Category: Film Reviews

Stowaway (TV-MA)

Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim.

The four-person cast is rounded out by Toni Collette and Shamier Anderson in this movie about three astronauts headed to Mars. Zoe (Kendrick) is a doctor, David (Kim) is a scientist studying plant life and Marina (Collette) is the mission’s commander. Twelve hours into the flight, they find the unconscious Michael (Anderson), an engineer whose last-minute check on equipment led him to be accidentally stuck on the spacecraft before liftoff. There is no turning back on this two-year mission, which means that Michael is now part of the crew.

I found myself waiting for this movie to reveal what it is really about — space vampires! space caper! — but it ultimately is about exactly what it appears to be about, in which case it presents some plot problems that make the whole endeavor feel a little shaky. Which is too bad because the basic idea of this movie (a small number of people stuck in space, some science-y stuff that allows you to keep the low-gravity-related special effects to a minimum) is a nice way to do low-budget space stories. There are decent performances all around but nobody really gets the chance to build a fully realized character. C+ Available on Netflix

The World To Come (R)

Vanessa Kirby, Katherine Waterston.

Two women in 1850s rural New York, stuck in complicated marriages, find friendship and romance in each other in this bleakly pretty love story.

Abigail (Waterston) and her husband Dyer (Casey Affleck) joylessly churn through their days, still deep in grief from the death of their young daughter. Abigail keeps a record of the farm, which in her narration becomes a kind of poetry about their inner turmoil and increasingly distant relationship. Then she meets Tallie (Kirby), who moves to a nearby farm with her husband, Finney (Christopher Abbott), who seems disturbed and occasionally sadistic. The women seem instantly drawn to each other and fall beautifully in love even though they have little means by which to arrange their lives around this relationship that clearly makes both of them so happy.

Excellent performances and beautiful cinematography help make this story, which you know going in isn’t going to end with, like, a run through the airport and a wedding proposal, lovely and swoony despite the constant air of impending doom. B+ Available for rent

Shiva Baby

Rachel Sennott, Molly Gordon.

If you can’t remember what it feels like to be crammed in a house with family, extended family and random people who ask the same intrusive personal questions as family, let Shiva Baby remind you. Danielle (Sennott), still in the working-it-out college-y phase of life, goes to a post-funeral service reception with her parents, Debbie (Polly Draper) and Joel (Fred Melamed), for, er, “wait, who died?” Danielle asks her mom as they head into the house. The death of whomever isn’t particularly traumatic for Danielle but all the people and their questions at this event are. Her parents try to put the positive spin on her in-flux situation while also asking everybody if they can help her get a job. What they don’t know when they try this with friend-of-friend Max (Danny Deferrai) — and what Max’s wife, Kim (Dianna Agron), doesn’t know, at least initially — is that he and Danielle have been hooking up for a while, having met on a sugar daddy app, which is really how Danielle makes the pocket money she says she makes babysitting. Having reality — Danielle’s parent-supported life, Max’s more successful than him wife and their baby — interjected into their relationship seems almost as crushing to Danielle as the disappointment she suspects her parents feel about her. In this claustrophobia-inducing mash of too many people and their opinions, Danielle also sees Maya (Gordon) — her longtime friend and sometime girlfriend. While you kind of want Maya to meet up with Audrey Plaza’s character from Happiest Season and enjoy a mature, emotionally grounded relationship with someone who has it together, it’s clear that Danielle and Maya still have feelings for each other.

I deeply enjoyed this movie with its interpersonal messiness and its particular way of framing conversations so everybody feels too close, too up in each other’s business. It’s funny and occasionally sad and captures the low and high stakes of Danielle, who seems so green and young. This indie-style dramady offers smart writing, solid performances and a standout bit of work from Polly Draper. B+ Available for rent or purchase. It doesn’t appear to be rated but Amazon lists it as being 18+, which feels accurate.

Concrete Cowboy (R)

Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin.

