Saturday Night

My View:  Saturday Night  (2024)  R  Saturday Night takes place on October 11th, 1975, when, at 11:30 pm, a group of young, wild performers and writers launched a new live TV show that changed the landscape forever. The film chronicles the events that took place in the 90 minutes prior to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. I am old enough to remember sitting in front of the TV with my dad to watch a new live show on a Saturday night at a really late time. My dad was a playwright and loved TV, especially comedies, so we were both blown away by what we saw that night. Not everything worked (George Carlin’s standup routine near the start of the show was a bomb), but most of the stuff they did was off the wall, inspirational comedy that thumbed its nose at almost everything from commercials to newscasts. Filmmaker Jason Reitman brings us the 90 minutes before that crazy broadcast happened. Saturday Night is a fun film that, like SNL, keeps throwing things at you, some of which work, some don’t. The film centers around Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), who is trying to put together a show in 90 minutes that everyone is telling he can’t possibly get it together. Everything goes wrong, from John Belushi not signing his contract and going rogue to lights that fall from the ceiling to a lineup of sketches/stand-ups/musical guests that would fill a four-hour show. All the while, Lorne is being told by the head of the network (played by everybody’s favorite SOB Willem Dafoe) that he will go to a Johnny Carson rerun if he feels that the show isn’t ready. Some outstanding performances help the film with Matt Wood playing the bull in a china shop, John Belushi, Ella Hunt playing the adorable ray of sunshine Gilda Radner, and Nicholas Braun as both the strange Andy Kaufman and the gentle Jim Henson. The film spends too much time on the relationship between Lorne and his wife, Rosie Shuster, played by the always scene-stealing Rachel Sennott. The film plays up too much with their strange relationship, with her deciding who to go home with, Lorne or Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien). I had fun with the film, especially seeing legendary SNL writer Michael O’Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) wreak havoc as only one of the great comedic but caustic minds could do. It’s a mad whirlwind of a film that doesn’t stop moving until the final frame, just like SNL itself.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Saturday Night Website Now playing in theaters.

My View:  Piece by Piece  (2024)  PG  Piece by Piece follows the life and career of American musician Pharrell Williams through the lens of Lego animation. Unlike all the other Lego movies like The Lego Movie (2014), this is a documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom (2013), Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)). Neville, in Lego form, sits down to interview Pharrell about his life and his music. The difference from an ordinary documentary is that we see everything through Pharrell’s eyes told through the magic of Lego animation. Pharrell’s fans will love this film, as will anybody who has listened to hip-hop, rap, and pop in the last thirty years. The fun of the film is seeing who will show up next to be interviewed and what their Lego figure will look like. Everyone who interacted with Pharrell and his ability to create hits shows up, including Gwen Stefani, Timbaland, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, and more. The film works when it lets Pharrell tell his story with enthusiasm and creativity. It doesn’t work when it gets bogged down by giving us an almost blow-by-blow sampling of the hits he has had a hand in and all the fashion lines he developed. Like putting together a Lego creation, the film has a lot of parts, some of which don't always fit. However, overall, Piece by Piece is a fun look at the life of a highly creative person who sees the world a bit differently, much like Legos themselves. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Piece by Piece Website Now playing in theaters.

Indiefest:  Terrifier 3  (2024)  R  In Terrifier 3, the residents of Miles County are sleeping peacefully on Christmas Eve. That slumber is about to be disturbed by a man who will unleash chaos, Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). I did not like this film as much as I liked Terrifier 2, which I loved because of the use of mythology, creating a firm understanding of what was going to happen. Plus, we got Lauren LaVera as Sienna chopping up Art right and left in an archangel costume. LaVera brought the movie to life and gave us a hero to root for. This film takes place five years later, and our heroine, Sienna, hasn't been doing well. She spends most of her time in a psychiatric facility. She gets out to visit for the holidays what’s left of her family and her brother, who is now in college. As with the first two films, there are plenty of body parts flying all over and blood spilling everywhere as Art finds different ways to kill, this time in a Santa costume because it’s Christmas. The film feels like filmmaker Damien Leone got just a little too cute in trying to overwhelm us with all the Christmas carnage. The film also goes a little too far in trying to shock audiences in several scenes. There are still some enjoyable scenes where people, like in the second film, begin to mess with Art and have no idea who they are dealing with. I missed the old Sienna, who battled Art for the final third of the film in part 2. The final battle seemed rushed and felt too much like a setup for the 4th installment. Overall, Art the Clown fans will have fun watching him dismember people, but Sienna fans, like myself, want her back to her old self for part 4.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Terrifier 3 Website   Now playing in theaters.

