Gideon58's Reviews

Scenes From a Mall
One of the biggest box office bombs of 1991, Scenes from a Mall, a sophisticated look at a modern marriage, is not as bad as its reputation, thanks to a surprising chemistry between two big stars working together for the first time.

Woody Allen plays Nick Pfeiffer, an attorney who is married to a psychiatrist who has just written a book named Deborah, played by Bette Midler, who live in their spacious Beverly Hills home with their two teenage children. Nick and Deborah have just sent their kids away for the weekend to ski and are getting ready to throw a dinner party to celebrate their 16th anniversary. They have some shopping to do at the mall before the party and after seeing Deborah being interviewed on TV about her book, Nick decides that this is the perfect time to tell Deborah that he has had three affairs since they've been married, one of which he claims to have ended the night before this movie begins.

This is another rare occasion where Woody Allen has agreed to appear in a movie that he did not write or direct. Paul Mazursky and Roger L Simon, who also wrote the screenplay for Enemies: A Love Story, have provided a story that has an intimacy that often crosses the line into voyeurism, crossing into private marriage territory upon which we shouldn't be intruding. The problem is that Nick and Deborah take their private dysfunction to a very public place and act it out in front of anyone who is within listening distance.

Pretty sure this is the first film I've seen where most of the action in the film takes place in a mall, and not just any mall. The exteriors were shot at a mall in Beverly Hills called the Beverly Center which has four floors and hundreds of stores and Mazursky manages to move the stars through most of the stores as they air their dirty laundry. We watch the Pfeiffers fight in front of a yogurt store and have sex in a cineplex. The Pfeiffers are coincidentally followed around the mall by a mime, played Bill Irwin, who does eventually grate on the nerves and we want to cheer when Nick punches him in the mouth. And you know how you're in a restaurant and you have to wait forever sometimes to get service from a waitperson? Not in this mall...every time Nick and Deborah sat down and ordered something to eat or drink and then started an argument, there is a waitperson right there serving or picking up glasses and eavesdropping on their arguments.

Mazursky either sensed or helped create a genuine chemistry between Allen and Midler because they made a very believable long married couple. Though I can't lie, the Woodmeister seems a little uncomfortable spouting dialogue that isn't coming from his own computer. He has a line in this movie where he has to say something about LA being the center of the universe and New York being crap and you can literally see him choking on the words, but this movie isn't nearly as bad as its reputation. This is also the only movie Woody ever made where his leading lady got top billing.

The Pope's Exorcist
A powerhouse performance by Oscar winner Russell Crowe almost makes up for the problems with 2023's The Pope's Exorcist, an overheated, fact-based thriller whose story doesn't bear too close scrutiny, not to mention a little too much dependence on a certain 1973 William Friedkin thriller.

It's Rome in 1987 where we meet the title character, Gabriele Amorth, who is already in hot water with his superiors because they feel his misdiagnosis of a young woman believed to be possessed might have caused her death. Nevertheless, the Pope does discharge Armoth to Italy to investigate the possession of a little boy named Henry, who has just moved into an Abbey with his mother and older sister, that they inherited from Heanry's father.

Yes, the screenplay owes more than a bit to the 1973 classic The Exorcist, though this reviewer did catch a little lifting from other films like The Ring and The Omen, as well. The main problem though with the story though is that Amorth's investigation into what is happening to Henry leads to century old conspiracy that the Vatican has been covering up all this time and has nothing to do with this family, except for the fact they made the mistake of moving into this Abbey, which apparently released the demon behind all of this.

That was another thing, in The Exorcist, Father Merrin and Father Karras made no bones about the fact that they were dealing with the devil. For almost half of the film, Amorth refers to what's inside of Henry as "a demon", not the devil specifically. Yet, it is only when Amorth and young Father Esquibel finally determine that they are dealing with the devil, that we find out that the devil's agenda is with the two priests, not with this family, so it kind of makes the first two thirds of the film kind of pointless.

There's no denying that the presentation of Henry's possession is pretty much identical to what happens to Regan in The Exorcist, except there is a sense that Henry has some awareness of what is happening to him, which wasn't true with Regan. Once the devil left Regan, she didn't remember anything that happened, though what Henry remembered after it was over wasn't really addressed.

