Wolf Man

My View:  Wolf Man  (2025) R  In Wolf Man, Blake’s (Christopher Abbott) and his wife Charlotte’s (Julia Garner) marriage is falling apart. Blake inherits his childhood home, a remote house in rural Oregon, after his father disappears and is presumed dead. Blake takes the family, including his young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), to his father’s home to get away from it all. An unseen animal attacks Blake, and as the night progresses, he transforms into something unimaginable. So we all know the lore of what happens when a wolfman bites you…you turn into one. So when Blake, at the time a candidate for father of the year, gets bitten by a creature, we all know what is coming. The problem with this film is that we also know what is coming after that turn, and that’s the problem with this film. It takes a creative bit of writing and turns it into a normal and not too scary horror film. I enjoyed they used primarily practical effects, such as going old school in the transformation. I was never scared during the film, even during its opening sequence, when we see Blake as a kid with his father having to deal with their own wolfman while out deer hunting. It’s too bad because I had high hopes for this film since it is from Leigh Whannell, who gave us the very creative 2020 film The Invisible Man. Wolf Man spent a lot of time building up the monster but never delivered the goods, much like when the wolf man gave out a cry into the night that was more of a yip that a mighty howl.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Wolf Man Movie Now playing in theaters. 

The Brutalist (2024)  R   The Brutalist begins in the aftermath of WWII when visionary architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) flee post-war Europe to restart their lives. When László begins working for a wealthy client, Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce), he little realizes how much his life will change. Director Brady Corbet brings us a tale of greed, art, and sacrifice. It’s a story where artistic vision clashes with new world money, with both sides unwilling to back down. László Toth is an architect who left his wife behind to find freedom and maybe even fame in America. He is an artist who sculpts with buildings, creating incredible structures that dazzle the heart and mind. Harrison Van Buren is a wealthy man who wants to build a tribute to himself in his hometown. It’s a monument to a man whose ego is almost as big as László’s, but the difference is that László has talent. Harrison only has money to back up his ego. This is a film that spans years, as we follow László through some tough times until he is given what becomes his cross to bear, Harrison’s massive building. László is not a perfect man. His and his wife's experiences in the Holocaust haunt him, causing him to develop a heroin addiction to numb the past. Adrien Brody gives us a powerful performance of a man tortured by both the past and the present as Harrison keeps changing the plans for the building, cutting costs. Brody's performance is extraordinary, full of fire and wonder, but also filled with heartbreak and sorrow. He is a man consumed by his work and nothing else. Brody is matched by Guy Pearce, who portrays Harrison, a man who is certain that his vision for greatness is always right, no matter what the facts tell him. Pearce gives us a man who likes to push people to the edge and has no problem with those people if they fall off that ledge as long as he gets his way. Their scenes together are a master class in acting, chess-like, with one making a move that is countered by the other. Brady Corbet has given us an epic film following a man on a journey to achieve what only he can imagine and who will do anything to make it come true.  Note: This film is 3 hours and thirty-five minutes long, not including the 15-minute intermission at around the two-hour mark. I have seen a host of films that have been extremely long in 2024, and many have felt their length. This film never felt long while I was watching it in a theater. It is that captivating.   My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  The Brutalist Website Now playing in select theaters. 

Indiefest:  The Room Next Door (2024)  PG-13  The Room Next Door is about two women, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton), who were best friends when they were younger. Having lost touch, Ingrid is surprised when Martha reaches out to meet her. It seems Martha has something she wants to ask Ingrid to help her do. That something is to go on a trip that Martha plans on not returning from forever. The Room Next Door is the first English language film from the acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, known for such films as Pain and Glory (2019), The Skin I Live in (2011), Volver (2006), Talk to Her (2002) and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down (1989). What would you do if an old friend from the past, someone you haven’t seen in a while, wanted you to be there when they died? And the death would not be a natural one. That is the dilemma that Ingrid has when Martha asks her to come to a remote rental home and stay with her until she takes a pill that will cause her death. The Room Next Door is a film that allows two gifted actors to carry a dialogue throughout the film as they discuss life, past loves, and, of course, death. It’s almost a dance between the two characters, one who is determined to go out on her own terms and the other who knows that the inevitable is coming but keeps on hoping for one more day to spend talking with and soaking up all that she can from a friend that has lived a glorious life. I think The Room Next Door is a film that will have the audience leave in silence, inclosed in their thoughts. I know I was.  My Rating: Full Price  The Room Next Door Website  Now playing in theaters.