My View:  The Apprentice  (2024) R  The Apprentice tells the story of how a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) learned everything he needed to know about the world of real estate from the right hand of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Much has been said about this film, and it’s understandable why Donald Trump would not want it to be released. The film is about Donald trying to find his way in the world, out from the shadow of his father and he finds a man that can lead him to the promised land, even if that road is going to be bumpy and full of legal problems. Roy Cohn, played by the consistently brilliant Mark Strong, was a man who used everything in his power to ensure his clients won, including bribery, blackmail, and throwing every legal maneuver he could until the opposition stood down or gave in. Cohn saw in Trump someone he could mold and advise, though I am sure he also thought that Trump could be just another pawn in Cohn’s back pocket. The film doesn’t always work, but it’s not because of the performances. Sebastian Stan gives us a Trump who, when first meeting Cohn, is unsure of himself or how to go about getting what he wants. But ultimately, Cohn taught Donald too well, and what Cohn was used to giving out, Trump ended up giving him the same treatment. Do you learn anything new about Trump? Not really.  It’s funny, I didn’t like either character but by the end of the film, at least I understood Cohn.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Apprentice Website  Now playing in theaters.

My View:  The Last of the Sea Women  (2024)   The documentary The Last of the Sea Women takes place on the shores of Jeju Island, just below the southern tip of South Korea. A group of fierce elderly female divers fight to save their disappearing culture from the looming threats of pollution and global warming. You will fall in love with these feisty warriors, most of whom have been diving for 40 or 50 years. Once a thriving group of over 30,000, now their numbers are dwindling as the women continue to work in a sea that is slowly warming, causing them to dive deeper (without any breathing apparatus). The film follows the women as they continue to work, dealing with pollution and coral bleaching on a daily basis. Their lives are threatened when Japan, a not-too-distant neighbor, announces that it will release water from the Fukushima nuclear disaster site into the ocean. The film has some beautiful shots of women working under water that highlight why someone would keep working well into their 80s. It’s a magical world that they get to explore every day, but the film asks, for how much longer?  My Rating: Full Price  The Last of the Sea Women Info   Now playing on the Apple TV+ platform.

My View:  Lonely Planet  (2024)  R  In Lonely Planet, a writer, Katherine (Laura Dern), goes to a retreat in Morocco to be alone and finish her novel. There she meets Owen (Liam Hemsworth), a young man who feels abandoned by his girlfriend. The acquaintanceship develops into a life-altering love affair that neither was looking for. Romance and rom-com films often follow a pattern. If it’s a rom-com, the two eventual lovers dislike each other (or at least think they do) and seem wrong for each other. In romance films, usually, the two eventual lovers are in bad relationships (sometimes just the wrong person for them) or coming out of a breakup (or have given up on romance). In this film, Katherine is suffering from writer’s block, and it’s not being helped by the fact that her long-term relationship has ended. Owen the a guy who is with the woman who doesn’t appreciate him. So our couple meet by chance and start spending time with each other. Now, I am a fan of romance films, and I have always loved watching Laura Dern on the screen. Unfortunately, she is let down by the material, with the film playing the troupes I just described to the hilt. The big breakup (a usual thing in romance films) feels like a huge reach and brings the entire film crashing down. I did enjoy the ending, though it was once again right out of the romance playbook. Liam Hemsworth doesn’t have a lot to do; just be dreamy-looking and take his shirt off a lot. The two leads have some incredible chemistry that shows on the screen. The film centers around Laura Dern’s character and Dern makes this film watchable. It’s not a horrible romance film, just incredibly predictable, with a huge plot hole.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee Lonely Planet Info Now playing on the Netflix platform.