Director Julius Avery puts a lot of care into the look and pacing of the film. It features spectacular production design, makeup, and visual effects. Crowe receives solid support from Daniel Zovatto (Don't Breathe) as Father Esquibel and there's a lovely performance from 60's matinee idol Franco Nero as the Pope. Some might remember Nero as Sir Lancelot in the film version of Camelot. And may I say that Mr. Nero is aging quite gracefully. The film provides some entertainment value as long as you don't think about it too much.

A Bill of Divorcement
The 1932 film A Bill of Divorcement is a moving and bittersweet soap opera about a tattered family that holds a place in cinema history because it marked the film debut of the legendary Katharine Hepburn.

Another acting legend, John Barrymore, stars as Hillary Fairfield, a man who has just been released from a mental hospital after 15 years eager to resume the life he left, completely unaware of the fact that while he was away his wife, Margaret (Billie Burke) divorced him and is planning to marry her divorce attorney and his daughter, Sydney (Hepburn) is planning to marry as well, but is having doubts because she thought her father was hospitalized due to shell shock not mental illness.

Full disclosure, this movie ran roughshod over my emotions because I sympathized with all parties involved and could see almost immediately that there's no way this could end well for anyone. First of all, the screenplay is a little fuzzy on whether Hillary was released or he he just left against doctor's orders, which actually brings the character an initial level of sympathy, but his absolute refusal to accept that Margaret has moved on was alternately aggravating and heartbreaking. Equally heartbreaking was Margaret all of a sudden being wracked with guilt over moving on to the point that it's almost halfway through the movie before she tells him that she divorced him without his knowledge.

Sympathy is evoked for Sydney as well, even though it was kind of hard to believe that she had no idea that her father had mental health issues. On the other hand, it was kind of disheartening that she seemed less concerned about him than she did about the fact that his illness might be inherited by her future children. Hepburn is quite brilliant in the scene where she tries to angrily break things off with her fiancee Kit to spare him.

This was my second exposure to John Barrymore (the first was the 1939 film Midnight) and his slightly over the top performance brought a definite pathetic quality to the character, though I did keep picturing Fredric March in the role, but the real acting honors here go to Billie Burke, who seven years later would make cinema history playing Glinda in The Wizard of Oz, who is fragile and sad as Margaret. Watch that scene where Hillary hugs her for the first time and she just goes limp. And what can be said about Hepburn? It's no fluke that the following year she would win the first of her four Oscars for Morning Glory, but a nomination for her work here wouldn't have been the worst thing.

I was trying to remember who had put this one on my radar! Great film, and I just read your review (I only skim when it's a film I haven't seen yet to avoid spoilers) and agree with your thoughts on it.

Red, White & Royal Blue
In the grand tradition of films like Gone with the Wind and The Way We Were comes 2023's Red, White, & Royal Blue, a sumptuously mounted, if slightly overlong romantic comedy from Amazon Prime about a romance that seems doomed but we really really want it to work out, thanks to the positively steamy chemistry between the leads.

Alex Claremont-Diaz is the son of the first female POTUS Ellen Claremont, who is facing re-election and is concerned about winning her home state of Texas. Prince Henry is the Crown Prince of England who is reunited with Alex at his sister's wedding where an embarrassing incident forces Alex to return to England for damage control, which leads to something completely unexpected between the first son and the second in line for the throne.

Director and co-screenwriter Matthew Lopez really scores here with a story that is challenging on a lot of different fronts. This is not just a gay romance, but a gay romance between two public figures whose lives are under constant scrutiny. This is also happening at a time when Alex's mother is seeking reelection and the last thing she needs is any kind of controversy. Lopez does take a little too much time establishing the initial contempt between Alex and Henry, but once they have that first kiss, we're off to the races. I also loved the idea that the Prince is gay, but Alex considers himself bisexual, having only been with two other men before Henry..

An emotionally charged story emerges because of this romance which provided one richly entertaining scene after another. That first kiss between Alex and Henry is electric and beautifully performed and photographed. It reminded me of the reunion kiss between Ennis Delmar and Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain. The imaginative way the texting relationship with them was mounted was also a lot of fun as was the West Side Story moment at the club and when Henry makes his karoake debut. Also LOVED the scene where Alex came out to his mother and when presidential aide Zahra first finds Alex and Henry together. As much as I wanted these two together, I also found it a little unrealistic. If this kind of romance happened IRL, those surrounding the parties involved would have it quashed immediately, but, this a movie.