The story of a teen getting to know his father is set against a look at the real-life horse-riding community in a Black neighborhood of north Philadelphia in this Netflix movie. As we see over the end credits, many of the supporting characters here are real Philadelphia cowboys and cowgirls who work to maintain the community’s horse-riding tradition even as development makes maintaining stables in the city difficult. That story is ultimately probably more interesting than the fairly standard coming of age story of teenage Cole (McLaughlin), sent by his mother in Detroit to live with his father, Harp (Elba), in Philadelphia after Cole gets in trouble at school one too many times. Cole and Harp don’t know each other that well. Cole is sort of horrified to learn he’ll be sharing his father’s home with a horse and Harp is against Cole continuing a friendship with childhood buddy Smush (Jharrel Jerome), whom Harp has pegged as trouble. The scenes of the cowboy culture, what it means for the men and women involved and the neighborhood overall, are interesting and Idris Elba is good even when working with material that feels fairly middle of the road. The movie has some nice cinematography too — working standard Western-movie shots into a modern city setting. B Available on Netflix.

Monster Hunter (PG-13)

Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa.

Sure, I miss packed Marvel movie opening night screenings and I miss award-season movies that I get totally engrossed in. But really when I think about the part of the theatrical experience that I’ve missed the most in the last year, it’s probably getting hot popcorn (if you asked nicely, the good folks at Cinemagic would get it from the batch that was just popped) and settling in for a screening of, like, a mid-series Resident Evil-type movie, right as you realize that, hey, this franchise that had always seemed sorta stupid is also kinda fun. Monster Hunter is apparently based on a different video game but it stars Jovovich, is directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (Jovovich’s husband and director of some of the Resident Evil movies) and feels to me like some of the most surprisingly fun entries in that series.

Here, Artemis (Jovovich) is an Army Ranger who — you know what, let’s just skip to the good stuff. She fights monsters. Milla Jovovich fights monsters — insecty monsters, dragon-y monsters, other monsters. She fights them with guns and fire and at one point it looked like she was about to punch a monster the size of a two-story house in the face and, sure, that’s dumb, but why not? For some of the monster-fighting, she joins up with Tony Jaa, whose character is called Hunter. He’s also pretty cool. The special effects in this movie make up for whatever they lack in perfect realism with just being fun, and the setting is mostly “sci-fi desert-y type place,” a locale that provides some basic rules but doesn’t require you to ask too many questions. B Available for rent and purchase.

Upside-Down Magic (PG)

Izabela Rose, Siena Agudong.

Longtime friends Nory (Rose) and Reina (Agudong) excitedly head to the Sage Academy for magical teens but have trouble adjusting in this Disney+ movie based on a novel of the same name. Nory finds that her magic is labeled “upside down”: she can’t turn into a cat like the rest of the Fluxers; her cat form sprouts wings and sometimes a llama hump. She is sent to a class with other “UDM” students where they’re expected to wait out their time until their magic fades and they’re safe to be sent back into the non-magical world. Reina on the other hand is a perfect Flare (a magic person who can create and control fire) but she meets someone who offers her a shortcut to even more power.

This very cute tween/older pre-tween-friendly movie is all about sticking with your dreams, acknowledging and being proud of your unique abilities and learning who to trust. All the magical stuff is above-TV-average in the effects department and there is just a hint of teenager crush-ness. And, the movie had me seeking out the book, which is part of a series that is geared to middle grade (age 8 to 12) readers. B Available on Disney+

Coming 2 America (R)

Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall.

Murphy’s 1988 comedy gets a sequel that feels like, essentially, one of those EW movie reunion photo shoots with a few next-generation people sprinkled throughout (Leslie Jones, KiKi Lane, Tracy Morgan). Everybody looks great — I highly recommend checking out the Hollywood Reporter story about the costumes, which were created by Ruth E. Carter, the Oscar-winning designer behind the Black Panther costumes. I maybe recommend it (and a forthcoming Coming 2 America fashion lookbook? Please?) more than the movie, about which I had these thoughts: (1) I honestly don’t know if I ever saw the original all the way through or if it was one of those movies I just sort of absorbed parts of over the years. Or maybe it’s just been that long since 1988. (2) As many have noted, all the actors (including Wesley Snipes, Shari Headley, James Earl Jones, John Amos and random cameos, like Trevor Noah) seem like they’re having a great time. (3) In addition to the Coming 2 America lookbook, I’d like a whole album of new En Vogue/ Salt-N-Pepa collaborations (we get a cute reworking of “Whatta Man” here). (4) With everybody having such a great time while wearing such fun looks, does it really matter if the movie felt kinda “meh” most of the time?