Sorry I Missed It (A film that I didn’t see when it was first released but have seen recently): Lee (2024) R   Lee is the story of Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller (Kate Winslet), a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II. Lee was a complex woman who fought to be seen as an equal, a photographer who belonged in the same places as men. The fact that she accomplished it during a war is remarkable. Kate Winslet pours her heart and soul into the role of the fiery Lee, whose personality was not always easy to get along with. A woman who bragged about her sex life and her drinking, she meets her match in an English art dealer named Roland (Alexander Skarsgard), who lets her be herself without trying to control her. Once the war starts, Lee makes it her mission to be on the front lines where the action is, and she finds someone willing to help her succeed in Life photographer David Scherman (played by an almost unrecognizable Andy Samberg in an outstanding supporting role). Together, the two photograph some of the horrors of the war, including the first uses of napalm, the shaming of French women who slept with the Germans in order to survive, and the results of the Holocaust at the camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. The film also shows us how the famous picture of Lee was taken with her taking a bath in Hitler's own bathtub. The film lets Winslet show us Lee as a bold woman who had trouble with authority and was willing to fight her way into where she knew she belonged.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Lee Website    The film is still playing in theaters.

Forgotten Film:  Akira Kurosawa's Dreams  (1990)  PG  A collection of eight stories based on dreams that legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954), Ran (1985)) had and wanted to explore on film. Kurosawa couldn’t get the film made with Japanese backing, so Steven Spielberg and others in Hollywood got Warner Brothers to release the film. It’s a fantastic film that tackles grief, guilt, mental illness, death, and the destruction of the environment. Incredibly beautiful at times, and all the stories are moving and heartfelt. Where else can you see filmmaker Martin Scorsese play Vincent Van Gogh?  My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Dreams Info The film is available for rent/buy on streaming services.

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Piece by Piece:  Animation Legal

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Heretic  (2024) R  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. It’s going to be fun to watch a horror film where Hugh Grant is the bad guy.  Heretic Website  The film will be released in theaters on Friday, November 8, 2024. 

 

                                                                    Until Next Time!

Inside Out 2

My View:  Inside Out 2  (2024)  PG  Riley is now a full-time teen, and her mind is going through some changes. The gang of Emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, have been doing a great job, but they are about to meet a new addition to the group: Anxiety. And it looks like she isn’t alone. When we last left Riley (Inside Out (2015)), she was still a preteen trying to get over moving to a new city and dealing with a lot of new emotions. Just when Riley thinks she has things handled with some great friends and a budding ice career, she becomes a teenager. With that comes a whole bunch of new emotions show up: Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hause), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), and worst of all, the ever hyper Anxiety (Maya Hawke). Just as these new emotions move in, Riley is given the immense chance to impress her future high school coach as she has been specially invited to a summer hockey camp. In the past, Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) has run the show, but now Anxiety has taken control, and things aren’t going well for Riley or her old emotions. Inside Out 2 is a wonderful addition to the Pixar lineup, and while not entirely on the level of the first film, it’s still a rousing, fun time, full of comedy and adventure. The new characters are hilarious, especially Ennui (think of her as a bored, too-cool French teen), with the standout being Maya Hawke as Anxiety. Hawke brings a fresh energy to the film, and her comedy timing is spot-on, making Anxiety antics over-the-top funny. Oh, and there are a couple of awesome new characters that I don’t want to spoil, but fans of old kids’ animation and old video games will be in heaven. Can Joy and the rest of the gang get control back from Anxiety? Well, you will have to see if Riley can conquer her emotions to survive hockey camp and the horrors of being a teenager. Make sure to stay through all the credits to see a bonus scene that perfectly caps off the film.  My Rating: Full Price  Inside Out 2 Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide.

