The Bride!

My View:  The Bride!  (2026) R The Bride! is a retelling of the story of the Bride of Frankenstein. In the 1930s, Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) had traveled to Chicago to seek the aid of Dr. Eupronius (Annette Bening) in creating a companion. Together, they revive a murdered woman, creating The Bride (Jessie Buckley), who is far more than expected. This sparks a romance, police attention, and more. It’s very hard to describe what this film is. Is it a horror film? Sort of. A musical? Sort of. A comedy? Sometimes. A romance?Nearly. Hard to follow? Absolutely. It is a film with some outstanding performances by Christian Bale as the love-lorn monster and Jessie Buckley as his intended love interest, but to say this movie is off-the-wall bonkers and all over the place would be putting it mildly. I mean, this film even has an homage to Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. Buckley gives an incredible performance of a young woman who is raised from the dead and has a second person in her brain. That person is Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, credited with creating a story that is the origin of both horror and science fiction. Few actors could master this role, but Buckley mesmerizes, switching smoothly between characters, even within a single line. Bale’s monster is mostly a sidekick to The Bride and is happy to go along for the ride. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal went for way over the top with a storyline that just gets weirder as it goes along, with musical numbers, murders, and lots of yelling. It’s a big swing by Gyllenhaal that just never connected for me and, frankly, by the end of the film, gave me a bit of a headache. A little of this film goes a long way, and I wasn’t willing to go that far with it. Still, Bale’s monster in tux and tails, doing a song-and-dance number, will stick with me for a long time. Ultimately, The Bride! left me more exhausted than entertained. There is a mid-credit scene if you can make that far.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Bride! Website  Now playing in theaters

My View:  Hoppers  (2026)  PG  Hoppers takes place after a group of scientists invent a way to “hop” a human mind into a lifelike robot-animal body. Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), an animal-loving teen, ‘hops’ into a robotic beaver to thwart a construction company from destroying an animal habitat. Mabel discovers that the animal world is full of surprises, including her unwitting role in an animal uprising. Hoppers is a fun, funny, and delightful return to good filmmaking for Pixar. The storyline is inventive, and the humor works from start to finish. Hoppers message about taking care of the environment is effective without being preachy. The film is fast-moving, and young kids are going to love all the talking animals. The humor makes this film stand out, and while the kids will be laughing at the antics, adults will enjoy all the side quips the characters make. Hoppers keeps the storyline moving as we go on a riotous adventure into the animal world that you won’t soon forget. The film has two post-credits scenes you'll want to stick around for. My Rating: Full Price  Hoppers Website  Now playing in theaters

My View: Protector  (2025)  R  Protector is about Nikki (Milla Jovovich), a decorated ex-soldier who left that life to raise her daughter, Chloe (Isabel Myers). When Chloe is kidnapped, Nikki sets off in a race against time to find her daughter, combing through the seamy criminal underworld. Nikki will stop at nothing to find and destroy the people who threaten her daughter. I have a feeling that they either didn’t have a huge budget or Milla wanted to take a day off, because once the film gets to the kidnapping, we are just told about Nikki’s first attempt to rescue Chloe. Then, later in the big battle sequence, there are a couple of times when we hear gunshots but see nothing other than Nikki coming through the doors where the shots were fired. I think fans of Milla will be disappointed with the action sequences, which mostly feature her shooting people rather than hand-to-hand combat. And Protector has an ending that just feels like the writer wanted a twist at the end and then said screw it, here’s a twist that will mess with you. Instead, it just makes you mad. My Rating: Cable   Protector Website   Now playing in theaters

Indiefest:  Dolly  (2025)  R  Macy (Fabianne Therese) is out in the woods with her boyfriend when they encounter a monstrous, doll-masked figure, Dolly (Max the Impaler), who takes Macy back to a house of horrors, where Dolly intends to raise Macy as their own child. This gore-fest horror film starts out strong but runs a bit out of steam by the end. The film is shot on 16mm film, which gives it a great 70s horror vibe, with plenty of Texas Chainsaw Massacre homages thrown in, but it lacks the scares to keep our interest in the slender storyline throughout. Fabianne Therese does an admirable job as our heroine, but there’s not enough in this film to make it more than an interesting idea that just doesn’t have enough substance for a full-length film. My Rating: Cable  Dolly Website     Now playing in theaters

