Category: Film Reviews

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (TV-PG)

Dolly Parton, Christine Baranski.

Dolly Parton is an angel and Christine Baranski is a lady-Scrooge in this Netflix Christmas movie that isn’t nearly as fun as that description would indicate. Regina (Baranski) is a rich lady who somehow owns the entirety of her hometown. Shortly before Christmas, she evicts everybody because she’s selling the town to the Cheatum corporation so they can build the giant Cheatum Mall (which, ha). Nuts to this town, Baranski sings, which she left behind to move to the Big City years earlier. Why? Secrets! (Although, once you hear what the secret is, “nuts to this town” is probably a reasonable response.)

At one point in this movie, Regina is drinking a whiskey and talking about life’s trials with the bartender who has just served her — Violet (Selah Kimbro Jones), who is an elementary-school-aged child. This scene is kinda great, as is one where Regina thinks Angel Dolly Parton is a rhinestoned hallucination as a result of a brain tumor. Parton, Baranski, Jenifer Lewis as Regina’s childhood buddy, even Jeanine Mason as Regina’s put upon assistant are all sorta kooky and fun in this Christmas cheese ball, but way too much of this movie is taken up by the drippy town and its assorted drippy denizens. The movie is all over the place, not really picking a plot lane — but ends with Baranski wearing a simple but lovely white shift dress. Add that to Parton’s white jean jacket-y blouse thing with I think a feather hem and you understand why I can’t recommend this movie and yet I also can’t bring myself to give it the blah grade it deserves. How about a C+, emphasis on the +? Available on Netflix

Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special (TV-G)

Mariah Carey and…

Billy Eichner, Tiffany Haddish, Jennifer Hudson, Misty Copeland, Snoop Dogg and also Snoopy the Dog and Charlie Brown and Linus and Woodstock, because, I guess, corporate synergy as this appears on Apple TV+, which is also the current home of Peanuts content. The year 2020 has got the whole world down, so Mariah Carey is tasked with Saving Christmas by raising holiday spirits, which will help to light the way for Santa Claus. Mariah is thusly whisked from her stylish apartment to the North Pole for a series of costume changes and musical numbers. At 43 minutes, this is definitely more network Christmas special than plot-driven movie but who cares, it’s great! And by “great” I mean fun, silly, self-aware about its silliness, full of good cameos and whole-family appropriate. Also, of course, it contains The Song, which is teased throughout before we finally get an all-singing, all-dancing version of Carey’s big Christmas hit. This is the perfect thing to have on while you’re cooking holiday fare or wrapping holiday fare or immobilized by exhaustion on the couch after all the holiday cheer. B+ Available on Apple TV+.

Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (R)

Al Pacino, Andy Garcia.

Nothing says “holiday season” like some cable station somewhere running The Godfather movies on a loop for a couple of days. You can add to that this Christmas season by checking out Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, a slightly reedited version of what was previously known as The Godfather Part III. Released in 1990, some 16 years after The Godfather Part II, “Three,” as characters on The Sopranos called it, is stuck in my memory as being full of “hoo-aah!” Al Pacino acting and a derided performance by Sofia Coppola. But 1990 is nearly twice as long ago from today as it was from the series’ original heyday (I saw it a while after 1990, when it was already universally understood to be an embarrassment). After checking out this updated version, I feel like we just didn’t know what it was back then. This movie is that most 21st-century thing: a continuation of a franchise in an established cinematic universe. It’s basically The Godfather: The Force Awakens — some old characters and some new characters and some stuff about regret.

This version is a clearer presentation of the story from what I dimly remember: An ailing Michael Corleone’s ambitions for a family legacy that leaves crime behind (and that gains wealth and respect on an international scale) are the central driver of the movie. Vincent Mancini (Garcia), his nephew who is hungry to be a part of the Corleone family’s old business, and Vincent’s affair with his first cousin, Michael’s daughter Mary (Coppola), are less important to the story than I remember. And Coppola’s very green performance fits with the Meadow-Soprano-but-even-more-naive character as presented here. Pacino is more nuanced than I thought (and than the movie’s famous “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” line reading suggests). Talia Shire also returns as Michael’s sister Connie. I feel like if this movie was being made now, that character would have a bigger role; Shire and Connie clearly have more than they can do here.

Director Francis Ford Coppola could have been even more merciless with his cuts; this movie still weighs in at two hours and 38 minutes (only four minutes shorter than the original version). But, while not perfect, it’s also not terrible and there are worse things than a talented director revisiting popular characters. B Available for rent or purchase.