Indiefest:  Tuesday  (2023)  R  Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a single mom, has devoted her life to her terminally ill daughter Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). One day, Death, in the form of a size-altering macaw, arrives at their home and tells the two to prepare for the end. Death’s arrival sends Zora and Tuesday on a journey that explores life, death, and love. I am not giving anything away (since it’s on the poster and in the trailer) that Death shows up in the form of a macaw parrot. When I saw the trailer for this film, I was expecting a film where Death and Zora talk about life and death, much like the professor and the genie in the Tilda Swinton drama Three Thousand Years of Longing  (2022). Instead, we get a wandering film that never can find its footing, as, at first, Tuesday befriends Death, convincing Death to let her live until her mother returns from an outing. Then it becomes Zora trying to defeat death in any way to keep her daughter alive. I never corrected to this film and never felt any of the emotions that the film wanted me to. I also felt that early on, the film was slow to get going because Death has a hard time speaking, and it takes a while for Death to make any sense at all. But mostly, Tuesday never fully gives us characters that we can understand and embrace, as its theme seems to be a one-note film.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Tuesday Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  Treasure  (2024)  R  In 1991, Ruth (Lena Dunham), a neurotic journalist from New York, takes after her father, Edek (Stephen Fry), back to Poland to visit his childhood home. However, Edek, a survivor of the Ghettos during the Holocaust, does not want to relive the trauma and does his best to sabotage the trip. Treasure works because of the performances of Dunham and Fry. Dunham plays Ruth as a sad sack person who desperately wants to connect with her father but doesn’t know how and is too stuck in her own misery to see how hard this trip is on Edek, making him relive a past he wants to forget. Edek is also at fault, and Fry plays him as a man who tries to make everything full of sunshine and laughs when he won’t open up to Ruth to tell her how he is feeling. Ruth feels she can make things right between her father and his past by confronting it. Edek would rather avoid the past and live in the present. Treasure is full of both funny and harsh moments as the two people try to connect, but don’t have the guts to truly make a connection. The film tackles the idea that it’s hard to tackle the horrors of the past when you can’t even confront the present. The film’s big moments are not only in the actual Auschwitz grounds but in those moments when the two are both trying to connect in hotels or cabs and can’t find the words to reach each other.   My Rating: Full Price  Treasure Website  Now playing in theaters. 

Indiefest:  20,000 Species of Bees (2023)   While on a family vacation in a village house linked to beekeeping, a mother, Ane (Patricia López Arnaiz), and her eight-year-old son, Altor (Sofía Otero), will learn about themselves and each other, changing their lives forever. This is a film about trying to find a place in the world where you are comfortable in your own skin. The film moves at a pace that allows us to get to know the characters and how they deal with life’s pressures. Right from the start, we know something is up, as Altor keeps telling her brother that his name is not Altor but Coco. We soon learn that Coco is a child who is used to staying behind with his mother, not taking part, even at a pool with other kids. As the film moves along, we see that Altor/Coco doesn’t feel right in his skin, that he knows things don’t seem right, and that maybe, just maybe, he should have been a she. I loved this film, as we slowly see a child discover that the world isn’t in black and white, but full of color and choices. Ane tries to understand her child but has problems of her own, with a marriage that is falling apart, a disapproving mother, and pressure to create a sculpture in time for a job interview that her family desperately needs. Altor/Coco finds a friend in her mother’s aunt, who takes the child under her wing and teaches Coco about life and how to deal with/care for bees. 20,000 Species of Bees is a beautiful film about life and young person trying to figure out a way to live a life they feel they must follow.   My Rating: Full Price  20,000 Species of Bees Website  Now playing in theaters.  

Familyfaire:  Ultraman: Rising  (2024)  PG  Ken Sato, a superstar baseball player, has returned to Japan to become the latest hero to carry the mantle of Ultraman. His dreams are shattered when he is given the task of raising a newborn kaiju monster. The newborn is the offspring of his greatest enemy and will be Ultraman’s greatest challenge. Ultraman: Rising is a collaboration between Tsuburaya Productions, the creators of the Ultraman franchise, and Netflix Animation. That makes this an excellent primer for kids to get into the world of the Kaiju monsters (think monsters from the Godzilla world) without getting scared. The core of this film is family and how sometimes we don’t realize the sacrifices that our parents make to ensure that we are safe and happy. Ken has returned to Japan to reluctantly take the mantle of being Ultraman from his father, who, because of all the battles he has been in, must retire. Their relationship is not great and is getting worse since Ken’s mother disappeared and is presumed dead. Ken is also coming back to Japan to prove that he is a winner in baseball, having never won a championship in the U.S., even with all his baseball heroics. What makes this film fun for kids is when the baby kaiju falls into Ken’s lap, and he becomes an instant father to a giant pink baby kaiju monster named Emmy, who has a tendency to get heartburn that projects fire and, of course, throws up green slime. The battle sequences are fun and have plenty of action, but I will warn you that the family I saw it with and I were not ready for the almost 2-hour run time. Also, like a lot of Japanese manga animation, there are a lot of discussions that go on, making those parts boring for kids (and sometimes adults too). The family storyline goes on a little too long, but as 5-year-old Miles said after the screening, ‘The best thing was Emmy and the fighting.’  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Ultraman: Rising Website    Now playing on the Netflix platform. 