My View:  Back in Action  (2025)  PG-13   In Back in Action, Matt (Jamie Foxx) and Emily (Cameron Diaz) have been living the quiet suburban life with their daughter, Alice (McKenna Roberts), and young son Leo (Rylan Jackson). However, Matt and Emily have a secret, and it has just come out, which will endanger all their lives. They are former CIA spies that made a lot of enemies. It’s fun seeing Cameron Diaz back on the screen, and she has great chemistry with Jamie Foxx. However, the film feels like a retread of a 90s action comedy, heavy on the big action sequences but light on plot and witty dialogue. I enjoyed seeing Cameron doing some hand-to-hand combat, as a sort of flashback to her Charlie’s Angels days, but the plot is incredibly weak, and much of the humor is forced. Add in a weird appearance of Glenn Close, as Emily’s British mom and this film just doesn’t work. It’s too bad because there might have been something there with Foxx and Diaz. We just didn’t need all the mommy/daddy time with the kids. My Rating: Cable  Back in Action Website Now playing on Netflix. 

My View:  Unstoppable  (2024)  PG-13  Unstoppable centers around the life of Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome), who was born with one leg but didn’t let him stop him from reaching his dream of becoming a wrestler at the collegiate level. We all love a Rocky-type story, but when the film keeps harking back to Rocky (twice Robles visits the Rocky steps in Philly), you want to say enough. Jharrel Jerome gives a wonderful performance that gets lost in a script that hits over the head with plot points out of every underdog movie out there. Crappy father figure? Check. Great mom whose only flaw is she keeps going back to crappy father figure? Check. A hero who won’t take no for an answer, always going the hard route (even when he turns down a full-ride scholarship)? Check. An invincible opponent who seemingly can’t be beaten? Check. And on it goes, for over two hours. I am a wrestling fan (having even gone to some of the Olympic events back in 96), and I was clueless about what was happening in the big wrestling scenes (so you might have some trouble, too). Even the strong supporting cast, including Jennifer Lopez as the mom, Michael Pena as Anthony’s high school coach, Mykelti Williamson as Anthony’s boss at his part-time job, and Don Cheadle as Anthony’s college coach, can’t help overcome a script that never finds its footing. Add in Bobby Cannavale, who plays Anthony’s stepdad, who pulls every bad dad trick in the book to make it look like Anthony will never succeed. It’s a film written using the old underdog rules. But, with this type of film, we know he will. I mean, even Rocky got a second shot at the title.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Unstoppable Info The film is now playing on Amazon Prime. 

Indiefest:  Black Box Diaries  (2024) Black Box Diaries is a documentary following Japanese journalist Shiori Itô, who has been sexually assaulted by a high-profile broadcaster. Her case has been dropped almost from the beginning because of the broadcaster’s job and his close ties to the Japanese government. Ito’s assault was back in 2015, and she was a 22-year-old grad student who thought she was interviewing for a job at a network. Instead, she was drugged and raped, but because of incredibly outdated rape laws, it was almost impossible to bring charges against the man through the Japanese judicial system. Ito, using her journalistic training, goes on a quest to bring justice and to change the laws of a system that makes it so that only 4% of rape cases are ever brought to trial. Black Box Diaries is a heartbreaking story, told by Ito through the use of video diaries and making a trail of audio and video recordings as she finds her way through the legal system, one that was designed to defeat her. It's a story that takes years to have an outcome and you wonder the toll it took on her to make this journey. Ito warns us at the film’s start that the experience of watching this tough documentary could trigger survivors, telling us that if it gets too much, we should close our eyes and breathe. What Shiori Ito found in making this film was that while she felt alone at the start of her journey, by the end, she was supported by a movement that gave her hope for her future. My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Black Box Diaries Website  Now playing on the Paramount+/Showtime platform. 

