while. B+ Available for rent or purchase.

Honest Thief (PG-13)
Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh. Really, there are only six characters of any consequence in this movie. Neeson is a guy named Tom, who is a very tidy bank robber, and Walsh is Annie, the lady whose presence in his life leads him to give up bank robbing more or less the moment he meets her. Everybody else is an FBI agent: Nivens (Jai Courtney) and his partner Hall (Anthony Ramos) and Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) and his partner Baker (Robert Patrick).
After a year of dating Annie, Tom wants to move in with her and spend the rest of their lives together. But he doesn’t want his bank robberies (all committed after banks were closed, no injuries to people and he even patches up and repaints the drywall he cuts through to get into the banks; his no-nonsense crimes earn him the name “the in-and-out bandit,” which makes it sound like he’s a raccoon stealing cheeseburgers) hanging over their heads and so he tries to turn himself in. This would have been a 10-minute movie if Tom hired a lawyer like a normal person; instead, he randomly calls the FBI and talks to Baker, an agent who’s all, “yeah, sure, buddy, you’re the in-and-out bandit.” He tells Tom they’ll get back to him and gives the “go check on this nutjob and his crazy story” task to Nivens and Hall. It takes them a few days but they do go to see him, no more impressed than Baker was, even when he hands them a key to a storage locker where he says the money is. But then they find the cash, cash that Nivens decides is just free money that they can take with no consequences. There are about a dozen reasons this is a terrible idea, and Hall seems to think of a few of them, but he goes along and the crazy plan to steal stolen money from a naive (but explosives proficient) thief quickly goes awry.
This is another movie of Liam Neeson’s “a Man with a Very Particular Set of Skills” oeuvre. This isn’t a good movie in the way Taken was when it first came out and kicked off the “old guy kicking butt” part of Neeson’s career. This isn’t even quite up to the level of the enjoyable silliness of something like The Grey. But it’s also thoroughly watchable, low-pressure enough that you don’t need to give it your full attention to still get your money’s worth, and has just enough fun to justify spending an hour and 39 minutes with it. C+ Available for rent or purchase.

The War with Grandpa (PG)
Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman. Back in the Before times, when families were spending time together in multi-generational groups, there needed to be movies that everyone could see together and be OK with — not deeply enjoy, just be OK sitting through next to your kid or your grandma or whatever. That’s what The War with Grandpa, a movie which came out in theaters this fall and is now available on VOD, is. De Niro is the titular grandpa, forced to live with his family (daughter played by Uma Thurman, son-in-law played by Rob Riggle, and their three kids) after he gets in assorted old-guy trouble (running over the mailbox, a little civil unrest at the supermarket after a run-in with self checkout). He doesn’t particularly like this new arrangement but his grandson, Peter (Oakes Fegley), likes it even less. Peter had to give up his bedroom for his grandfather and now lives in a bat- and mouse-infested unfinished attic. Rather than embracing this situation (which, like, his teenage older sister and elementary school younger sister have to share a room; life’s not that bad, Peter), Peter declares war on his grandpa, to the victor goes the finished bedroom. And sure, Peter has the advantage of understanding how to use the technology that can give his grandfather annoying midnight wake-up alarms, but grandpa has the benefit of knowing how to use a screwdriver and take apart all of Peter’s furniture.
This isn’t a great example of either the “benign family entertainment” or the “old guy comedy” genres — it’s not even the best of De Niro’s entries in this field — but it’s, you know, fine. There is nothing terribly objectionable about the movie and it features fun small roles with Cheech Marin, Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour. B- Available for rent or purchase.