Production values were first rate including incredible production design and exquisite costumes. What really makes this movie work and let go of the problems with it is the white hot chemistry between Taylor Zakhar Perez as Alex and Nicholas Galitzine (who was the best thing about the Camilla Cabillo Cinderella as Prince Charming) as Prince Henry. Uma Thurman brings a nice sophistication to President Claremont and Clifton Collins was fun as her husband and Alex's father. It's a slightly longer than it needed to be, but this one sucked me in from the beginning and I was all in.

Barbie
A near brilliant screenplay by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and some truly extraordinary production values are the real stars of 2023's Barbie, a splashy and colorful look inside the world of the most famous doll in the world that provides a balance between a feminist statement and the ultimate battle of the sexes.

Margot Robbie and at least dozen other actresses play the title role, but Robbie plays "Stereotypical" Barbie, the Barbie archetype that we all think of in the one piece bathing suit driving the pink sports car and living in her Malibu dream house. Barbie has the perfect life including the perfect boyfriend, Ken (Ryan Gosling) and there are a dozen of them too. Barbie has a crisis of conscience that is so serious that when Barbie takes off her high heels, her feet become flat. Barbie learns the only way to resume her perfect life in Barbie World is to travel to the real world and find the little girl who owned and abused her.

While Barbie is out looking to resume her perfect utopian life, Ken decides to ac company in order to find the real meaning of his life, hoping to find out he is something more than Barbie's boyfriend. Barbie's journey leads her to Mattel, where they want to take control of her again while Ken's journey takes him to Century City, changing his destiny forever.

Gerwig and Baumbach put a lot of thought into this imaginative look into an institution that everyone on the planet has fleeting knowledge of and actually brings up a couple of thought provoking questions. Just like Barbie in this movie, I found myself wondering if Barbie empowered women or did she set the women's movement back a hundred years since Barbie's life was nothing like the life of real woman. All woman don't have everything and aren't what they want to be. This movie reminded me of a T-shirt I saw once that said "I hate Barbie...that bitch has everything." Gerwig and Baumbach have decided to remind us that she doesn't.

Director Gerwig was clearly afforded a huge budget for this epic and it's all up there oon the screen. Eye-popping production design, art direction, and set direction which all have a definite through line (pink), not to mention some stunning costumes (of course). Robbie lights up the screen in the title role and Ryan Gosling is electric sex on legs as Ken. And that is Gosling doing his own singing on the homoerotic production number, "I'm Just Ken." Also loved Issa Rae as President Barbie, Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie, Simu Liu as Asian Ken, and Will Ferrell as the President of Mattel. I have to confess I actually screamed as the opening credits began and the words "A Mattel Production" flashed across the screen. And the silly prologue went a little longer than necessary, but this has to be seen to be believed.

I Love You Beth Cooper
On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to check out a 2009 teen comedy called I Love You Beth Cooper that has a clever hook from which the story springs, but what we get is a silly and ridiculously over the top comedy that provided precious few genuine laughs and seemed about five hours long.

The film begins at the graduation ceremony for Buffalo Glenn High School, where class valedictorian Denis Coverman delivers the ultimate graduation speech where he says everything he has been dying to say to fellow classmates for years, including the fact that his best friend is gay and doesn't know it, another guy was sexually abused as a child, and most importantly, that he has been madly in love with the head cheerleader, Beth Cooper, forever which leads to a lot of bizarre consequence for Denis.

Not sure what I expected, but I expected a lot more from director Chris Columbus, whose directorial credits include Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Adventures in Babysitting. The film starts out really great. The speech that Denis gives at the graduation is totally awesome, beautifully written by screenwriter Larry Doyle, but the movie goes downhill from there as the consequences of Denis' speech lead to some outrageous physical comedy, over the top destruction of property, But most important of all, is the introduction of the title character, Beth Cooper. She reminded me a lot of Jenny in Forrest Gump...she pretended to be initially outraged by Denis' declaration of love, but was secretly flattered. She then shows up at Denis' graduation party for the specific purpose of teasing the guy and her efforts to keep Denis from being killed by her psycho boyfriend, Kevin are half-hearted to say the least. And the bit of her being \this terrible driver who never should have been issued a driver's license gets tiresome pretty quickly.