Let Them All Talk (R)

Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen.

Also starring Dianne Wiest, Gemma Chan and Lucas Hedges. Famous serious novelist Alice (Streep) heads to the U.K. to accept an important literary prize. Because she won’t fly, her eager-to-please new agent Karen (Chan) books her transatlantic passage on the Queen Mary 2, which this Steven Soderbergh-directed movie sometimes seems like a giant ad for. Alice brings along guests, including her nephew Tyler (Hedges) and two friends from college, Susan (Wiest) and Roberta (Bergen). Susan seems to have had a full life and matured into a normal adult who takes the trip as a fun getaway and a chance to see two people she hasn’t seen in three decades. Roberta is there to settle some old scores. Roberta is bitter about Alice’s most famous book, which she claims was taken from her life and led to the disastrous end to her marriage (and financial ruin). Roberta’s plan seems to be to either snag a wealthy man while on the ship or get Alice to pay up (or both).

By the end of the movie, I found myself mostly thinking about the ship — the nightly formal-wear requirements seem hellish but I do like the idea of fancy afternoon tea. It seems like it would be fun, for a little while at least, to wander around the Queen Mary 2, which was perhaps the thought that inspired this movie. At times it feels more like you’re wandering through a collection of scenes that are individually interesting and somewhat related but not entirely pulled together. Some of the scenes are funny, some feature nice acting moments from one of the performers and some just feel like a bit of filler. In the moment, though, the performances kind of carry you through this voyage. B Available on HBOMax.

The Prom (PG-13)

Meryl Streep, James Corden.

Other stars in this Ryan Murphy adaptation of a 2018 Broadway musical include Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key, Andrew Rannells, Mary Kay Place and Tracy Ullman.

When Dee Dee Allen (Streep) and Barry Glickman (Corden) see their newest play close on opening night after terrible reviews, they search for a good cause to align themselves with to improve their public images. They pick Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman), a high schooler whose school has canceled prom rather than let her attend with her girlfriend. Dee Dee and Barry travel to her Indiana town with fellow actors Angie (Kidman), who longs to step out of the chorus and play the lead, and Trent (Rannells), whose career is currently in a holding pattern. The school’s patient principal Hawkins (Key) is trying to convince the PTA, headed by Mrs. Greene (Washington), to be more inclusive but the sudden appearance of the Broadway people throws the situation into disarray. Though their goals are well-intentioned (if very self-serving), the actors’ big publicity-generating plans often overshadow Emma and her desire to just go to a dance with her girlfriend Alyssa Greene (Ariana DeBose), the not-out daughter of Mrs. Greene.

This movie, which started out feeling flat to me, improves as it moves through its two-hour-and-10-minute runtime time — or maybe it just sorta grew on me. Murphy is also the creator of Glee and this movie feels kind of Glee-ish in its staging. With a few exceptions, the musical numbers feel boxed in in a way that keeps them from dazzling you the way it seems like they might in a theater.

That said, Meryl Streep seems to be having a blast and is maybe even making a little fun of her own actorly self. Overall The Prom is a good time, with a delightfully hammy sensibility and occasional scenes (and songs) with sudden and genuine big, deep feelings. B Available on Netflix.

* Once Upon a Snowman (TV-G)

Voice of Josh Gad, Chris Williams.

Sure, this is a short, but I’m still counting this eight-minute movie about Olaf of the Frozen universe as fair movie game. Here, we see the little journey Olaf (voice of Gad) went on between the time that Elsa, mid- “Let It Go,” conjured him and when he met up with Anna and Kristoff. Maybe you remember, back a million years ago in 2013, how some complained that early trailers had set Frozen up as a slapsticky adventure with a snowman but then the movie wasn’t really that (ha, to have such concerns; were we ever so young?). Well, here’s your slapsticky snowman movie, which gives us Olaf’s proto-nose and explains where the wolves in Frozen came from. It also cracked my slapstick-loving kid up with a “where’s my butt” joke. This is a sweet, probably all-ages-friendly new bit of Frozen-ness. B+ Available on Disney+.

*Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe (TV-G)

Voices of Ashley Tisdale, Ali Wong.