Wild Mountain Thyme (PG-13)
Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan.
Also Christopher Walken and Jon Hamm — all actors who deserve better than this strange movie that I think is supposed to be a romantic comedy. Whimsy? Is this supposed to be whimsy, I thought as I watched this movie. Rosemary (Blunt) has loved Anthony (Dornan, of Fifty Shades of Grey fame; I didn’t really see it with him in those movies but he’s appealing enough here) since they were kids. They are the sole remaining children living at their parents’ neighboring farms in Ireland and Rosemary is somewhat patiently waiting for the day Anthony will realize he loves her too and their farms can become one or something. Anthony is kind of a twitchy oddball who appears to have spent a significant amount of his life in love (or at least in infatuation) with somebody else. When Anthony’s dad (Walken) starts to prepare Anthony for his impending death, he toys with the idea of giving the farm to his nephew, Adam (Hamm), a handsome American who maybe has a better shot at getting married and continuing the family legacy at the farm. Or maybe Walken-dad is just saying that to get Anthony to propose to poor Rosemary. Or who knows. I think probably this movie thinks that it’s charming — a charming movie about two people who live in their own dream worlds, or something. It’s really more taxing. It’s a lot of accent and wig choices and “quirky” behavior that maybe sounded cute, in a movie pitch meeting, but just comes off as, at best, extremely mannered and movie-like. C- Available for rent.

Outside the Wire (R)
Anthony Mackie, Damson Idris. In 2036, human U.S. Army drone pilot Harp (Idris) is sent to the front lines of an Eastern European conflict to serve under Capt. Leo (Mackie), who is a fancy A.I. robot. Leo is, of course, smart and strong but he’s also sort of moody and maybe a little too certain of his own mental processing abilities — flaws that make you think his makers never saw a single Terminator movie. Harp and Leo are the only ones, for some reason, who can head off on a mission with the goal of keeping old Soviet nukes out of the hands of the region’s warlord (who is played by Pilou Asbæk, former fan favorite-punching-bag Euron Greyjoy of Game of Thrones; poor guy, not really catching any breaks here either).
This movie has A Lot of ideas about war and the morality of war and the morality of drones and the U.S.’s roles in international conflicts and its use of drones in those conflicts. The ideas aren’t terrible as a way to help give heft to an action movie, but this movie doesn’t ever really seem to know what to do with it all. Its characters get some speeches but there is just too much going on for it to ever really build to a coherent point.
I’ll give Mackie, who I like in other stuff, the benefit of the doubt and say the “big tangle of ideas and plots” problem is what hurts his performance. Maybe he didn’t know how he was supposed to play this character, suggested my movie companion. I agree; it’s like Mackie thought “beats me what’s happening here; how about I just riff on Training Day?” Damson Idris might have action movie potential but the movie didn’t give him much to do either; I feel like “stand around and look shocked” was the gist of a lot of his direction. C-

MLK/FBI (NR)
The FBI’s surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quickly moved from investigation of someone they thought had subversive political opinions to what seems like tabloid-y attempts to document King’s alleged extramarital affairs. While documents about the surveillance were recently released, the FBI’s tapes won’t be released until 2027. Should they be released and what should historians do with this information obtained in such a shady, J. Edgar Hoover fashion? Those are some of the questions this documentary addresses as well as an examination of why the government would undertake this surveillance to begin with in interviews from historians, people like Clarence Jones and Andrew Young who knew King and, make of this what you will, former FBI director James Comey. The movie includes a fair amount of footage of King himself, not just the big speeches but interviews and other archival footage that could not feel more modern and relevant. B+
The movie is available for rent and is at some theaters. While it does not appear to have a rating, Amazon gives it “13+” and that feels about right.

