Heretic

My View:  Heretic  (2024)  R   In Heretic, two young Mormon women (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher) have been spreading the word of God door to door without much success. They knock on Mr. Reed’s (Hugh Grant) door, and he welcomes them in, eager to hear what they have to say. The two girls soon learn that they are captive in the house and are to play a game of cat-and-mouse in the home of a madman. Heretic is a highly inventive horror/suspense film that will test your nerves and even your puzzle-solving skills. Hugh Grant gives one of his best performances in years and against type as a man who invites two young women into his home to test their faith and will to live. Grant, as a man who has lots of questions and few answers, is a delight to watch on the screen, as he pulls out all the stops, including some songs from the past and some trivia from the present. It’s a master class in being charming while also being weird and scary at the same time. Heretic is a film where evil thinks it can out-think good, as Mr. Reed pushes the young Mormon missionaries to question their religious beliefs while also putting them through a torturous puzzle of a house that seems always to have one more door to open. If you're not prepared for the constant questions about faith and religion, Heretic may not be the horror film for you. However, if you wait for Mr. Reed to get down to business, there are some excellent scares in your future. Just know that you may want to take a religion course or two at your local community college after seeing Heretic and being a part of Mr. Reed’s lectures. You might also have a craving for blueberry pie. Then again, probably not.  My Rating: Full Price Heretic Website  Now playing in theaters.

Indiefest:  Small Things Like These  (2024)  PG-13  Small Things Like These takes place in Ireland in 1985, where Bill (Cillian Murphy), a local coal distributor, lives with his wife and five children. While delivering coal, he sees a sight that will change his life: a young woman is screaming while being dragged against her will by two nuns and another woman into the church of the convent he is delivering to. Small Things Like These is about a man who has a troubled past and now is confronted with a situation that constantly brings up that past. Cillian Murphy gives us a performance that is all about the silence that almost encapsulates the character as he ponders his childhood and what to do about the young woman he has seen being mistreated by the nuns. Bill is a man with a good heart. He is a wonderful father to five girls and is married to a wife he adores. However, Bill, like the rest of the town, knows that nuns run a home for unmarried women who have become pregnant. As the film progresses, Bill learns more and more about how these young women are being treated, especially the young woman he saw earlier. Bill has to make a decision whether to stay silent and carry on with his business or take a risky action that could lead to significant consequences. Murphy gives us another Oscar-worthy performance, one where his face, often in shadows and in close-up, gives us all we need to know about what he is feeling. It’s a performance that you will not forget.   My Rating: Full Price  Small Things Like These Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

Indiefest:  Emilia Perez  (2024) R Rita (Zoe Saldaña) is a lawyer who feels that she will never be successful. She gets an anonymous call that tells her if she is willing to meet with someone, she will be richly rewarded. Rita goes to the meeting against her better judgment and discovers that her new client is a cartel kingpin, Juan ‘Manitas’ Del Monte. It's a meeting that will change her and Manitas' lives, for both good and bad. Emilia Perez is a musical in the style of Andrew Lloyd Weber, where much of what the characters think and say is expressed through song. Shot in Mexico by French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, the film stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, and Selena Gomez in a film that takes you on a journey you won’t expect. I loved the performances by all three, especially the opening musical number that Zoe Saldaña does as her character expresses her frustration with being smarter and a better lawyer than her boss. The problem for me was that the musical numbers seemed endless and were often filled with words that didn't quite fit together. The film felt much longer than its two-hour and ten-minute running time, and while the plot certainly gets points for creativity (and makeup), it felt a little too much like watching a very long Telenovela. While I am not enamored with the film, I will tell you that France has submitted it as their official submission for Best International Picture, and it won awards at film festivals across the world, including Cannes. It’s just not my type of film. However, it might be yours. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Emilia Perez Info   Now playing in select theaters and will be available on Netflix on Wednesday, November 13, 2024. 