Indiefest:  Late Bloomers  (2023)  Louise (Karen Gillan) is a 28-year-old woman who is recently single again, in need of a job, and depressed. When she drunkenly falls while doing something stupid, Louise breaks her hip and finds herself in a physical therapy ward full of people twice her age. There, she meets Antonina (Małgorzata Zajączkowska), a cranky elderly Polish woman who doesn’t speak English. Somehow, Louise gets a job as a caretaker for Antonina, and it just might be time for her to grow up with Antonina’s help. Late Bloomers is a coming-of-age story that isn’t about a teen but a 28-year-old woman who acts as if she is still in high school. Louise is a person who is lost, selfish and isn’t willing to listen to anybody, including her friends. Along comes Antonina, a woman who speaks no English and seems to hate everyone and everything. The two start bonding, even without the ability to converse, with Louise feeling she has found someone she can finally relate to. This is a fun, sweet film that is helped by a captivating and sometimes brave performance by Karen Gillan. Gillan plays Louise as a person who we don’t like at first, but we soon learn that there are reasons Louise has never grown up. We soon root for this newfound relationship that is strange and mystifying but somehow works between Louise and Antonia. So grab a walker or a crutch and join Louise and Antonia on a journey where they learn about each other and themselves. My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Late Bloomers Website  Now playing in theaters and On Demand. 

Indiefest:  I Used to Be Funny (2023) I Used to Be Funny is about Sam (Rachel Sennott), an aspiring standup comedian and sometimes nanny who struggle with PTSD and depression. Sam sets out to find Brooke (Olga Petsa), a troubled teen she used to nanny who is missing, but only if Sam can get off her bed and out of the house. While the film wanders a bit with its structure of going back and forth from the past to the present, the film is a delight to watch because of the awe-inspiring performance by Rachel Sennott. Sennott plays Sam in the present as someone who has gone through a traumatic event that has changed her outlook on life and the world. This is a contrast to Sam we saw in the past, because she is confident, quick to make humorous comments, and adept at addressing a very moody preteen in Brooke. Sennott handles both with incredible grace, causing you to fall in love with Sam, even when she's challenging and unapproachable. Sennott flows through the past scenes with superb comic timing while she gives the present, Sam a multilayered personality, one who wants to hide but knows it is best if she keeps trying to live her life. I Used to Be Funny is a film about friendship, love, and, with the help of good friends, putting your life back together when it seems hopeless, which writer/director Ally Pankiw delivers with a sure hand and an ear for creating real and natural dialogue. Sennott anchors the film with a performance that actors with 20 more years of experience couldn’t deliver. I Used to be Funny that gives us both laughs and tears with a performance that you won’t soon forget. My Rating: Full Price  I Used to Be Funny Info  Now playing in theaters.

Forgotten Film:  O  (2001) R  Modern-day telling of Shakespeare’s Othello. Coach Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen) runs his high school basketball team with a firm hand, often taking it out on his own son, Hugo (Josh Hartnett). Josh feels he is the star of the team but is put out when his own father makes Odin (Mekhi Phifer) the award winner of ‘Best Player,’ who then shares the award with his best friend, Michael (Andrew Keegan). Hugo decides to take Odin down and using Odin’s own girlfriend Desi (Julia Stiles), to create a plot that will destroy both Odin and the high school basketball team. O was a film that very few people saw (the original studio delayed its release by two years because of the original release date being around the Columbine High School shootings). The young cast is outstanding, with Phifer and Stiles shining in their parts as teens on a collision course with tragedy. Fans of Shakespeare should check this film out.  My Rating: Full Price  O Info  The film is available on most streaming platforms. 

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Inside Out 2:  Character Groom Lead

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Deadpool & Wolverine  (2024)  R  Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is recovering from some serious injuries when he comes across someone he really doesn’t like, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). After trying to kill each other, the two frenemies team up to defeat a common enemy. I am a huge fan of the Deadpool series and can’t wait to see this film. I love how Reynolds kept after Jackman to put on the yellow uniform for one last time. And by the way, it’s rumored that a certain baldheaded man in a wheelchair may show up.  Deadpool & Wolverine Website  The film will be released in theaters on Friday, July 26, 2024. 

Until Next Time!