The Midnight Sky (PG-13)
George Clooney, Felicity Jones. Clooney also directs this depressing (but pretty!) movie in which a scientist at the North Pole tries to warn a very small crew of astronauts away from returning to a mostly uninhabitable Earth. Whatever disaster has suddenly caused a spread of toxic and radioactive air across the globe is not something anyone seems to believe they’ll survive. Instead, Augustine (Clooney), a scientist who had long advocated for colonizing a life-supporting moon on Jupiter, is desperate to communicate with the crew of the Aether, which is just returning from a trip to that moon. If they head back, they may be able to survive; if they return to Earth, they’re done for, like everybody else. He has stayed behind in the Arctic station where he has been working to try to reach the Aether. He eats alone, sleeps alone and hooks himself up to some medical treatment alone (we learn early on that even without the “event” he didn’t have a long time left to live). At least, he thinks he’s alone. After some mysterious incidents involving food, he discovers that a little girl (Caoilinn Springall) is also at the empty station. Attempts to get someone to come back for this left-behind child fail and so Augustine finds himself caring for her while he also tries to solve the problem of reaching the Aether.
Meanwhile, up in space, the Aether crew thinks a malfunction on their end is keeping them from communicating with Earth — or at least Sully (Jones), the communication technician, seems to believe this. Team leader Adewole (David Oyelowo), Sanchez (Demian Bichir), Maya (Tiffany Boone) and pilot Mitchell (Kyle Chandler), whose wife and sons are back on Earth, seem to be choosing to believe this for now. Though the silence from Earth, even from non-allied countries, is getting to the crew, Sully is pregnant and for her and Adewole thinking about their unborn child seems to help mitigate the tension.
I’ll admit, I’m just not in a place where “world-ending disaster” is fun entertainment and for me this movie doesn’t offer anything artistically intriguing enough to get me over what a bummer it is. Yes, it’s lovely — from its space scenes to its trek by Augustine into the Arctic. And I did on a few occasions think, “huh, Clooney is turning into a more interesting actor as he ages.” But neither one of those elements was enough to get me excited about what I was watching. Though the movie’s trailer blathers about “hope,” this is a pretty hope-free movie (the ending is actually quite dark if you play it out based only on the information we have). And all this woe unfolds pretty slowly; it was hard not to fast-forward (and I will totally admit to both checking my place in the runtime and doing a little desk clearing while the movie was on). Is this fair? Would I have felt differently if I saw this movie in Alternate Timeline Winter 2020-2021, sitting maskless in a theater less than six feet from other patrons? (It was always a Netflix release so there’s a good chance I would have seen this at home in any timeline.) I can’t answer that but I can’t recommend that you spend what precious escape-from-reality time you have with it either. B- Available on Netflix.

Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy (TV-MA)
This new Netflix documentary follows the development and spread of crack cocaine and the government’s response to it from the beginning of the 1980s into the late 1990s — and it does this in about 89 minutes. This is an introductory survey to all of the wider cultural and political issues related to crack, without time to spend too much on any one facet. The documentary does have some good details when it focuses in tightly to look at the human cost, with help from interviews with dealers and those who suffered from addiction, and when it addresses the mid-1990 legislation meant to take on drug-related violence. Former Rep. Charles Rangel discusses the way the legislation was developed and the unintended consequences of some elements of it (such as the penalties for crack possession that were far greater than the penalties for possession of powdered cocaine). This part was interesting, particularly for how many familiar-to-modern-audiences faces (President Biden, Chuck Schumer) show up in archival clips, and I wished we could have seen a deeper dive on just those Clinton-era crime bills. The subject feels like it could sustain an enlightening six-part series. This movie, which speeds away just as a subject starts to get interesting, feels a bit like the Cliffs Notes on that. B —Available on Netflix.

The Fundamentals of Caring (TV-MA)
Paul Rudd, Selena Gomez. The Netflix algorithm decided I had to watch this 2016 movie, so I did and, hey, it isn’t half bad. My two thoughts while watching it were: one, Paul Rudd is good at making a nice guy interesting enough to hang out with for a whole movie, and two, have I seen this movie before? It is the kind of bland pleasantness you could easily see and forget but that doesn’t make it less worthy of a watch, especially if it’s of the “on in the background while you pair socks” variety. Ben (Rudd) is a newly minted professional caregiver but, we learn, an old hand at being stuck in quiet despair. His reasons for this are valid, which is perhaps why he clicks so well with new client Trevor (Craig Roberts), an 18-ish-year-old transplant from England who uses a wheelchair and has a degenerative disease that will likely give him only another decade or so of life. Trevor, who is rigid in his routine and reluctant to leave the house he shares with mom Elsa (Jennifer Ehle), usually takes his frustrations out on the caregivers, shocking or dismaying them. But Ben is beyond shock and dismay, so they begin to get along, well enough that Trevor decides to throw routine to the wind and take a little road trip.
Buddy road movies tend to need a girl, which is where Gomez comes in and she is perfectly fine as Dot, a girl with her own reasons to set out into the world. The Fundamentals of Caring has a few rough moments for those of us who have gone soft and can’t take kid-in-peril situations but it is otherwise sweet, lightly humorous and generally goodhearted, for all that I can totally see myself forgetting I ever saw it. B- Available on Netflix.

