Back to Black
If
Back to Black weren't based on the very real Amy Winehouse, the script would probably have been dismissed for being nothing more than a compendium of movie cliches about talented but flawed singers who died tragically young due to addiction or substance abuse.
That's why it's a shame that this biopic feels like exactly that. it has the feelings of a by-the-book repeat of almost every scene that you've ever seen in any movie about singers like her. It also doesn't help that the movie practically condones the awful way she was treated by some of the men in her life (the director has regrettably tried to justify it by claiming it's just showing how Amy saw these men).
In any case, unless you caught the one-time-only Dolby Cinema showing earlier in the week, the movie's best assets will not even sound particularly impressive in most movie theaters.
This one ranks right up there with
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody as far as disappointing biopics about gifted singers who succumbed to their addictions.
IF
2024 has been a dreary year for movies about imaginary friends, and John Krasinski's IF is a particularly awful disappointment in light of the talent involved.
Let's just say the movie might suffice for very young kids and particularly undemanding viewers. I think it will fall flat for most other moviegoers; the premise feels very much half-baked and even the usually energetic Ryan Reynolds feels like he's just not into it.
The movie doesn't even bother trying to get its parallel reality straight; one minute it's saying that the imaginary friends of kids who've grown up need to find other young children to "adopt" them, another minute it seems to be saying that they are better off reconnecting with their grown-up creators. Also, it makes sense that most grown-ups can't see the imaginary friends, so how can these "IFs" (some of whom are very big) take up a large amount of space when walking in crowded sidewalks?
Don't bother trying to make any sense of it - it's clear the filmmakers didn't, and neither should we.
Wildcat (2024)
This biopic of writer Flannery O'Connor is one of the most engaging indie films of the year, and one can only hope its appeal will help it find an audience even with viewers who aren't familiar with O'Connor's writing.
Ethan Hawke directed his daughter Maya in the lead role, with Laura Linney playing O'Connor's mother. In addition to playing Flannery and her mother, Maya and Linney also have multiple roles as characters in her stories and novels.
The movie isn't shy about portraying race relations in certain parts of the U.S. in the 50s and 60s; the movie brutally depicts the kind of racism that someone like O'Connor was exposed to (it seems to have made a very deep impression on her).
The phenomenal cast includes Vincent D'Onofrio, Steve Zahn, Alessandro Nivola and Liam Neeson (playing - what else? - an Irish priest).