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!