On the other hand, Hayden Pannetiere's sparkling performance as the title character is the best thing about the movie. The rest of the cast pretty much grates on the nerves, with the exception of Alan Ruck, who plays Denis' father, best known for playing Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a film that I think this film was trying to recapture. but failed dismally. What a mess.

Yikes!

YIKES!

Rock Hudson: All that Heaven Allowed
The director of the superb Judy Garland documentary Sid and Judy scores another bullseye with 2023's Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, a moving examination of the matinee idol who never could quite reconcile his public image as a cinematic ladies man and his private life as a gay man.

Director Stephen Kijak provides a brief look at the beginning of Hudson's career, which it was believed was being aimed in the wrong direction until Henry Wilson stepped in as his manager and decided that romance was the way to go with Rock, bringing Rock to his first collaboration with producer Ross Hunter, director Douglas Sirk, and leading lady Jane Wyman in All that Heaven Knows.

The stories about Hudson's private life are public knowledge up to a point, but have been shrouded in a lot of mystery where specifics have been minimal, but no sugar coating here. This film features men who were friends with Rock and men who slept with Rock and there seems to be a pervading theme through Hudson's love life. According to this documentary, Rock seemed a lot more interest in casual sex than having an actual relationship, which this reviewer found to be an eye-opening reveal. We are introduced to his best friends, actors George Nader and Michael Miller and a man named Lee Garlington, who probably had the closed thing to a relationship with Hudson. It was fun watching Garlington share his memories of Hudson while his current husband sat at his side, listening and fascinated.

Much has been written about the marriage that the studio manufactured for Rock with actress Phyllis Gates that lasted approximately three years, ending around the time he finished making Giant. It's implied here that Gates had no idea the marriage was a way to save Hudson's career and had no idea that Hudson was gay. I don't believe that for a minute but I digress. Speaking of Giant, I was also fascinated that during an interview about working on the film, that Hudson admitted to not liking James Dean and was very uncomfortable talking about him.

Of course, the film smoothly glides into Rock's final years as the reveal of his sickness came during his return to television on Dynasty. This part of the film does feature Linda Evans going on record about a lot of what happened during this time. I was also shocked to learn of the way Hudson was treated during his final time in a Paris hospital where he was diagnosed.

Current and archival commentary is provided by Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Esther Shapiro, Illeana Douglas, Piper Laurie, Howard McGillan, who played Rock's son in the NBC miniseries Wheels, Armistead Maupin and more. An unapologetic look at one of the last great creations of the Hollywood studio system.

Back to the Future Part III
Robert Zemeckis, with a definite Steven Spielberg influence, brings the trilogy to an action-packed conclusion with 1990's Back to the Future Part III, which lefts off where the second film di, but provides an uncanny connection to the first film that is hard to resist.

In the final chapter, Marty is once again stranded in 1955, while Doc Brown has been stranded in 1885. Marty learns that Doc Brown will die in 1885 at the hands of Biff's great grandfather, a mission that gets complicated with Doc Brown's attraction to a pretty school marm named Clara.

Zemeckis and company are to be applauded for a screenplay that beautifully brings this story full circle without as much dizzying plot moves as the second film, and giving it freshness by bringing most of the story to the wild west, while still maintaining the science fiction/comedy aspect of the what is going on and makes this franchise so completely engaging.

Loved all the connections to the first film...Marty meeting his great grandfather as a baby, still not knowing what to order when he walks into the saloon, being warned by old west Biff not to come into the saloon, the picture of Doc's gravestone which begins to fade when it should. These connections had a cosmic feel here instead of one of sheer coincidence. Loved when Marty first arrives and we get that awesome shot of the courthouse with the clock tower still under construction.