While I was aware of the existence of Phineas and Ferb, neither I nor my children had seen an episode of the Disney series before we watched the movie, which I think all of us enjoyed. Maybe me the most. This visual- and verbal-joke-dense world features young teen Candace (voice of Tisdale) and her younger brothers Phineas (voice of Vincent Martella) and Ferb (voice of David Errigo Jr.) in that age-old sibling battle between the kids always doing crazy stuff (Phineas and Ferb) and the kid (Candace) who can’t convince anybody that they are really the ones causing trouble and mess. There’s also a secret agent platypus and a mad scientist and his too-cool daughter (Vanessa, voiced by Olivia Olsen, Candace’s chill friend) and a bunch of Phineas and Ferb’s friends, all with their own weird quirks. But in this adventure, Candace is central to the action; she is kidnapped by a spaceship and taken to a planet where she is told by leader Super Super Big Doctor (voice of Wong) that she is the Chosen One, and what put-upon older sister doesn’t like that? Meanwhile, Phineas and Ferb and their friends try to save her — and convince her that she needs saving. There are also songs, all of which are great.

My younger kids loved the pratfall humor, my older kid liked some of the “little brothers, ugh” bits and I liked the classic The Simpsons mix of pop culture references, smart use of cartoonery and general smart alecky-ness. And, the message is ultimately that families love each other and should stick together, but said with way less sappiness and plenty of kid appeal. A Available on Disney+.

Secret Society of Second Born Royals (TV-PG)

Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Elodie Yung.

And Skylar Austin, of Pitch Perfect fame, who is 33 and playing, essentially, the professorial Giles-from-Buffy-like mentor to the kids in this movie, which is one of many things about this cute adventure movie that will make parents feel old. Lee plays Sam, a second-born royal whose older sister Eleanor (Ashley Liao) is about to become queen of Illyria, their tiny European country. Sam is all about her band with her best friend Mike (Noah Lomax) and being all “the monarchy and rules are lame,” behavior that she thinks is the reason she’s sent to summer school. Really it’s because she, like fellow royals Tuma (Niles Fitch), January (Isabella Blake-Thomas), Matteo (Faly Rakotohavana) and Roxana (Olivia Deeble) (and, it’s suggested, the late Princess Margaret and Prince Harry — ooo, does America have a new superhero?), are second-borns gifted with special abilities that will help them protect and serve their countries. If they pass rigorous training, they will join a secret society of second-borns — and their skills may be even more important now that a dangerous prisoner (Greg Bryk) has escaped an Illyrian prison. Who is this baddie and what does he want? Will the second-borns figure out how to use their powers? Will Sam’s mom (Yung) get off her back about being perfect? This teen superhero movie makes up for what it lacks in story innovation and special effects (there is one special effect in particular that is pretty “yikes”) with likeable characters and pacing that mostly moves the action along (even if my eight-year-old did get bored by some of the emotional drama stuff). B Available on Disney+.

Operation Christmas Drop (TV-G)

Kat Graham, Alexander Ludwig.

A congressional aide eager to impress and an Air Force captain laser focused (like, possibly to a degree that should warrant some personal examination on his part) on spreading Christmas cheer clash, but flirtily (at least I think that’s what they’re doing) in this Netflix Christmas romance. I think it is also technically a comedy but I don’t specifically recall anything funny happening or being said.

Erica (Graham) is sent to Guam to observe the annual Operation Christmas Drop (a real thing that would probably make for a fun holiday documentary), wherein supplies are brought by air drop by the U.S. Air Force (and allies) to the people living on islands around Micronesia. Her boss, Congresswoman Sourface (Virginia Madsen, who looked like she was given a shot of lemon juice before every scene; also, no, that’s not really her character name), wants Erica to go and write a report that says the whole thing is wasteful and the military base should be closed — which would allow Sourface to keep the base in her district. Pilot Andrew (Ludwig) is picked by his boss to show Erica around, answer questions and make a good argument for the base’s continued existence Because It’s Christmas (there’s also some talk about Guam’s strategic importance but honestly it’s very secondary to the Christmas thing). Because it is required by law, there is immediate friction between the two — he’s surfing, she’s in a suit! — but slowly they bond over the fact that they are both attractive and that It’s Christmas.

This is the kind of movie where the main female character starts off with hair neatly up and ends up with wavy hair even in circumstances where down, wavy hair doesn’t seem like a great idea, like while pushing stuff out of a plane. I feel like even for that kind of movie, though, Operation Christmas Drop could be better. Ludwig and Graham are both attractive people but they have no chemistry with each other nor does the bland “banter” generate any. They also have no general chemistry with the movie; I suspect they’re not given enough to do to really commit and create emotional weight of any kind. C-Available on Netflix.

Holidate (TV-MA)

Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey.