Indiefest:  Heel  (2025)  Heel follows 19-year-old Tommy (Anson Boon), whose life revolves around drugs, parties, and violence. After a night of debauchery, he is kidnapped by a married couple (Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough) who hold him in the basement and subject him to relentless mind games in an attempt to put him on the right path and make him a ‘good boy.’ This is an interesting concept for a film that spends too long developing the story and then ends up very predictable. However, the film is worth watching for the two leads, with Stephen Graham as the dad/kidnapper/jailer and Anson Boon as the punk imprisoned and subjected to constant brainwashing. Stephen Graham has just the right amount of creepiness, making his character seem sincerely nuts while also showing a bit of caring. Anson Boon is perfect as the young man who thinks he can live forever and get away with anything he wants to, including violence. Boon keeps the film moving, and we never know when he will erupt and unleash the retribution he promises. Still, the film feels stunted in its character background, and we never find out why the whole family accepts the kidnapping. We just know that Tommy will never change. Or will he?  My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Heel Website  Now playing in select theaters and available to rent on some streaming platforms.

My Rating: Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man  (2026) R Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is set in 1940 Birmingham, amidst the chaos of World War II. Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), against his better judgment, has returned to face his own demons and choose between confronting his legacy or destroying it. This is a must-see for fans of the TV series, but if you haven’t seen the TV program, you can still get the gist of the plot pretty easily. This is a wonderful and interesting character study of two men: Tommy, who has lost everyone he cares about, and Tommy’s son, Duke (Barry Keoghan), who has taken over the Peaky Blinders gang. Duke is trying to make his own way in the world, but he's making some risky decisions that will have major consequences. Tommy has escaped into the countryside and is writing his memoirs. Two people show up to convince Tommy to save his son from a major mistake. His sister, Ada (Sophie Rundle), pleads for him to come back with little result, and Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson), the twin sister of Duke’s mom, who was the love of Tommy’s life. Kaulo, though some seducing and Romani Gypsy logic, convinces Tommy to come back. Now the question is, can he reach Duke in time, and will Duke betray him? The film is a blast to watch, as Cillian Murphy does what he does best: brood and be imposing. Adding to the mix is Keoghan, who plays the wild-card kid perfectly, whose choice we don’t know what it will be or when he will erupt. This is a perfect companion to the series, and even if you don’t know the story, the film’s storyline and performances will keep you on the edge of your seat.  My Rating: Full Price  Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Website   Now in select theaters and on Netflix on Friday, March 20, 2026

Forgotten Film:  Best in Show (2000) PG-13  A behind-the-scenes mockumentary about what goes on in the cut-throat world of competitive dog shows. We follow a group of dog owners who are willing to do anything to ensure that their pampered canines have every chance of winning. Directed by Christopher Guest and co-written by Guest and Eugene Levy (though much of the film features improvised dialogue), the film is a hilarious look at a special group of people who believe their dogs are better than even they are. I picked this film out because, even though it has an all-star cast, the late Catherine O’Hara stands out as Cookie Fleck, the co-owner with her husband, Gerry (Eugene Levy), of their dog, Winky. Cookie, it seems, has slept with everyone at the show with the possible exception of her husband. O’Hara’s performance is a masterclass in how to deliver comedy with such ease and is a delight to watch. My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Best in Show Info The film is available on most streaming platforms.

Weird Credits: From the credits of The Bride!: Special wigmaker to The Bride

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: They Will Kill You (2026)  R  A young woman (Zazie Beetz) takes a job as a housekeeper at a NYC high-rise that has a history of mysterious disappearances. She soon realizes that the high-rise is a deathtrap, and she is its latest victim. They have no idea who they hired, but the high-rise is about to find out. Zazie has been on a hot streak with her Supporting Actress Emmy nod in the TV series Atlanta, and films like Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and Joker: Folie a Deux.  They Will Kill You Website The film will be in theaters on Friday, March 17, 2026

Until Next Time!