The most entertaining aspect of the film for this reviewer was the additional layer added to the Doc Brown character through his romance with Clara. This romance allowed Christopher Lloyd to bring an unexpected richness to the Doc Brown character that we definitely don't see coming. Those first couple of scenes right after he meets Clara where they're discussing Jules Verne are a delight. And the sadness in his eyes when he actually considered abandoning Marty to stay in 1885 with Clara...Christopher Lloyd effortlessly steals this movie.

Not there isn't a whole lot of other stuff to enjoy, including Oscar-worthy cinematography and Alan Silvestri's music, which had a real John Williams flavor to it. Michael J Fox and Marty McFly continue to be the perfect marriage of actor and character and Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen is charming, as always, as Clara. And it has to be said, anytime with Dub Taylor is time well spent.

If you haven't seen Mary Steenburgen in Cross Creek (1983) I highly recommend it.

Monica
Redemption, forgiveness, aging, and acceptance are among the topics touched upon in a moody 2022 melodrama called Monica, that features some terrific acting, but is damaged by a deadening pace, and a screenplay that makes the viewer work a little too hard to figure out exactly what the film is about.

Monica is a beautiful young prostitute who reluctantly makes a journey back to her hometown to help care for her dying mother, who doesn't recognize Monica for a couple of reasons.

Director and co-screenwriter Andrea Pallaoro has crafted a character study of such discretion in its execution that it's very difficult to tell exactly what this movie is about. The first fifteen minutes of the film try the patience as we watch the title character doing mundane tasks that don't even give a clue to what she does for a living, let alone who the woman really is. We see her reluctance about gong home and we think it's the relationship with her mother that we think is going to be the crux of the story, but it really isn't, even though it should have been. Some very strong clues are provided the viewer regarding Monica's backstory, which took me a good chunk of the running time to put two and two together the part of Monica's story that is never directly addressed.

Admittedly, the initial reason I was drawn to this film is because an actress I adore named Patricia Clarkson was playing the mother and she does not disappoint, though the role is basically a thankless role. Clarkson makes the most of it though and does a remarkable job of allowing the viewer to decide whether or not she recognizes Monica, even though Monica claims that she doesn't. Watch Clarkson in the scene where Monica is bathing her in the bathtub...a lot of stuff going on there, this scene is alone worth the price of admission

Pallaoro's direction is a little on the self-indulgent side, making certain things seem a lot less interesting than they really are. Five minutes of screentime is devoted to watching Monica driving to her mother's house with her back to the camera and all we can see is her hair blowing in the breeze as she careens down the highway. Trace Lissette works very hard in the title role and does her best to convey something that the screenplay doesn't. I think the film would have been stronger if it been more about Monica trying to connect, or just be honest with her mother. .

Memento
A meticulous Oscar-nominated screenplay is the real star of one of the best films of 2000. Memento is a delicately crafted salute to film noir though contemporary influences are present here like Tarantino and the Cohen Brothers, though the fact that the creative force behind films like The Dark Knight and Inception doesn't hurt.

This is the story of an insurance investigator named Leonard Shelby who is trying to figure out who raped and murdered his wife. This is difficult because of an incident that has caused short term memory loss for him, making it impossible for him to remember exactly what happened, but he does have some clues in putting this puzzle together like some polaroids with hand-written messages to himself on them and similar messages that are actually tattooed onto his upper torso.

Christopher Nolan received one of his five Oscar nominations for co-writing this extremely deft and initially confusing story with his brother Jonathan that requires complete attention from the viewer and said attention is definitely paid off. There's actually two stories going on here, one about a drug deal gone wrong that is told out of sequence but whose parts connect in a non-linear fashion like the screenplay for Jackie Brown. Then we have the story of poor Leonard trying to piece together exactly what happened with a broken memory, reminding the viewer of Matt Damon in the first Jason Bourne movie...this guy is in complete acceptance of his memory loss, but without the anger of Jason Bourne. He has accepted his condition and has decided to figure out exactly what's going on by following the polaroids and his chest.