The plot just barely holding everything together is that with the death of King Jaffee (Jones), Prince Akeem (Murphy) needs to return to America to find his long lost son to serve as his heir, as he and his wife, Lisa (Headley), only ever had daughters, who apparently can’t take the throne. This movie features less “2 America” and more of the American, newly-titled Prince Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) coming to Akeem’s African country of Zamunda. Lavelle learns the ways of his new royal family, Akeem’s wife Lisa deals with her annoyance at having Akeem show up with his new son (and the son’s mom, played by Jones) and Akeem’s oldest daughter Meeka (Lane) chafes at having what she feels is her rightful role as future monarch usurped. The movie throws this all out there but, in keeping things light and jokey, never deals with its story points with much depth, which can make the story feel thin overall.

But, again, with wardrobe items like the red-and-gold wedding dress that appears at the end of the movie (Google it), does it really matter? B- primarily for fashion, En Vogue and Salt-N-Pepa and general nostalgia Available on Amazon Prime.

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (PG)

Voices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke.

SpongeBob and Patrick — and then eventually all their buddies from Bikini Bottom — go to the “lost city of Atlantic City” to confront Poseidon and rescue SpongeBob’s pet snail Gary in this new animated movie. Sponge on the Run is delightful, if a bit more violent than you might want for your youngest Nick viewers (SpongeBob’s pending execution is a significant plot point in the movie’s back-half). But the animation has a nice bit of Play-Doh-like roundedness and a generally cheery color scheme. There are some delightful cameos (particularly during a weird detour where animated characters wander into a live-action-ish setting) and general goofy humor both visually and in the dialogue that make this movie a fun bit of silliness for adults as well as for kids, say, middle-elementary and up. B Available on Paramount+.

Moxie (PG-13)

Hadley Robinson, Lauren Tsai.

Rounding out the teen cast, Alycia Pascual-Peña, Nico Hiraga, Josie Totah, Sabrina Haskett, Sydney Park, Anjelika Washington and Patrick Schwarzenegger. Adults include Ike Barinholtz, Marcia Gay Harden and Amy Poehler, who also directed the movie based on the YA novel by Jennifer Mathieu.

Vivian (Robinson), daughter to single mom Lisa (Poehler), keeps her head down in high school and dreams of graduating and escaping, with best friend Claudia (Tsai), to the safety of a college science lab. But then outspoken new girl Lucy (Pascual-Peña) has Vivian reconsidering her passive reaction to the jerky and predatory behavior of school bully/star football player Mitchell (Schwarzenegger) and her school’s general discriminatory approach to girls versus permissiveness toward the school’s boys. Full of her mom’s good-ole-days memories of riot grrrl bands and patriarchy-fighting protests, Vivian pastes together a zine called Moxie, dropping 50 copies in the girls bathrooms. The zine spurs the girls to stand up for themselves and each other, but Vivian’s newfound zeal also causes a rift with her friend Claudia.

I mean, we can quibble about whether schools today are this laissez faire about very menacing bullies or if it’s really all that cool that high school girls need to resort to vaguely-Handmaid’s Tale-ish secret signals of support for each other but — Moxie is adorable. I don’t know how it reads to actual teens; from my vantage point this movie feels like mom wish-fiction about what you want your teen daughter’s life to be like. The girls here are rallied by a zine, love 1990s girl rock and social media is just a thing that exists at the margins. You (by which I mean me) want your daughter to feel empowered, not really have to deal with social media all that much, find support from fellow empowered girls, have honest conversations about different life experiences with friends and meet a boy who is genuinely respectful and supportive. And you (by which I mean me) want her to like awesome music that you will also turn up and embarrassingly mom-dance to, like the soundtrack to this movie (which doesn’t appear to be available yet as a purchase-able album but song lists exist all over the internet; time to make a mixtape!). Does this movie provide the same hit of Gen-X nostalgia as the Listen to Sassy podcast and the Real World season one reunion? Why yes it does! Now who’s up for starting a zine? B Available on Netflix.

