Smile 2

My View:  Smile 2  (2024)  R  In Smile 2, Pop sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is about to embark on a world tour when she begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. The curse of the smile is back, and Skye has become its latest victim. I enjoyed the first Smile film, as it combined a mystery with horror, even if it had a slender and somewhat weak plot. While several of my fellow critics I saw Smile 2 with loved the film, I did not have as good a time with this one. Too often, the ‘jump out of the dark’ scares were so poorly done, to where I laughed a few times at their craziness. One of the things I liked about the first Smile was the story was pretty straightforward, moving along at a quick pace, so you just got caught up in the mystery of why horrible things were appearing in front of our heroine. In Smile 2, there is a ton of setup, as we constantly revisit a scene in her past, when Skye’s life fell apart. The film keeps going back to that moment and it feels like we are being hit over the head with the fact that Skye was a messed up person at the time and had a bad thing happen to her. I felt the film’s over two-hour length during these flashbacks. I will say that I enjoyed Naomi Scott’s singing performances as Skye practices for her tour. Scott shows us why she was picked as the live-action version of Jasmine in the 2019 film Aladdin, giving us a Skye that commands the stage when she isn’t seeing the Smilers milling around. Unfortunately, there were times in the scary moments of the film when Scott went overboard in her reactions, making them seem too over the top. It’s going to be interesting to see where they take this film series beyond this point. I just hope there is less of it.  My Rating: Cable Smile 2 Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide.

My View: We Live in Time  (2024)  R  We Live in Time is about an up-and-coming chef (Florence Pugh) and a recent divorcee (Andrew Garfield), who meet under incredible circumstances that bring them together in a decade-spanning look at life, love, and heartache. This love story is about two people you probably wouldn’t pick to be together, but they make it work. And, boy, do they make it work. I loved that the telling of the story is very unconventional, as we travel to unique moments in their lives, often returning to time periods to explore further their relationship and the love the two have for each other. The film works because of the two leads. Garfield plays the perfect, love-lorn guy in Tobias, who is fresh off a divorce and isn’t ready for any sort of relationship. Or so he thinks. Florence Pugh is magnificent as Almut, the fiery chef who never wants a long-term relationship or kids. She is happy to become the chef that she has dreamed of becoming. That is until she meets Tobias and they are both gobsmacked by the other that they can’t find an excuse to stay away, even when it seems they should. Filmmakers of romance films dream of the chemistry that Garfield and Pugh have on the screen. Sparks fly every time they are together, even when you think maybe they aren’t destined to find love, then they turn toward each other and it’s all over. Again and again. Pugh is an absolute delight as Almut, and even when we, the audience, are mad at her character, we still can’t help but fall in love with her. Now, a bit of a warning: this is a film about love and loss. It’s about fighting the good fight and then knowing when it’s time to say goodbye. At the end of We Live in Time, I didn’t feel bad. A little sad, sure, but not crying into my hands bad. I felt I had enjoyed the life the two characters had with each other, knowing that they pulled every bit of love and life out of the relationship that they could.  My Rating: Full Price We LIve in Time Website  Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Brothers  (2024)  R  In Brothers, two twin brothers, Jady (Peter Dinklage) and Moke (Josh Brolin), are career criminals who have spent most of their lives in and out of jails. Despite Moke’s efforts to reform, he succumbs to Jady’s plan to steal emeralds worth millions. The only problem is they may have to ask their mom (Glenn Close) for help. I wish this film had been funnier, but a lot of the jokes/situations in which the two twins find themselves lack any sort of humor or punch (though there is a lot of punching of fists). There is a bizarre scene between Moke and an orangutan named Samuel that is so uncomfortable that it’s hard to watch. The film wastes the last performance of the late M. Emmet Walsh, though he gets off a few zinger lines. As Jady’s looney-tone pen pal, Marisa Tomei is also given almost nothing to work with. The highlight of the performances is Brendan Fraser, who plays a jailhouse guard with an anger problem, who is hot on the trail of the two brothers, as he has made a deal to get Jady out of prison for the emeralds that the twin’s mother took 30 years ago. As usual, Glenn Close is a blast as the boy’s mother, who is only out for herself, continually breaking the duo’s hearts as the film goes along. The plot of the film has a smattering of a great idea, but the film never succeeds in bringing us any sort of joy in watching the film as the twins continually try to work together without much success. My Rating: Cable Brothers Website  Now playing on the Prime Video platform. 

My View:  Woman of the Hour  (2023)  Woman of the Hour is about Cheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick), a struggling actress who gets a job to appear on a hit national dating show in 1978. Cheryl is unaware that behind the gentle facade, Bachelor Number 3 is a serial killer. Woman of the Hour is a brilliant first directorial achievement from Anna Kendrick, who also stars in the film. It is rare, especially in these days of seemingly constant releases of documentaries and podcasts on true crime stories, that a film concentrates not on the person doing the killing but on the women that he is murdering. Kendrick weaves the story (sadly, it is based on a true one) around Cheryl, who is trying to make it as an actress in L.A. She doesn’t have lofty sights as a star, just as a working actress. So we follow her as she goes from another failed audition to sleeping with a neighbor she can’t seem to get rid of to a call from her agent that she will be on a nationally televised game show. While we are seeing her life, we are also seeing the life of a serial killer, Rodney (Daniel Zovatto), who meets his victims by posing as a photographer. He is the type of guy who says all the right things, with an easy, non-threatening way about him, that makes women trust him. And then he kills them. We see a number of his victims, all trusting him until it’s too late, but Kendrick, the director, does a service to the women that he has killed, not showing them as they die. We just hear things as the camera concentrates on something else. It’s that respect for the women that this horrible person killed that sets this film apart from a lot of serial killer films. The film builds the suspense as we follow Cheryl onto the game show set, and we realize Bachelor Number 3 is the serial killer. Will Cheryl figure him out, or will she become the latest victim? My Rating: i Would Pay to See it Again Woman of the Hour website Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