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see when it was first released but have seen recently)   Juror #2  (2024)  PG-13   In Juror #2, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult), is serving on a high-profile murder trial. Justin faces a moral dilemma that will undoubtedly impact his entire life. Justin is being forced to reexamine a past event that happened to him that could help determine the case’s verdict. This could be the last film that Clint Eastwood directs, which is sad because the studio only gave it a small amount of screens in a few cities. Eastwood, for the last ten years, has been an up-and-down director with some good work (Richard Jewell, Sully) along with some so-so work (Cry Macho, The 15:17 to Paris). I am happy to say that this time out, Eastwood has given us a solid courtroom drama about a man, played by a low-key Nicholas Hoult, who has a huge moral dilemma. He has information that could change the outcome of the trial, but it could also get him into trouble. The film keeps the tension going soon after Justin is picked to be a juror for the trial, as we are let in on what Justin knows. The film puts you in the shoes of Justin, and we have to decide whether to go along with what Justin does with the information or root against him, this family man with a baby on the way. While not a great film, Juror #2 is a solid work that deserved more theaters and promotion for a four-time Academy Award winner. Sorry Mr. Eastwood, Hollywood is a very fickle town.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Juror #2 Website   Soon will be on streaming services. 

My View:  Blitz  (2024)  PG-13   Blitz is about nine-year-old George (Elliot Heffernan), who is sent by his mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) to the countryside via train to escape World War II in London. Defiant and determined, George leaves the train and sets out to return to his family in a city being attacked by constant bombing. The film takes place when London was under siege by bombing, and going to a makeshift fallout shelter was a nightly activity. Rita works in a factory making bombs, and she wants her son to be safe. So, against his will, she puts him on a train. George shares the same fate as more than a million other children during the war, being sent to the countryside for safety, but without his family. However, George has other ideas and jumps the train, starting a journey to go home again. Blitz is the tale of two people. George, a young, independent boy, will see and do things that he can’t imagine to get back home. And his mother, Rita, who at first is sad that her only child has been sent away. Rita learns her son jumped the train, and no one knows where he is. The production design and the cinematography of this film are outstanding, making you feel as if you, too, are in London dodging bombs and burning houses. The film is anchored by two exceptional performances: Elliot Heffernan as the tough, determined George and Saoirse Ronan as Rita, the single mom trying to raise her son and keep him safe. Heffernan is perfect in the role of George, who seems almost as if he is from a Dickens story. We see the horror of war through Heffernan's eyes as George brings us along for his adventure full of betrayal, close calls, and death. Saoirse Ronan is remarkable as the young mother who is just trying to survive while loving her son with all her heart. It's a performance that will tear at your heart. Writer/director Steve McQueen takes us on an adventure where the world has been torn apart, and we get to experience it from the point of view of a son and a mother who only want to find each other again.  My Rating: Full Price  Blitz Info  Now playing in select theaters and will be streaming the Apple TV+ platform on Friday, November 22, 2024.

My View:  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024)  PG   In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Grace (Judy Greer) has been given the reigns of the annual Christmas Pageant. One problem: the Herman kids, the terrors of the neighborhood, are determined to be included in this year’s pageant. Wherever the Herman kids go, mayhem and trouble always follow. Will Christmas survive? I got a very different film than what I was expecting. I thought this would be more of a silly and laugh-out-loud funny film, like A Christmas Story. Instead, we get a wonderful film about acceptance, compassion, and empathy. If you're not looking, you might even get the meaning of Christmas thrown in for good measure. What you see in the trailer is about all the hijinks you get from the Herman kids. This is a film whose message is that the church is for all of us, poor and rich alike. A lovely performance by Judy Greer anchors the film as the mom who takes on the Christmas Pageant and the busy body women who want her to get rid of the Herman kids from appearing in the pageant. Greer works the story with lightness and joy in her performance, making us fall in love with Grace as she is willing to include the kids who everyone else wants gone. The film also has standout performances from Molly Belle Wright as Beth, Grace’s daughter who prays to God to help her mother put on the pageant, and Beatrice Schneider as Imogene, the leader of the Herman kids who is determined that she will play Mary in the pageant. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a film that the whole family will enjoy, and I can see it becoming a permanent part of the yearly Christmas movie-watching experience.   My Rating: Full Price  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Website  Now playing in theaters.