Good pal Citizen Rules mentioned in his review that it took him a little under five minutes to figure out exactly what was going on here, but I have to confess it took me much longer and that's OK, because the journey is so much fun, rich with red herrings and had me initially worried about spoilers in my review but as the film progressed, I realized that was pretty much impossible. LOVED the opening scene where we see a gunshot victim and then see the entire shooting play in reverse...from that moment I knew we were in for something very special. Also discovered Nolan's use of color and black and white photography was an essential storytelling tool that it took me a minute to catch onto. Nolan's crafting of set pieces and plot points is to be applauded. The detail and patience that had to go into applying those to tattoos to Guy Pearce's body so that they could be read in a mirror reflection was genius craftsmanship utilized to tell an incredible story.

Guy Pearce's powerhouse performance in the starring role should have earned him an Oscar nomination and he is backed by a solid supporting cast, especially the always watchable Joe Pantoliano. Dody Dorn's Oscar nominated film editing and David Juylan's music are the frosting on the cinematic cake here but everything here does exactly what it's supposed to...serve this extraordinary story concept by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, the real star here.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
A group of popular comic book heroes from the 1980's have been been re-imagined for the New Millenium with an eye popping animated adventure called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem that earns its credentials by concentrating the whole concept of the story around the first word of the title: "Teenage."

This 2023 action adventure finds our teenage turtle brothers encountering a human teenager named April who wants to be a journalist and leads our heroes to an insect villain known as Superfly whose personal mission is destroy all human beings on the planet. Things get complicated though when the turtles discover a possible familial connection between themselves and Superfly that is in direct conflict with our heroes personal ambition.

The screenplay for this film seems to have been crafted for viewers, like myself, for whom these characters are unknown. We are provided nicely detailed exposition/backstory that doesn't slow things down too much, revealing that the turtles were exposed to a special "ooze" created by a mad scientist and were then adopted by an elderly rate named Splinter who raised the turtles in the sewers of Manhattan. Splinter, however, has a bad history with humans and has trained the turtles to live in fear of humans and avoid contact at all cost. Still, our turtle teenagers long to be human, evidenced in their love of the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off and their desire to go to high school and have dates for the prom.

I loved that this story never forgets that these four central characters might b e turtles, but that they are also teenagers. The elaborate excuses they make to Splinter when they get in trouble had me on the floor and whenever they had to explain themselves, they would all talk at once, talking over each other so that nothing they're saying is really being understood. The flashback of Splinter taking the baby turtles out onto the streets of Manhattan were a heartbreaker as were the longing on the boys' faces as they watched the magical life of Ferris Bueller.

LOVED the look of the film. The color schemes and basic drawings of the settings of the story seemed to be based in charcoal and pastel-colored chalk giving the film the look of animated drawings, rather than the CGI, technology-charged look of Disney Pixar. This is an animated film that never apologizes for being what it is.

The voice work is splendid and I loved the fact that the four teenage brothers were actually voiced by teenage actors, giving the characters so much more authenticity than they would have voiced by adult actors. There is also standout voice work by Giancarlo Esposito as the scientist Dr. Stockman, Maya Rudolph as the evil Cynthia, John Cena as Rocksteady, Ice Cube as Superfly, and especially Jackie Chan, who pretty much steals the show as Splinter. All in all, a rowdy animated adventure that is true family entertainment.

Indecent Proposal
One of the most talked-about movies of 1993, Indecent Proposal is a slick and sexy romantic drama whose sketchy screenplay is almost made up for by the three terrific performances from the stars.

Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore play David and Diana Murphy, a happily married couple who are having serious financial problems. David impulsively wakes up Diana in the middle of the night and decides the answer to their problems is a trip to Las Vegas. David manages to accumulate almost $9000 in winnings but loses is just as quickly. Just as they are about to give up and go home, they are approached by a billionaire named John Gage, played by Robert Redford, who offers David a million dollars for one night alone with Diana.

Jack Englehard's screenplay, based on a novel by Amy Holden Jones, is a little spotty, allowing parts of the story to play offscreen that should have been played onscreen. Most importantly, the night that John and Diana spend together. Other than their first kiss, the story skips over the rest of the night and then moves right to the somewhat predictable repercussions of David and Diana's fateful decision to do this We are led to believe that the decision to do this was something David and Diana made together, but if you watch closely the extremely well-directed scene where they are discussing doing this, it appears that Diana really is attracted to John and wants to do this, using their financial troubles as an excuse, but I'm pretty sure the individual viewer will interpret this differently.