Indiefest:  Dusty & Stones  (2023)  The documentary Dusty & Stones tells the remarkable story of Gazi “Dusty” Simelane and Linda “Stones” Msibi, a duo of struggling country singers from the African Kingdom of Swaziland. The film follows the two as they travel to Texas to compete in a battle of the bands. I saw this film at the 2023 Atlanta Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature. I love this film, mostly because the two guys are so good-natured and excited to be invited to Texas to sing. The two have been struggling for years to try and bring country music to Swaziland, with minor success. The guys then are notified that they are entered in a battle of the bands show, in all places, Texas. I won’t ruin what happens, but whatever happens, the duo always takes things in stride. You will fall in love with Dusty and Stones as they sing their way across the world to bring a little country to all of us.  My Rating: Full Price Dusty & Stone Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

My View:  Goodrich  (2024)  R  In Goodrich, Andy Goodrich’s (Michael Keaton) life is going into a tailspin. He is about to lose his art gallery, and his second wife has left him and checked into a 90-day rehab program. Andy is left on his own with his young kids. Andy leans on the only person he can think of, his daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) from his first marriage. The problem is that Andy wasn’t a good father to Grace and there is a lot of baggage that they will have to deal with. This is a delightful story of a man who, for too long, has been too involved with his work and not in his family. Shocked by his wife’s addiction problem (apparently the only one), Andy now has to come to grips with being a single father while also trying to interact with his grown and very pregnant daughter. This film only works because of Michael Keaton, who makes every scene better by playing the everyman role. Keaton is wonderful in the scenes with Kunis, who plays his smart and funny daughter Grace. Their chemistry makes the scenes feel real as Andy is slow to realize just how he treated Grace as she was growing up and continues to treat her now, as an afterthought. What I liked about this film is that Keaton’s Andy isn’t a bad guy, he just wasn’t aware that he wasn’t the man that others needed him to be. The film is about learning through your mistakes and figuring out how to go from there. Andy is a guy that will take two steps forward and, occasionally, one step back. However, now he is willing to try those steps again. My Rating: Full Price Goodrich Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see when it was first released but have seen recently)  Blink  (2024)  PG  Blink is a documentary about the Pelletier family, who find out that three of their four children will soon lose their vision to retinitis pigmentosa, a rare, incurable disorder that leads to permanent blindness. The family sets out on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to explore as many of the wonders of the world as they can while they can still see it. Blink is a film about family, love, and how to come to grips with something that will change you and your loved one’s life. My first reaction while watching this film was, ‘Are you nuts? Taking a family with four children on a trip around the world?’ However, that’s the beauty of this film: they take a trip as a family through all the struggles, tears, laughter, and realizations that their lives will never be the same. The film opens with the family trekking through the snow to see the aurora borealis, and as the family gets to a hilltop where they can view the sight, we realize that some of the children can’t see it. We later find out that once it becomes dark, the children can’t see. Some have never seen the stars at night. What strikes me about this film is the resilience of the parents, who are helpless to stop the blindness of their children but are determined to give them memories to think back on when they go blind. Amazingly, these parents are able to handle kids being kids, which isn’t easy at home, but on a trip through foreign countries, sometimes in harsh climates. Yes, there are beautiful scenery shots (it is a National Geographic doc) but what is more thrilling is seeing their oldest child, the daughter, dancing by herself on a sand dune in Egypt. That is more beautiful than any shot of a mountain at sunset or a rain forest trail you could see.  My Rating: Full Price  Now playing in select theaters.

Forgotten Film:  A Midsummer Night’s Dream  (1999) PG-13  Romance is in the air, but it’s complicated by spells and dreams. This telling of William Shakespeare’s play, set in 19th-century Italy, is a fun romp. Things get complicated when a spell is cast on a bunch of lovers in a forest as they sleep. When they wake up, the spell makes them fall in love with the first person they see. Even Titania (Michelle Pfeiffer), the Queen of the Fairies, falls in love with a lowly weaver (Kevin Kline). The cast includes Rupert Everett, Calista Flockhart, Christian Bale, Dominic West, Sophie Marceau, Roger Rees, Bill Irwin and Sam Rockwell. Stanley Tucci as Puck is the highlight of the cast, causing problems as the mischievous Puck. Even people who don’t like Shakespeare will have a good time watching this wonderful tale of love and mischief. My Rating: Full Price  Available to rent/buy on Amazon. 

Weird Credits:  From the credits of We Live in Time:  Head Chaperone

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: Conclave  (2024) PG  Conclave begins when the Pope has suddenly died, and Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) has been given the task of leading the secretive and ancient voting process of selecting a new Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have convened, Cardinal Lawrence discovers a trail of secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake. Secrets that could destroy the Church and get Cardinal Lawrence killed. The cast has three former Academy Award Nominees: Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, and Stanley Tucci. Conclave Website The film opens in theaters on Friday, October 25, 2024. 

 

Until Next Time!