Forgotten Film:  Shade  (2003) R  Vernon (Stewart Townsend) is a card shark, so good that people think it’s magic. Charlie Miller (Gabriel Byrne) and his girlfriend, Tiffany (Thandiwe Newton), see someone they can use to do a con. The man they want to take down is a notorious gambler, Dean Stevens (Sylvester Stallone). It’s going to take a lot to take Dean down. This is a film that has so many twists and turns that it almost makes your head spin. There are some fun performances, including Jamie Foxx and Melanie Griffith. It’s a movie that makes for a good weekend watch, with plenty of surprises to keep you interested.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Shade Info  Available for rent/buy on Amazon.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Heretic:  Breakdown Artist

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  September 5  (2024)  R  During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting team finds itself covering a hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. The trailer looks fantastic, highlighting an event when literally the whole world was watching.  September 5 Website  The film will be in theaters on Friday, November 29, 2024. 

Until Next Time!

Here

My View:  Here  (2024)  PG-13  Here is about more than a century of life in one American home, one room, shown to us from one view as we see a tale of love, loss, laughter, family, and life. Here is an intriguing filmmaking experiment that occasionally succeeds, but most of the time feels too gimmicky for its own good. The camera stays stationary throughout the film as we traverse the history of this piece of land and, for the majority of the film, the history of the house. Much has been made of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright back together again as a couple in this film, and yes, there is some de-aging (sometimes not well), but mostly this is a film about couples and how they spend their lives together, most until the very end. The film takes a bit of getting used to as it constantly goes back and forth through time, never staying in one place for too long. Each scene builds its story, like the bricks we see being laid for the house’s foundation early in the film. Some couples stand out more than others, even a few famous ones (if you count a couple who invented a certain landmark recliner). And as we move along, we get a few interesting tidbits, but they come in dribbles and drabs. The family that Tom Hanks’s character is part of makes up a good portion of the film, and for better and sometimes worse, we get to know that family the best. There is some joy in Here but it doesn't come from the Hanks/Wright portion and that makes the film feel uneven. I have a feeling that Here would have made a great animated short, but alas, instead, we get a valiant attempt in filmmaking at creating something unusual. However, the melodrama of the story and the sheer gimmickry overwhelm what could have been.  My Rating: Cable  Here Website  Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Anora  (2024)  R   Anora (Mikey Madison), or as she will tell you, Ani, is a sex worker from Brooklyn who meets Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein), who hires her for the weekend. The weekend becomes something more when the two impulsively marry. Little does Anora know that Ivan is the son of an oligarch, and when his family finds out about the marriage, Anora and Ivan are in big trouble. Mikey Madison gives us a performance that knocks you right out of your seat as the take no bull, just trying to survive anyway she can Ani. It's a stunning, take no prisoners display that will make Madison a star and maybe even get her a deserved Oscar nomination. Anora is from award-winning filmmaker Sean Baker, who gave us Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket. As with his previous movie, Red Rocket, sex plays a vital role in the plot and how Ani sees herself and her world. Now, at first glance, you will fall in love, as does Ani, with Ivan, played by the beautifully hyper Mark Eidelshtein. However, there is a secondary character that will steal the film from everyone except for Madison. Igor, played by the amazingly low-key Yura Borisov. Borisov, as the muscle in the film, is able to make us follow him as he barely says anything, but his part becomes more important as the film moves along. The film slows down a bit in the last third of the film, but that allows us to see the little things that go on between Ani and Igor. I and my fellow critics were blown away by the final scene of Anora at a screening. We all sat there in silence, watching all the credits roll by, not wanting to break the mood of what we just watched. It's possible that you will do the same. My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Anora Website   Now playing in select theaters.