Film

Movie screenings, movie-themed happenings & virtual events

Bank of NH Stage in Concord
16 S. Main St., Concord

225-1111, banknhstage.com

Chunky’s Cinema Pub

707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Red River Theatres

11 S. Main St., Concord

224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Wilton Town Hall Theatre

40 Main St., Wilton

wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

• Red River Virtual Cinema Red River Theatres is currently offering indie, foreign language and documentary films via a virtual cinema experience. Recent additions include City Hall, a documentary about Boston city government. See the lineup on the website.

• Star Wars Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.

• Dirty Dancing (PG-13, 1987) a 21+ screening of the 1980s film will take place Thursday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m. at Chunky’s in Nashua, Manchester and Pelham. Tickets $4.99

• The Freshman (1925) silent Harold Lloyd film accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis screens on Sunday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

• 7th Heaven (1927) silent romance film accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis screens on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

• The Bride’s Play (1922) silent film featuring Marion Davies accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis screens on Sunday, March 14, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

• War Horse (National Theatre Live) rebroadcast of the London production at Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord, Sunday, March 21, 1 p.m. Tickets $15 for adults, $12 for students.

Herself (R)

Clare Dunne, Harriet Walter.

Also Conleth Hill, probably best known as Lord Varys from Game of Thrones. Dunne plays Sandra, a mother of two daughters who is living in a hotel paid for by housing assistance, scraping by on two jobs and generally scrambling to make some kind of normal life for her kids after separating from her husband, Gary (Ian Lloyd Anderson). Their fraught marriage finally ended when he beat her up, breaking her hand, while their youngest daughter, Molly (Molly McCann), watched and their older daughter, Emma (Ruby Rose O’Hara), ran for help. She still has shared custody of the kids with Gary, who vacillates between being an aggressive jerk and a manipulative jerk who tries to guilt her into getting back together. Her hotel is so far away from the kids’ school and her jobs that her life is a constant schedule of long travel times and being late for everything. Then she has an idea: What if she builds her own house? The assistance organization can’t help her but Peggy (Walter), the woman she cleans for, offers to let her build what is essentially a tiny home on her property and loans her the cash for building materials. People point out to both women that there are oodles of reasons this won’t work, but Sandra is determined to find a way to take control of her own destiny.

To some extent this movie is exactly what it sounds like — a gritty but heartwarming feel-good movie. But it has some excellent performances — in particular, Dunne’s — that make it come together and be optimistic without being sappy or melodramatic. The child actors do decent work and the movie is able to suggest details about the lives of its characters without having to explain every element, creating a well-rounded and well-paced film. B+ Available on Amazon Prime.

Film

Movie screenings, movie-themed happenings & virtual events

Venues

Chunky’s Cinema Pub

707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Cinemagic

with IMAX at 38 Cinemagic Way in Hooksett; 11 Executive Park Drive in Merrimack; 2454 Lafayette Road in Portsmouth; cinemagicmovies.com

Red River Theatres

11 S. Main St., Concord

224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Wilton Town Hall Theatre

40 Main St., Wilton

wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Red River Virtual Cinema Red River Theatres is currently offering indie, foreign language and documentary films via a virtual cinema experience. Recent additions include City Hall, a documentary about Boston city government. See the ever-changing lineup on the website.

• The Storytellers a week-long series of silent films accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis at Wilton Town Hall Theatre, through Friday, Jan. 15, at 7:30 p.m. each night. Admission is free but a $10 donation per person is suggested. Films: Wednesday is Spiders (1919) from Lang; Thursday is Way Down East (1920) from Griffith; Friday is The Saphead (1920) starring Buster Keaton.