I was pleasantly surprised that David, Diana, and John didn't do this on a handshake and signed a written contract drawn up by David's lawyer and BFF (Oliver Platt). I also loved that as soon as it was about to happen, David immediately regretted it and tried to stop Diana before swept her away by helicopter to his yacht. But the fact that we didn't see exactly what happened between John and Diana turned Diana into the villain of the piece because she refused to talk about it, and I'm not sure that was fair based on what was supposedly a decision the Murphys came to together. Needles to say, David and Diana's marriage is destroyed by all of this and their reconciliation isn't a slam dunk either.

Although I didn't like the way the story played out, what I did enjoy about this film was the charismatic performances by the three stars. Redford is elegant and urbane and never allows us to dislike John Gage and if I had seen this movie before I had done my favorite Woody Harrelson performances list, this \one would have been in the top ten, I have rarely enjoyed Harrelson onscreen as much as did here...sexy, intelligent, passionate, he doesn't make a wrong move here. Demi Moore is luminous creating undeniable chemistry with Redford and Harrelson. Adrian Lyne's direction is not so dependent on his eye for the erotic as it is normally, but he nails the romantic angle. With a more courageous screenplay, this could have been something incredible, but it's still quite entertaining.

Strays
Take The Incredible Journey and mix in equal parts of Look Who's Talking and Ratatouille and you have a rowdy and hysterically funny comic fantasy called Strays, which is, so far, the funniest movie of 2023.

This is the story of Reggie (voice by Will Ferrell) who adores his owner, Doug (Will Forte) an unemployed bum who spends all his time smoking weed and pleasuring himself via internet porn. He also tries to ditch Reggie by playing fetch with him in hopes that the tennis ball is so far away that Reggie won't be able to find his way home. Doug finally succeeds in ditching Reggie, who finds the tennis ball but can't find his way home. Reggie is befriended by an experienced stray dog named Bug (voiced by Oscar winner Jamie Foxx), who, along with two dog pals of Bug's from the dog park, a neurotic pooch named Hunter (voiced by Randall Park) who wears a cone around his head and Maggie (voiced by Isla Fisher, using her actual Scottish accent), decide to teach Reggie the art of living as a stray dog.

As much as Reggie learns from his new friends, he still misses Doug and wants to go home to him. However, when he describes his life with Doug to his new pals, they are able to convince Reggie that Doug doesn't give a damn about him and suggest a plan of revenge. Reggie decides that the only thing Doug loves more than Reggie is his penis, so he decides the proper revenge is to return to Doug and bite his penis off.

The screenplay by Dan Perrault displays flashes of brilliance, as a perfect illustration of the world from a dog's point of view. I loved that Bug tells Reggie that the first rule of being a stray is that if you want to own something, all you have to do is pee on it. He offers detailed instructions on how to retrieve food that humans drop as well.

I have to admit, I LOVED this freaking movie and found myself laughing out loud for pretty much the entire running time. Highlights included the dogs' visit to a carnival where they are terrified by fireworks, their encounter with magic mushrooms that has them tripping out, a hair-raising scene where Bug gets snatched by a bald eagle, their capture and escape from a dog pound, their instant cursing out of a billboard picturing a mailman, and, of course, their revenge on Doug.

The film is beautifully photographed and features some inventive camerawork with a very effective use of slow motion. The voice work is spectacular with standout work from Ferrell, Foxx, Park, whose character reminded me of Melman the giraffe in Madagasgar, and Rob Riggle as a police dog named Rolf. There's also a very funny cameo by Dennis Quaid. This is delicious entertainment from opening to closing credits, despite some very adult language. What a pleasant surprise. And though it comes off as a family picture on the surface, this film is not for children.

Adaptation
From the creative forces behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich comes a riveting and unique film experience called Adaptation that doesn't neatly fit into a particular movie genre, combining several to startling effect, leading to a heart-stopping climax that can only be seen to be believed.

The 2003 film opens with screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) being ordered off the set of a movie he wrote called Being John Malkovich because he's in the way. Shortly after, Charlie learns from a movie studio executive (Tilda Swinton) that Charlie has been commissioned to fashion a screenplay out of a book called The Orchid Thief by a writer named Susan Orlean (Meryl Strep) based on an article she wrote for The New Yorker about an eccentric horticulturist named John Laroache (Chris Cooper), whose passion about his work fascinates Susan to a level she did not see coming. Charlie is also dealing with his twin brother, Donald (also Cage, of course), a screenwriting wanna be who worships his brother, but Charlie just finds an annoying distraction.