Tom & Jerry (PG)

Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña.

Cartoon cat Tom and mouse Jerry (along with other animated animals) inhabit live-action New York City in this movie that is pretty solid on the special effects but pretty shaky everywhere else.

The human story centers around Kayla (Moretz), a girl who talks her way into a temporary job at the ultra-fancy Royal Gate Hotel. She’s meant to help with the upcoming nuptials of famous couple Ben (Colin Jost) and Preeta (Pallavi Sharda). Hotel head Mr. Dubros (Rob Delaney) has faith in Kayla and her fabricated prior event experience but event manager Terence (Peña) is suspicious. When the appearance of a mouse threatens the event, Kayla attempts to fight infestation the old-fashioned way — with a cat. Tom is happy to help, as Jerry interrupted his keyboard busking. Terence highly doubts that this will work, especially as the cat and mouse duo cause destruction everywhere they go.

The Common Sense Media headline on this movie warned me that it was on the violent side so I didn’t watch it with my kids, who are otherwise right in what is probably this movie’s demo. And I’m glad I didn’t; convincing young humans that they can’t do cartoony foolishness is a significant part of my day and the way the movie puts animated characters in a live action setting makes those head-smacks and electrocutions feel real (but without the consequences of real-world physics). That factor plus the scenes that are heavy on adult humans and their boring problems make me wonder who this is for; do enough 7-to-10-year-olds want Tom & Jerry content that comes with Kayla’s Gen Z-er starting out issues?

Which is all too bad because this movie does have a nicely quirky sense of humor at times — it makes some cute jokes about Tom & Jerry’s lack of human-comprehensible verbal communication, possession of business cards and showbiz abilities. Near the end Rob Delaney calls them “Thomas and Jerome,” which is a solid understated bit of business. And the animation really worked for me; their cartoon antics have some visual cleverness. The blend of old-fashioned illustration-style Tom & Jerry with the live-action world was visually appealing, especially as the wedding got crazier and more exotic animals showed up at the hotel.

Tom & Jerry feels like it’s halfway to a family-fun reboot of old characters but the movie is just out of balance enough to make it feel longer, flatter and more worrisome in the “please don’t try to electrocute your brother like the cat”-sense than I want from my family entertainment. C+ In theaters and on HBO Max until late March.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (R)

Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes.

Golden Globe winner Day gives a standout performance as Billie Holiday is this jumble of a movie about the singer’s legal troubles and the government’s attempts to discredit her due to the power and popularity of her song “Strange Fruit.” The story jumps around from 1947 to 1959 as Holiday struggles with heroin addiction. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics pursues her mercilessly, claiming to be trying to build a case against her to get her to turn in her suppliers. But early on we see Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), the Bureau’s leader and a malevolent cartoon villain, tell a room full of senators (and Roy Cohn) that “This jazz music is the devil’s work” and silencing Holiday will keep a lid on the civil rights movement. African American federal agent Jimmy Fletcher (Rhodes) is tasked by Anslinger with helping to bring Holiday down, an assignment he comes to have mixed feelings about.

This movie is very tell, not show — leaning on our previous knowledge of government wrongdoing and 20th century history. The movie states things — like that “Strange Fruit” is important to the civil rights movement and is “making people think” — but it doesn’t really demonstrate what this means or explain its effect on the culture of the 1940s and 1950s. The movie doesn’t really even do a good job of explaining the wider cultural relevance of Holiday and her career.

However. In the middle of a tornado of questionable movie-making choices is Andra Day and her Billie Holiday. She is able show the strength, vulnerability, weakness, brilliance and righteous anger of Holiday all at once and make her seem real, even when she is frequently wading through some business that feels 1980s-TV-biopic-y. It’s a top-notch performance that really deserved a better movie. B (a B+ maybe A- for Day’s performance; everything else is solidly in C territory). Available on Hulu.

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.