• Princess Bride Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.

• Peter Pan (1924) silent film accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis screens on Sunday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

• Dawson’s Creek Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.

• Star Wars Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.

• The Freshman (1925) silent Harold Lloyd film accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis screens on Sunday, Feb. 7, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

Wolfwalkers (PG)

Voices of Sean Bean, Maria Doyle Kennedy.

In 1650, young girl Robin Goodfellowe (voice of Honor Kneafsey) and her father (voice of Sean Bean) travel to Ireland on order of the Lord Protector (voice of Simon McBurney). He’s tasked Papa Goodfellowe with killing all the wolves in the forests of Kilkenny to make it easier for woodsmen to cut down the trees. But these woods are inhabited by not just wolves but wolfwalkers, according to local legend, who are people that can turn into wolves while asleep and, in either form, communicate with other wolves. Robin, a plucky girl who wants to help dad in his work, happens to meet a wolfwalker, Mebh (voice of Eva Whittaker), a plucky girl not unlike herself. Because of a little misunderstanding involving Robin’s pet bird Merlin and a trap Mebh had set to keep humans out of the forest, Mebh also bit but then healed Robin. The girls become friends, with Mebh explaining that the human form of her mother has been sleeping for a while, with her mother’s wolfy spirit somewhere unknown and the ever-shrinking woods full of increasingly hostile humans.

The animation here is truly lovely, an illustrated picture book of rich landscapes and vibrant wild areas, which contrast nicely with the gray and angular people and town under English control. Common Sense Media ranks the film at age 8+ and that’s probably pretty accurate. Though I let my younger kids watch some of the less scary scenes, the movie does portray the bloodlust and general cruelty of the wolf-hunting (and Irish-oppressing) Lord Protector in some stark ways, getting across menace that is plenty frightening for all that it isn’t openly gory. (Also, we might come to root for the wolves but they’re still pretty wolf-y with their teeth and their growls.) The movie also does a good job at conveying the genuine sweetness of Robin and Mebh’s friendship and the girls’ blend of fear and bravery. This movie is co-directed by Tomm Moore, who also co-directed/directed the much lauded animated movies The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea. The beauty and engaging storytelling of Wolfwalkers has me eager to check out those films as well. A Available on Apple TV+.

Film

Movie screenings, movie-themed happenings & virtual events

Venues

Chunky’s Cinema Pub

707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com

Cinemagic

with IMAX at 38 Cinemagic Way in Hooksett; 11 Executive Park Drive in Merrimack; 2454 Lafayette Road in Portsmouth; cinemagicmovies.com

LaBelle Winery

345 Route 101, Amherst

672-9898, labellewinery.com

Red River Theatres

11 S. Main St., Concord

224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Wilton Town Hall Theatre

40 Main St., Wilton

wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• Red River Virtual Cinema Red River Theatres is currently offering indie, foreign language and documentary films via a virtual cinema experience. Recent additions include City Hall, a documentary about Boston city government. See the ever-changing lineup on the website.

• Saved by the Bell Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.

• Our Hospitality (1923) silent Buster Keaton film accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis screens on Sunday, Jan. 10, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

• The Storytellers a week-long series of silent films accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis at Wilton Town Hall Theatre, Monday, Jan. 11, through Friday, Jan. 15, at 7:30 p.m. each night. Admission is free but a $10 donation per person is suggested. Films: Monday is Destiny (1921) from director Fritz Lang; Tuesday is Intolerance (1916) from director D.W. Griffith; Wednesday is Spiders (1919) from Lang; Thursday is Way Down East (1920) from Griffith; Friday is The Saphead (1920) starring Buster Keaton.

• Princess Bride Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.

• Peter Pan (1924) silent film accompanied by live music performed by Jeff Rapsis screens on Sunday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free but a $10 donation is suggested.

• Dawson’s Creek Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.

• Star Wars Trivia Night Thursday, Jan. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Chunky’s Manchester, 21+. Reserve a spot by purchasing a $5 food voucher per person.