My View:  September 5  (2024)  R    September 5 takes place during the 1972 Munich Olympics, as an American sports broadcasting team finds itself covering a hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. The 1972 Olympics were groundbreaking for a couple of reasons. It was the first Olympics that was broadcast live around the world. It was also the first Olympics that Germany had hosted since the days of Hitler’s reign over the 1936 Olympics. This made a perfect setting for a terrorist attack, where a group of Palestinian militants held ten Israeli Olympic team members hostage while the entire world watched. The film centers on the ABC broadcasting crew, working under the sports section of ABC, who were put into action in the early morning hours in a situation they were unprepared for but would make history in their coverage of the events that unfolded. The story is told through the men and women who worked tirelessly to cover a breaking story that shocked the world. In the mix was a network executive, Roone Arledge, played skillfully by Peter Sarsgaard, who decided to keep the coverage in the sports department there on the grounds (literally right across the area where the hostages were being held) instead of giving the story off to the news department in New York. The second in command and the person who drives the plot is producer Geoffery Mason, played by John Magaro. Margaro does an outstanding job of showing us a man who has to rally his team to cover the crisis while dealing with network bosses and buying satellite time to keep the coverage going. September 5 is a powerful movie that tells the story of a group of people who banded together to show the world what was happening while doing something that had never been done before. Show a hostage crisis in real time to a worldwide audience. Even if you know the outcome, September 5 will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout, with an ending that has such an impact. So go back in time and witness, through this impressive film, the guts and courage of a group of people making history.  My Rating: Full Price   September 5 Website  Now playing in select theaters. 

Forgotten Film: The Elephant Man  (1980) PG  In Victorian London, a surgeon, Dr. Treves (Anthony Hopkins), comes across at a ‘freak show’, a person called ‘The Elephant Man” because of his oversized and disfigured skull along with other bodily deformities. The man on display is 21-year-old Joseph Merrick (John Hurt), who makes a living in the sideshow. Dr. Treves rescues Merrick and brings him to a hospital, where he discovers Merrick prefers to be called John and is a well-read and articulate man. Back in 1979, when it was announced that David Lynch was going to direct a film called The Elephant Man, myself and others at my film school thought we would be getting a bizarre and weird horror film, much like Lynch’s first film Eraserhead (1977), a midnight movie screening staple, which is a film that is so weird and mind-blowing, it has to been seen. Little did we know we would get a film that tells the tale of a man who was labeled a freak but was thoughtful, kind, and creative. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Picture. While it did not win any Oscars, it put Lynch at the forefront of hot directors, which he would use to make Dune. Shot in glorious black and white by Freddie Francis, the film is a brilliant look at how we see and judge people by their appearance first before ever getting to know someone. And by the way, the man who was the driving force behind getting the film made, including shot in black and white, was the great Mel Brooks.  My Rating I Would Pay to See it Again  The Elephant Man Info The film is available to buy on DVD and is streaming on Kanopy. RIP David Lynch (1946-2025).

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Wolf Man:  Pattern Maker

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: Companion  (2025) R Iris (Sophie Thatcher) meets a dashing young man named Josh (Jack Quaid) at a grocery store. Josh talks Iris into a weekend getaway on his country estate, but there she learns a very strange thing: she is a sophisticated human companionship doll at Josh’s command. If it’s up to Iris, it won’t be for long. Just to show what kind of film this will be, the film’s producer is Zach Cregger, who gave us the wild horror film Barbarian (2022). Companion Website In theaters on Friday, January 31, 2025. 

Until Next Time!

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!