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

My View:  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice  (2024) PG-13  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice begins after an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family have come home to Winter River and the house we all know so well. Lydia (Winona Ryder) is still haunted by Beetlejuice, and to make things worse, her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), has discovered that mysterious model of the town. It’s only a matter of time before someone’s name will be uttered three times. So Tim Burton and Michael Keaton decided it was time to revisit the weird house up on the hill. So the big question is, does going back to see the ‘Juiceman’ work? Yeah, it does. Is it anywhere close to the original? No, but it’s still a good, funny popcorn film that you will have a great time watching. One thing that Burton did is realize that Keaton is in only about 15 minutes of the 1988 film because most of the film is about Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’s characters dealing with being dead and then trying to get their unwanted houseguests the heck out of there. So Keaton is in this film a lot more; in fact, there seem to be about four plots going on simultaneously, and Keaton’s Beetlejuice is involved in all of them. Catherine O’Hara is back as Delia Deetz, and O’Hara steals every scene she is in, just as you would expect, with some of the film’s best lines. Ryder does an admirable job of playing the mom who has made a career as a woman who can see ghosts. Lydia is just trying to keep things together after her ex-husband disappeared on a trip to the Amazon. Besides Keaton, this is Ortega’s film, as she plays a young woman who had to grow up as the daughter of the ghost whisper, and she misses her father, who made things seem not quite as weird when he was around. Ortega does a great job of selling us on a person who is constantly giving the side eye to her mom, especially when she brings up seeing the afterlife around them. Keaton has a blast as the man we all came to see and he doesn’t disappoint with lots of quips that only Beetlejuice can say (or do). The film is a little bloated by a secondary plot led by a character played by Monica Bellucci, who never quite feels like her character really was needed. The film also has a bit of trouble trying to tie all the loose ends together, and some of the resolutions to big plot lines seem rushed. Still, I had a great time watching this film, and yes, there are plenty of callbacks to the first film, including the shrunken-head guys (one of who plays a pretty big part). I also loved that a lot of the special effects weren’t done with CGI but with things that made the first film so much fun to watch, with lots of strange and creepy puppet-controlled ghouls and some stop-motion animation. So get ready to say a certain guy’s name three times and go back to the world of the weird and creepy. You will have a fun time.  My Rating: Full Price  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide. 

Indiefest:  His Three Daughters  (2024)  R  His Three Daughters is the story of three daughters (Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, and Carrie Coon) who converge on their father’s New York apartment to care for him in his last days. In the next three days, the daughters will try to heal old wounds and come together to patch together a family that has been separated for far too long. This is a film about how families aren’t always what they seem. Katie (Carrie Coon) is the woman who wants to plan everything, has opinions on everybody, and can’t seem to sit still. Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) is a free spirit who does yoga, tries to be the peacemaker, and seems to have a successful life. Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) is the daughter who has been living with their father for the past few years, taking care of him as his sickness took control of both their lives. Rachel, who has a different mother than the other two sisters, spends most of her days doing off-track betting and getting high. She would rather spend time in her room than interact with her sisters. The three are forced to work together to make their father’s last days as comfortable (aided by a couple of hostel nurses to help them make his death as painless as possible. His Three Daughters is a warm, funny, and touching film that also has a few tearful moments. All three women are wonderful in their roles. Coon has the most demanding role because Katie is not a likable person, and it’s Coon’s job to let us see beyond the hard shell that Katie has put up. Coon lets us know she does care but couldn’t always deal with the fact that her father was sick and dying. Olsen is fun to watch as the seemingly always positive Christina, who tries to keep things moving along but uses her yoga to escape when things get too tough. Of the three, Natasha Lyonne is the actor who shines throughout as a woman who just wants the whole thing to be over and uses her betting and getting high to escape the reality of her father’s soon-to-be death. Lyonne is perfect in the role, delivering the film’s center, as we see things through her (sometimes bloodshot) eyes. There are some incredible moments in this film, one of which is when Rachel’s boyfriend, played by Jovan Adepo, who knows how much Rachel has done for her father and lets the other two sisters have a piece of his mind on how they don’t known Rachel and what she has done this past year. I loved everything about His Three Daughters (though there is a section near the end that I wish wasn’t a part of the film, but that’s nitpicking), and the performances by these three outstanding actors are worth the price of admission alone. Just bring a tissue or two.  My Rating: Full Price  His Three Daughters Website    Now playing in select theaters and on the Netflix platform on September 20th. 

