A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

My View:  A Big Bold Beautiful Journey  (2025)  R    In A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, David (Colin Farrell) is on a road trip to a wedding when he meets Sarah (Margot Robbie). He convinces her to go on an adventure guided by his GPS. Along the way, the two will discover a magical doorway that allows them revisit the past and explore places and times they thought they knew. I was disappointed in this film, especially after having high hopes for it based on the trailer and the strong cast. While I appreciated watching Farrell and Robbie as they revisited significant points in their lives—both are very attractive and talented actors—I found the overall experience lacking. As a romantic film, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey failed to evoke the warmth and enjoyment that one expects from a story that is supposed to be about finding that one person who you can be comfortable with, willing to spend your life with them. The film loses its way early on and never recovers, with banter between the two characters feeling almost painful to watch. I quickly became bored with their journey, as they repeatedly insisted that they weren’t meant to be together, even though it was clear to me that they would end up as a couple Their big realization moments didn’t hit the mark, and the twists and turns that happened felt unreal and lacked the big emotional moments that we needed to believe that the two were meant for each other. It’s too bad because somewhere in the bones of the script, there is a film that would have worked. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t.  My Rating: Cable  A Big Bold Beautiful Journey Website    Now playing in theaters. 

My View:  Him  (2025)  R  Him is about a young up-and-coming football star, Cameron (Tyriqu Withers), who has been invited by his idol, legendary quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), to train at Isaiah’s isolated compound. It’s a blood-chilling journey that will push Cameron to his limits and beyond to pursue excellence at any cost. IMDB classifies Him as a horror film, and if that is the case, then this movie is, using some football terms, a fumble, an incomplete pass and way offsides. Heck, it might even deserve holding and a personal foul. I was bored by the 20-minute mark and kept looking at my watch to see when this film would end. There are no genuine scares to be found, and Cameron is an idiot. He’s trying to become a number one draft pick, yet allows some shady trainer that he doesn’t know to keep injecting him with god knows what. It never occurs to Cameron that those injections could not only jeopardize his draft status, but he might be kicked out of the league. I kept thinking as I watched Him, that the writers didn’t know much about football and even less about horror films. I felt Marlon Wayans went way over the top with Isaiah’s antics (and there are a lot), and the violence was often done to try to shock us, with little effect. The ending, which took too long to develop, was idiotic and unsatisfying. So, I’m throwing a flag on the play and calling an audible for you to see anything else. My Rating: You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again Him Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  Happyend  (2024)    Happyend takes place in Tokyo in the near future, where the threat of a catastrophic quake hangs over the heads of its residents. High school students Yuta (Hayato Kurihara) and Kou (Yukito Hidaka) pull a prank on their principal. The prank leads to far-reaching consequences, and the two best friends react to these outcomes in vastly different ways. Happyend is a story of friendship set in a world where things could go wrong very quickly and often do. The two friends’ world becomes increasingly under the control of the school and the government, and we see how they react to the rules and the constant surveillance of their lives. The tension between the two friends grows larger as they attempt to deal with the situation. One takes things seriously, and the other deals with the surveillance and lack of freedom with humor. Despite addressing serious subjects, Happyend incorporates plenty of humor, and it’s fun to follow the two guys as they try to handle what the world is throwing at them.  My Rating: Full Price  Happyend Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

Indiefest:  The History of Sound  (2025)  R   The History of Sound is about two young men, Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor), who bond over the love of music right before WWI. They will meet again and explore their love of music and each other before going back out into the world. I enjoyed the first third of this film, as we get to know the two men who fall in love and are then separated by the war. Lionel goes back to the family farm, and David has been drafted. When David returns from the war, they meet up again and have a wonderful time going around the countryside recording folk music. When their time recording is over, the two men go their separate ways, something that Lionel will always regret. I struggled with the latter part of the film, primarily due to Lionel’s treatment of his later romantic partners. He tends to abandon them, much like he did with his own family. For instance, he leaves his mother to pursue his musical journey with David after his father’s death, which I found difficult to accept. The story also suffers as we watch Lionel go from job to job, as well as from lover to lover, without caring about who he hurts. I would have loved the film to be tighter in the second half; even cutting the last five minutes of the film would have made the ending much more touching and compelling. Mescal and O’Connor both do an outstanding job of making us believe and care about their relationship. Adding to the enjoyment of the film is the wonderful folk music that keeps filling the soundtrack and lets us understand why those songs were created and sung. Overall, I felt that this film would have worked better if the script had just stuck with the men during their college and music-finding years, letting the film and the experience end as the two say goodbye. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The History of Sound Website    Now playing in theaters. 

Forgotten Film:  Ondine  (2009) PG-13  Syracuse (Colin Farrell) is an Irish fisherman who quit drinking for the sake of his sick daughter. Meanwhile, his ex-wife is still drinking. Day after day, he comes back from fishing with empty nets. Then one day, his net is full, but it’s filled with a beautiful woman, Ondine (Alicja Bachleda). Syracuse’s daughter, Annie (Alison Bary), is convinced that Ondine is a selkie, a magical creature that can shapeshift between seal and human. Even Syracuse begins to realize that maybe his daughter is right and finds that he is falling for Ondine. While not a traditional fairy tale, this is an enchanting movie that keeps you guessing and wondering if there will be a happy ending. Colin Farrell delivers a brilliant performance, and the chemistry between Farrell and Alicja Bachleda creates sparks on the screen.   My Rating: Full Price  Ondine Info  Available to rent/buy on Amazon and some streaming services. 

Weird Credits:  From the credits of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey:  Spray Tan Artist

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: One Battle After Another  (2025) R  In One Battle After Another, a notorious enemy named Steve Lockjaw (Sean Penn) has resurfaced after 16 years, broken into Bob’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) home, and kidnapped his daughter (Chase Infiniti). Bob, a civil rights activist, must team up with an anti-government group to locate and rescue his daughter from an alt-right white supremacist group. The film is by Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza) and is creating a lot of Oscar buzz.  One Battle After Another Website  The film opens in theaters on Friday, September 26, 2025. 

Until Next Time!