It feels shallow to be all “this one had swearing, sex and sarcasm and I liked it better” but, well, this holiday movie from Netflix had swearing, sex and sarcasm and I liked it a lot better than Operation Christmas Drop. Sloane (Roberts) is knocking on the door of 30 (ha!) and feels like the most pitied member of her family because she doesn’t have a date to bring home with her to family celebrations. Jackson (Bracey) regularly finds himself on holiday dates where the importance of the day has outpaced the seriousness of the relationship. They meet cute at the mall while trying to return underwhelming Christmas gifts and discuss the idea, introduced by Sloane’s aunt (a “having big fun” Kristin Chenoweth), of a standing “holidate” — someone who can attend Easter outings and St. Patrick’s pub crawls but won’t expect any long-term commitment. Naturally, Sloane and Jackson decide to become each other’s holidates and run through the year’s holidays — New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Cinco de Mayo — while having what they claim is no-strings-attached fun together.

Does this movie write itself? Kinda. But that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable in a satisfying “fun thing on in the background” way, particularly if it is the entertainment to accompany pairing up a pile of winter gloves or cleaning out your purse or some other task. Roberts and Bracey have decent chemistry and seem like a good fit for the mildly zany material. B- Available on Netflix.

A New York Christmas Wedding (TV-MA)

Nia Fairweather, Adriana DeMeo.

In the tradition of It’s a Wonderful Life-type holiday movies, this one finds Jennifer (Fairweather) planning a wedding with David (Otoja Abit, the movie’s writer and director) — or rather, listening to his mother’s over-the-top plans for their wedding to take place on Christmas Eve. Jennifer has a tough relationship with Christmas — years ago she had a big fight with her best friend near Christmas, and both of her parents passed away when she was relatively young. Out on a jog to get away from David and his overbearing mother, she meets Azrael (Cooper Koch), who —if the name didn’t give it away the white outfit and the imperviousness to being hit by a car should — is an angel. Thus, when she wakes up the next morning, Jennifer finds herself in bed not with David but with Gabby (DeMeo), her best friend all grown up and now her fiancee.

I feel like I should say something like “Jennifer has to decide if this is the true path her life should have taken” but there really isn’t much to decide; Jennifer and Gabby are clearly deeply in love and meant to be together.

Much like one of those cakes with wonky fondant and oozy jam on Great British Baking Show, this movie isn’t quite patisserie-window-ready; you can see the lumpy bits and rough patches in the basics of this movie’s construction and in some of the writing. Chris Noth shows up as a priest wrestling with the church’s position on same-sex marriage and his whole plot is both very heartfelt and not quite as well folded into the overall story as it could have been with a few tweaks. There is genuine emotion and sweetness all over this movie even if there are also flaws that a slicker production could have fixed. I’m not sure if the heart totally makes up for all the rough moments, but I feel like if the heart is your focus, this could work for you. B-

Available on Netflix.

The Opening Act (NR)

Jimmy O. Yang, Cedric the Entertainer.

Stand-up novice Will Chu (Yang, a comedian with a special on Amazon Prime) gets his big break as the emcee for a show headlined by his childhood comedy hero Billy G. (Cedric the Entertainer) in this sweet if occasionally uneven movie about starting out in comedy. These aren’t comedians taking big stages in New York or L.A.; Chu and his fellow comics are fighting for time at the local open mic night. Though Chu can regularly get a few minutes (assuming he brings in at least two paying customers), he can’t seem to break in at other clubs. Then his buddy, Quinn (Ken Jeong), a more successful comedian, recommends him for a long weekend gig as the emcee for a show that features Chris (Alex Moffat) and Billy G, a longtime comedy hero of Will’s.

This movie also features a slew of comedian cameos — Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Kathleen Madigan and more — and just a general love of the craft of stand-up comedy (along with a bemused look at the lifestyle). The movie isn’t really a definitive study of all stand-up comedy; it’s more a narrowly focused story about this point in one comedian’s professional development when comedy goes from a side gig to a possible career. There is such a “love of the game” quality to this movie that I found it easy to look past some of its indie scruffiness. B Available for rent.

Save Yourselves! (R)

Sunita Mani, John Reynolds.

Su (Mani) and Jack (Reynolds) head to a friend’s cabin to take a week off from everything — even their phones, even the internet, even social media. Thusly cut off from the world, they try to “work on we,” reconnect as a couple and discuss the future and reset their brain chemistry and a bunch of other vague “authentic”-sounding things. Unbeknownst to them, at pretty much the exact moment they were recording an outgoing message letting people know they were unreachable, aliens were landing on the planet — furry aliens that Su initially mistakes for an ottoman.

