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Till
The first serious contender for a 2022 Best Picture Oscar nomination, Till is an emotionally charged, fact-based docudrama of racism, grief, and justice mounted with an uncanny melange of power and sensitivity taking this reviewer through a gamut of emotions not felt from a single motion picture experience in a long time.

The story begins in 1955 Chicago where Mamie Till, a single working mother with a 14 year old son named Emmett, whom she affectionally refers to as Bobo, is apprehensive about letting Bobo go on a vacation to visit some cousins in Mississippi. Mamie warns Bobo to be respectful of everyone he meets down there, especially white people because any action on his part can be misinterpreted. After about a week in Mississippi, Emmett is brutally lynched and Mamie's anger about what happened to Emmett makes her a reluctant symbol for the Civil Rights Movement, but Mamie's only real concern is finding justice for her son.

Still collecting my thoughts about this emotionally draining motion picture experience that had me mesmerized from opening to closing credits. Director and co-screenwriter Chinonye Chukwu is worthy of double nominations for her incredible work in turning these horrible real life events into a viable motion picture experience. Chukwu takes her time in letting this story unfold, but not too much time so that interest never wanes. Particularly impressive was the care put into the introduction of this Emmett Till character to the viewer. We meet a charming, sensitive, hard-working child who adores his family and life in general. Emmett is portrayed as understanding what racism is, but doesn't really take it seriously as he should have.

Equal care went into the crafting of the Mamie character as well. This is a woman of not just great strength, but of great intelligence, something we don't expect to see from a black female movie character in the 1950's. Her decision to publish pictures of Emmett's body after it is returned to Chicago was inspired as was her decision to have his casket be open for his funeral. I loved the way Mamie managed to keep herself together during the funeral, but she completely lost it when the box containing her son's body was taken off the boat from Mississippi...one of movie's most powerful scenes, which definitely found me fighting tears.

Don't want to spoil the final act where the two men who grabbed Emmitt and took him to his final fate are put on trial. Though this part of the film became a little melodramatic, it is forgiven because of what happened, which aroused pure anger. As angry as it made me, it was nothing unrealistic and that's why it was so maddening.

Chukwu employed first rate production values in bring this epic the screen. Cinematography, production design, art direction, and costumes are all worthy of Oscar nominatiions. Danielle Deadwyler is also a lock for a Best Actress nomination for her powerhouse performance as Mamie Till Bradley. This dazzling performance brought to mind some of the finest work of Cicely Tyson and Viola Davis. She also nails that thing Viola Davis does where she fills her eyes with water without allowing a tear to fall. Deadwyler's performance coud have carried this film all by itself. Sean Patrick Thomas and Frankie Faison are solid as Mamie's boyfriend and father, respectively and Jalyn Hall is a charmer as young Bobo. And over 30 years after winning her first Oscar for Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg could earn her third nomination for her quietly powerful performance as Mami's mother. Everything works here and leaves a definite lump in the throat while doing it.



Our Man Flint
The 1960's found movie audiences enraptured by three superspy heroes. Of course, Sean Connery was the biggest of them all as James Bond. Dean Martin played Matt Helm in four movies. Though my personal favorite was the dashing Derek Flint, played the charismatic James Coburn in two films, the first of which was 1966's Our Man Flick.

Apparently, there are three mad scientists who have invented a giant machine that controls the weather and after a govermment agency called Z.O.W.I.E. loses an entire team of agents trying to get this machine, a huge computer decides that the only person who can handle the assignment is a rogue agent named Derek Flint, who the head of Z.O.W.I.E, Mr. Cramden (Lee J Cobb) hates working with, but is outnumbered as the united nations of the government organization won't accept anyone else for the job.