My View:  Music by John Williams  (2024)  Music by John Williams is a documentary film about the life and work of legendary composer John Williams, who has composed some of Hollywood’s most famous scores. Music by John Williams is more of a tribute film than a life story documentary, and if anyone deserves a tribute film, it’s John Williams. I was amazed by how much he has done in his life, from leading a jazz band to composing music for symphonies, along the way, playing piano on some of the great film scores of the 50s and 60s. And in all that, he also did a ton of TV work in the 60s, creating scores for programs like Peter Gunn and, yes, Gilligan’s Island. Then he met a certain director, Mr. Spielberg, who was just starting his career, and they began a partnership that created some of the most iconic and beautiful scores for films that will be celebrated long after they are gone. The amount of work that Williams did was astounding, including one year when he did the scores for Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in the same year. Fans of Williams will love all the behind-the-scenes stories that he tells about his work, and film buffs will love all the scenes from some of the most influential films of the last 30 years that John Williams made memorable because of the music he created.  My Rating: Full Price  Music by John Williams Website  Now playing on the Disney+ platform.

My View:  Martha  (2024)  R  The documentary Martha tells the story of Martha Stewart, who went from teen model to America’s first influencer, a woman who became a billionaire but also went to prison. Martha Stewart is a person who I would call an odd duck. She is a brilliant woman who insists on perfection from herself and anyone who works for her. From this film, we see that. We also see a woman who got married too young. Had a child too young and from what you see in this film, she shouldn't have ever gotten married. Martha is interviewed on camera for the film, and there are a few moments when we glimpse a bit behind the curtain of the woman who wants to control everything. It’s very fleeting, but when she talks about her marriage and her husband’s cheating, we see a bit of Martha that we don’t normally see. It’s still a fascinating story about a woman who was driven to be a success and kept breaking that glass ceiling, whether it was working on the male-driven world of Wall Street or convincing a group of stodgy old men that her magazine idea would not only work but would be a huge seller. The film does look at her arrest and trial. It’s very clear that Martha was put on trial to make an example of, not because she had been caught doing something wrong. If you are a fan of Martha, you will love this film because you see so much of her life both in the past and now. If you aren’t a fan, then you might, like me, get a little tired of the constant self-congratulation that she does throughout the film. But that’s Martha being Martha. She feels that if she doesn’t do it, no one will do it. At least not to her high standards.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee     Martha Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

My View:  Time Cut  (2024)  Time Cut is about Lucy (Madison Bailey), a modern high school senior who stumbles on a time machine and is transported back to 2003, the year her sister was murdered by a serial killer. Lucy must now figure out how to blend in while living in 2003 as she tries to find and stop a serial killer and save her sister. Time Cut is a film that has the basis of a good plot that never comes to the surface. Madison Bailey is the best thing about this poor excuse for a slasher film, but even her effervescence can’t overcome a script that throws out things like time machines without explanation or reason. The scares are barely there, and the killer looks like a terrible attempt at putting together a Jason costume teen for a last-minute party. I love how films like this ask us to just accept that Lucy can just show up at a high school and no one will ask who the heck she is. The plot is too lazy to explain anything, and the ending is mind-blowingly dumb. It’s too bad because other than a few cool April Lavigne songs and a brief trip to the mall, not much is made of the 20-year time jump unless you have Lucy ask about Facebook and Twitter, haha. Nevermind.  My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again  Time Cut Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Forgotten Film:  On the Edge  (2001)  R  Jonathan (Cillian Murphy) is mourning the loss of his father. He steals his father’s ashes and tries to commit suicide by driving a stolen car off a cliff. He survives with barely a scratch and is sent to a psychiatric hospital. Jonathan develops friendships and realizes that life can be challenging and troublesome, but if you have friends and a sense of humor, things can change. Although On the Edge is not a great film, it features an exceptional performance from a very young Cillian Murphy. Murphy’s Jonathan is a young man who is hurting but uses humor to stay sane. Murphy carries the film, which overall is a script that could have used a rewrite or two. However, Murphy makes On the Edge worth watching.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  On the Edge Info  The film is available for rent/buy on Amazon. 

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Time Cut:  Additional Literary Material

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Small Things Like These  (2024)  PG-13  Small Things Like These takes place in Ireland in 1985, where Bill (Cillian Murphy), a local coal distributor, lives with his wife and five children. While delivering coal, he sees a sight that will change his life: a young woman is screaming while being dragged against her will by two nuns and another woman into the church of the convent he is delivering to. The film was shot on location in Ireland. That’s enough for me to see it.  Small Things Like These Website  Coming to theaters on Friday, November 8, 2024. 

Until Next Time!