This short but fun comedy blends bougie-couple-stuff (they realize too late that all the microgreens in the world are no good when you need non-perishables) and end of the world panic. The fuzziness of the aliens helps to cut down the actual scariness of the situation and the likability of the leads helps to sell the jokes, or really the one joke, which is that modern urban online life does not prepare you for woodsy survival. B Available for purchase or rent.

The Binge (TV-MA)

Vince Vaughn, Skyler Gisondo.

In some respects this endearingly stupid comedy from Hulu isn’t so unlike the standard tale of teenagers trying to get to a party so one of their number can tell somebody they like them (see also Superbad or Booksmart). In this case, BFFs Griffin (Gisondo) and Hags (Dexter Darden), joined by onetime bud Andrew (Eduardo Franco), are trying to get to a wild party so Griffin can ask Lena (Grace Van Dien) to prom. The catch is that this party is happening on Binge night; similar to Purge night of The Purge movies, on Binge night Americans can load up on as much alcohol and drugs as their bodies can handle, but only once a year. On all other days, mind-altering substances, even beer, are illegal. For newly minted 18-year-olds Griffin and Hags (18 being the age when you can start participating in The Binge), this is their first chance to get totally wasted and make bad choices. For their school principal Mr. Carlsen (Vaughn), who is also Lena’s dad, it’s an opportunity to spread his “say no to everything” message. Like Bueller vs. principal fights for decades, it becomes an evening of crazy adventures and adult overreach.

The concept is dumb but the theme is classic and, as with most of this kind of movie, what carries it through is the sweetness of the friendship between Griffin and Hags. Also, the movie benefits from Vaughn leaning in to the Vaughnily off-kilter quality of his not-so-responsible adult. Come for the many many names for drugs, stay for the musical number. I’d still rather watch this than another The Purge movie (and this one-night-a-year setup might actually make more sense). B- Available on Hulu.

Wild Nights with Emily (PG-13, 2018)

Molly Shannon, Susan Ziegler.

Emily Dickinson (played by Shannon as an adult, Dana Melanie as a teenager/young adult) is in this sweet and funny biopic a woman in a long-term, though somewhat hidden, relationship with Susan (Ziegler as an adult, Sasha Frolova as a teen), her sweetheart from school days who marries Emily’s brother so that they can stay close. Emily is an ambitious writer in a world where ambition and innovation from a woman don’t necessarily work out. It takes her death and some repackaging by her brother’s mistress (Amy Seimetz doing solid wide-eyed comic work) to get Dickinson into the public eye and then Susan’s daughter/Emily’s niece to attempt a more accurate portrait. At times the movie has a bit of a Drunk History feel but it makes Dickinson more of a recognizable human and Shannon brings a liveliness to her reading of Dickinson’s poems and letters. B+ Available on Hulu.

---

Connery, Sean Connery

Remember the recently departed Sir Sean Connery, the standard-setter for the James Bond character, in 1964’s Goldfinger (PG technically; Common Sense Media rates it as 13+) which will screen starting Friday, Nov. 6, at Chunky’s Cinema Pub in Manchester (707 Huse Road) and Nashua (151 Coliseum Ave.). The movie will screen Friday through Monday, Nov. 9, and Wednesday, Nov. 11, and Thursday, Nov. 12, at 6:30 p.m. in Manchester and Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 8, and Wednesday, Nov. 11, and Thursday, Nov. 12, at 6:45 p.m., according to chunkys.com on Nov. 2. Tickets cost $4.99.

---

Film
Movie screenings, movie-themed happenings & filmed events

Venues

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

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

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

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

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

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St. in 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. See the ever changing line-up on the website.

• Live Trivia Back to the Future Trilogy (21+) at Chunky’s Manchester on Thursday, Nov. 5, and Sunday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. and at Chunky’s Nashua on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. Teams of up to six players; reserve a team spot with $5 food vouchers.

• Warren Miller’s Future Retrovirtual screening via the Music Hall Portsmouth Saturday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m. Access costs $30.

• Live Trivia Hamilton (21+) at Chunky’s Manchester on Thursday, Nov. 12, and Sunday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. and at Chunky’s Nashua on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 7:30 p.m. Teams of up to six; reserve a team spot with $5 food vouchers.

• Lucinda Williams in studio concert series livestreamed event offered by the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. Tickets start at $20 per event (with add-on options). Remaining shows include “Southern Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals & More” on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 8 p.m.; “Bobs Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs” on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m.; “Funny How Time Slips Away: A Night of ‘60s Country Classics” on Thursday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m.; and “Have Yourself a Rockin’ Little Christmas with Lucinda” on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 8 p.m.