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see in theatres but have seen recently):  The Killer  (2024) R   In The Killer, Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel) is the most lethal and feared assassin in the business. In fact, she is known by the name Queen of the Dead. Zee takes a job to kill a young blind woman (Jenna Silvers) and has a change of heart. Now, every hitman in Paris is out to kill her, and her only ally is a French detective (Omar Sy). A few directors have remade their own films through the years. Hitchcock is the one everyone remembers when he remade The Man Who Knew too Much. Was it a better film? I am a fan of Hitchcock’s early work, so I don’t think any film that has Doris Day sing Que Sera, Sera about a million times is a better film. In 1989, John Woo brought us The Killer, considered one of the best action films of all time, and brought Woo to Hollywood. So why would Woo remake this film? Sure, you can do a few more things with CGI than you could with actual stunts in 1989, but that’s what made that film stand out. Its action sequences are brilliant, and I loved how Ah Jong, the hitman played by the totally cool Chow Yun-fat, didn’t just shoot a person once (like so many of Hollywood’s action heroes). No, he shot them 6 to 10 times before moving on to the next guy. So, in this remake, Woo has our hero as a woman, Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel), known as the Queen of the Dead. It’s basically the same setup: our hero goes out to do a hit, and a singer gets caught up in the gunfire and is blinded by the firefight. Zee feels guilty, and instead of killing the singer, the only person who can testify against Zee, she saves her instead. The Killer has plenty of gunplay, some fun chase sequences, and a couple of well-choreographed firefights. However, Nathalie Emmanuel doesn’t have the star power to pull off the most feared assassin in the business. I also did not like the chemistry between Emmanuel and Omar Sy, who plays the cop who can’t be bought and slowly becomes Zee’s ally in bringing down the bad guys. One of the great things about the original was the chemistry and friendship that developed between the assassin and the cop. There just isn’t much there for us to care about either character. Woo pulls a few changes to the script (which I won’t give away), but I am incredibly disappointed by the ending of this film. It’s hard to revisit your old haunts, especially when they are shown so brightly in the past. Sometimes, it is best to let things stay in the past.   My Rating: Cable  The Killer Website   Now playing on the Peacock platform.

Indiefest:  Red Rooms  (2023)  Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) is a model by day and an online poker player at night. Although she excels at both, she doesn't find much pleasure in either (although she enjoys watching men lose). She starts attending a high-profile trial of a serial killer, but not just any serial killer, but one where the man kidnapped young teen women, held them captive, and tortured them to death, all while videotaping them. Kelly-Anne's obsession with the trial is so great that she sleeps outside the courthouse to be first in line to get into the proceedings. Kelly-Anne has started on a path that will become such an obsession that she will risk her career to keep going. Not only that, she is willing to pay any amount to obtain the missing footage of one of the girls. Red Rooms is a dark and disturbing film that looks at how people get so involved with serial killers, making them almost part of a weird kind of religion where they worship at the feet of the killer. We don't exactly understand why Kelly-Anne does what she does, but we watch her become more and more obsessed with the murderer and what he did. Juliette Gariépy does a magnificent job of keeping Kelly-Anne at an arm’s length from us, the audience, and we never see her waver, even when things seem at their most desperate. I saw the film at the 2024 Atlanta Film Festival and could hear the audience occasionally gasp as we followed Kelly-Anne down the rabbit hole. Red Rooms is a horror film without the bloodshed (we never see the footage, only hear the screams), but it’s still scary as a young woman seems to lose her self-worth as she delves deeper and deeper into an abyss that she may never come out of.  My Rating: Full Price  Red Rooms Website   Now playing in theaters.

Forgotten Film:  Boomerang (1992)  R  Marcus (Eddie Murphy) is a successful cosmetic company executive who loves to date women like they are just another conquest, another notch on his bedroom headboard. He meets his match when Jacqueline (Robin Givens) becomes his boss and plays Marcus like all the women he used to date. She flirts with him, sleeps with him, then dumps him, and then does it again. Marcus soon realizes he is being played with like he used to play women. His eyes are opened when he realizes there has been a remarkable woman right there all along, Angela (Halle Berry). The cast shines in this film with Givens perfect as the man-eater who doesn’t care who she hurts, as long as she is in power, and Berry as the sweet and wonderful Angela, a woman who is perfect for Marcus, if he would only realize it. Boomerang is one of those movies that makes me mad at Murphy because he is brilliant in this film and plays Marcus perfectly, but too often in Murphy’s career, he took the easy money and made a bunch of crap films that were below his talent. So see this film, revel in Berry and Murphy’s chemistry, and have fun with Givens giving Marcus his just turn at being used. My Rating: Full Price  Boomerang Info  Available on Amazon and Apple TV to rent or buy.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Shrinker Performers 

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Never Let Go  (2024)  R  A mother (Halle Berry) and her two sons (Anthony B. Jenkins, Percy Daggs IV) have been haunted by an evil spirit for years. They stay connected at all times, even tethering themselves with ropes when they travel outside so they are always connected back to their house. When one of the boys questions if the evil is real and the ties that bind them together are severed, their fight for survival becomes life and death. I’ll go see Halle Berry in anything where she has to kick some evil butt.  Never Let Go Website   The film is in theaters on Friday, September 20, 2024. 

Until Next Time!