Kaufman based his self-deprecating screenplay on Orlean's book, painting himself in an extremely unflattering light as an overweight, self-loathing, romantically-challenged loser, despite his Oscar-winning screenplay for Eternal Sunshine. The story cleverly splits into three parts as we watch Charlie struggling to turn this book, which he loved, into a movie and decides the only way he can do it is by talking to Orlean herself. We also see reporter Orlean being caught up in Laroache's passion and becoming completely bewildered by her attraction to the man. We also see Charlie's bewilderment when Donald puts together a screenplay that Charlie thinks is ridiculous, but a studio instantly snatches it up and wants to pay Donald millions to make it into a movie.

With the aid of director Spike Jonze, Kaufman manages to take all of his own personal angst as a writer and sling it up on the screen for all of us to see, anchored by a voice over narration that boggles the mind and tickles the funny bone. There's a brilliant moment where Charlie is in a screenwriting class and as his narration takes over, the teacher of the class (a brilliant turn by Brian Cox) screams that voice over narrations are stupid. The three stories provide humor and warmth before Kaufman's obsession with meeting Orlean and her sense of self-preservation lead to a terrifying climax that we don't see coming either.

Jonze' kinetic direction is a big plus here as is the spectacular, hand-picked cast chosen to pull this story off. Cage's transformation into the unhinged Kaufman brothers earned him a Best Actor nomination, Meryl Streep's vivid performance as Susan earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination and Chris Cooper's dazzling work as Laroache won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. and it goes without saying that Kaufman's screenplay earned him a nomination as well. An air of authenticity is added to the opening with appearances by Being John Malkovich stars John Cusack, Catherine Keener, and John Malkovich. This film can't be explained, it just needs to be experienced.

Smile (2022)
From the "And then I woke up" school of filmmaking comes a so-called psychological thriller called Smile that starts off promisingly with some effective immediate "boos" but plot inconsistencies make it hard to accept any kind of logical explanation for what's going on.

The 2022 film introduces us to Dr. Rose Cotter, a lonely, workaholic psychiatrist who meets a patient who has a psychotic break in front of her resulting in a brutal suicide right in front of Rose. Rose is so traumatized by the incident that it sends her back to examine personal demons from her own past to provide the answers Rose needs.

Director and screenwriter Parker Flynn sets up a story that presents a definite through line for the mystery that envelops Rose. It starts with a case that she did not witness but was duplicated right in front of her with a different patient not long after. Rose's guilt about what happened in front of her makes sense but there's another patient who seems to be headed down the same path, but he never really does. Rose decides that some kind of demon or entity, that looks like a smile, enters these people's bodies and forces them to kill themselves. However, when Rose thinks this entity enters her, instead of making her suicidal, she murders her cat, Mustache, and gives it to her nephew for a birthday present. Seriously?

And this is where the film lost me. Why does this so-called entity cause suicidal tendencies in everyone else, but causes homicidal tendencies in Rose. About halfway through the film, we get a major clue to what's going on, which, of course, Rose brushes initially brushes off, but when she can no longer do so, it leads to an over the top finale based in nothing realistic that can only be a product of Rose's mind.

Flynn does show some promise as a filmmaker here. He displays real skill with the camera, especially with tracking shots and knows how to set up that instantaneous shock that sends the viewer out of their seat for a second, but when they sit back down, they've been provided no explanation for that brief shock. Shock without a logical explanation doesn't have enough legs to sustain a two hour movie.

Sosa Bacon, the daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick (who is a dead ringer for her dad), works very hard in the starring role but is fighting the screenplay all the way. Most of the supporting roles are thankless and don't disguise an amateur thriller with an amateur behind the camera.
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awsome movie

I almost never bail on movies, but I stopped watching Smile about 30-45 minutes into the film. It just felt like a downer, but without being scary or engaging, and I didn't want to stick around to watch cruel things happen to characters.