• Dr. Mabuse The Gambler, Part 1(1922) This silent film directed by Fritz Lang will screen at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 2 p.m. with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis. Admission is free but a $10 donation is encouraged. The movie, the first of two parts, is a crime thriller set in Weimar-era Germany, according to Rapsis’ website.

• Dr. Mabuse The Gambler, Part 2 (1922) Catch the second half of the film on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town hall Theater. Admission is free but a $10 donation is encouraged.

• Flash Gordon (PG, 1980) Cinemagic will screen the Fathom Events 40th Anniversary screening of Flash Gordon on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 4 p.m. at its locations including Hooksett, Merrimack and Portsmouth. Tickets cost $13.25.

She Dies Tomorrow (R)

Kate Lyn Sheil, Jane Adams.

Also Chris Messina and around the edges Josh Lucas and Michelle Rodriguez. This, what, horror movie?, comedy-horror, I think I saw it called in the trailer?, is, as writer Joe Reid said in a tweet a few months back, either the best or worst possible movie for right now. A woman is convinced, for no apparent reason, that she is going to die tomorrow. She believes it, completely, to the befuddlement of the friend she tells until that friend also believes, wholly, that she is going to die tomorrow. Is it some kind of fast-acting neurological illness? A sudden realization of the destruction coming from some outside force? A highly contagious kind of mass hysteria (with all the weight that comes with the word “hysteria”)? Does it matter? The movie works however you see the thing that has everybody feeling doom. I’m sure even if 2020 hadn’t gone the way it’s currently going this movie would still feel relevant — the idea of sudden, life-ending disaster applies even when you aren’t in the middle of a pandemic. (At one point, three characters introduce themselves saying their names followed by “I’m dying,” which is true even if it isn’t true.) As different people get hit with “I’m going to die tomorrow,” the movie perfectly captures the “oh heck, why not have the whole box of cookies; gah, obesity is a comorbidity! No more cookies!” of this particular moment in the real world. It is at times funny, at times poignant, at times just weird — not unlike 2020. B Available for rent.

Relic (R)

Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote.

Kay (Mortimer) and her daughter Sam (Heathcote) arrive at Kay’s mother’s Edna (Robin Nevin) rural-ish house in Australia after neighbors report the woman missing. Post-It note reminders to do basic things and general disarray (plus a recent history of forgetting things) have Kay believing her mother is slipping into dementia. But Kay and Sam can’t completely deny that Edna’s house is also quite creepy. So when Edna suddenly reappears, with a strange dark bruise and no memory of what’s happened, Kay in particular seems to think it’s time her mother live somewhere else. But they, and we, also catch glimpses of strange shadows and sudden blooms of mold that suggest something more malignant is at work in the house.

There are, I think, a few different ways to read this movie, which to me plays out as kind of a nightmare of fears and anxieties more than as a straightforward spooky tale. I felt like, as the movie goes on, it’s making a physical reality of the way disorientation and fear feel and that the movie is more metaphoric by the end than it is introducing us to the next, like, Annabelle or some specific demonic thing. And that, the terror that awaits in your own mind (coupled with some deeply sad stuff about caring for an aging loved one), is way scarier, to me anyway. But I think this movie also allows you to figure out what flavor of horror movie it is for yourself. Either way, it does a solid job of presenting actually scary situations and settings and of ramping up a feeling of dread with all three of the movie’s actresses doing good work. BAvailable for rent.

Good Boy (TV-MA)

Judy Greer, McKinley Freeman.

Greer is Maggie, a down on her luck newspaper reporter who adopts a murderously loyal dog in this movie that is actually maybe an episode of a TV show called Into the Dark. It’s a Hulu thing and it’s an hour and 29 and I’m counting it as a movie, a comedy horror to be exact. This movie is entertaining largely because of Greer, who is fun to watch even if she’s cleaning up entrails after her dog, Reuben, has, say, murdered the landlady, who keeps trying to raise the rent. Reuben is supposed to be an emotional support animal, adopted just as Maggie’s reporter job went from full-time and in print to contract and online (which was not only a professional setback but a financial one and it meant she didn’t have the money to cover the fertility treatments she was hoping would give her just a little more time to find Mr. Right). The movie isn’t particularly deep but it’s off-kilter and just entertaining enough to brighten up your laundry-folding, bill-paying 90 minutes.B-