The screenplay by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr is kind of confusing because we're first told about this evil weather machine, but once Flint is on the job, we find him searching for a secret cold cream from the Exotica Beauty Company which has some kind of connection to this weather machine and two people keeping Flint from the cream, the insane Malcolm Rodney (Edward Mulhare) and the breathtaking Gila (Gila Golan) are assigned to stop him, a plan that includes kidnapping Derek's international girl posse and trapping him in a giant safe and burying it underground. As closely as I watched, I never really got the connection between this cold cream and these scientists who wanted to control the weather, though these guys had a higher purpose than weather control, which was revealed way too late for the viewer to care. It's definitly done in the style of a spoof, but with a slightly straighter face than the Matt Helm movies.

The plot is so not what makes this movie so much fun. What makes this movie fun is the perfect marriage of actor and character in James Coburn and Derek Flint. Coburn absolutely lights up the screen in this movie and appears to be having a ball while he's doing it. The realationship between Flint and Cobb's characters reminded me of the relationship between Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom in the Pink Panther franchise. I loved the fact that Flint didn't want any of the assistance offered to him by Cramden and that he didn't have a whole lot of gadgetry to assist him, just one gadget...he had this gold cigarette lighter that could do just about anything Flint needed it to.

Twentieth Century Fox poured a lot of money into this movie, that is gorgeous to look at, the scenery, be it geographical or feminine is stunning and the story features some really amazing set pieces, especially this weather machine, but nothing outstages the sexy and dynamic Coburn, who makes this movie worth watching all by himself. Edward Mulhare tries to channel Michael Caine and Golan is gorgeous, but this is Coburn's show and he knocks it out of the park. Followed by a sequel called In Like Flint.



Till
The first serious contender for a 2022 Best Picture Oscar nomination, Till is an emotionally charged, fact-based docudrama of racism, grief, and justice mounted with an uncanny melange of power and sensitivity taking this reviewer through a gamut of emotions not felt from a single motion picture experience in a long time.

Everything works here and leaves a definite lump in the throat while doing it.
I am both excited to see this and already anticipating how upset I'll be. Such a terrible and troubling story, but the trailer definitely intrigued me.



Amsterdam (2022)
Five time oscar nominated director and screenwriter David O Russell puts a lot of work into 2022's Amsterdam, a big budget, star-studded epic of murder and political conspiracy that struggles to retain viewer interest due to an overly complex screenplay, a norm for Russell and lethargic direction, not a norm for Russell.

As he did with American Hustle, Russell lets us know immediatey that "some of this really happened." Bert Berendsen (Christian Bale) and Harold Woodman (John David Washington) were soldiers and friends during WWI who meet a beautiful nurse named Valerie (Margot Robbie) in the title city and have a hard time defining their relationship. After the war, Bert becomes a doctor and Harold becomes a lawyer and become separated from Valerie. Bert has been asked to perform an autopsy on his former commanding officer (Ed Begley Jr) by his daughter, Liz (Taylor Swift). Before they can complete the autopsy, Liz is pushed in front of a car and killed and Bert and Harold are accused of the crime. The battle to clear their names of the crime leads them to a political conspiracy of mammoth proportions involving another WWI General (Robert De Niro).

Russell's story starts off as a standard murder mystery that initially confuses because we see Liz's murder and know that Bert and Harold are innocent and can't figure out how they are being railroaded for it. The story then flashes back to WWI and shows us how Bert and Harold met, a story move that was unnecessary because Bert and Harold's relationship didn't really need the clarification that Russell thought it did. As the pair begin looking into these murders, they are unexpectedly reunited with Valerie, who now has all these mental health issues that weren't even hinted at when the trio met in Amsterdam that hinder Bert and Harold's mission, but they don't seem to care. The complex relationship between the three reminded me of Butch, Sundance, and Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and was, frankly, a lot more interesting than the primary story. I did like the fact that the black guy got the girl and there wasn't a lot of screentime wasted on racism.

Russell's leisurely unfolding of this story is really to the film's detriment, primarily due to unnecessary flashbacks and brief fantasy sequences that really don't add anything to the story. Russell's direction is snail-paced, making this film seem seven hours long. The sequence where the trio confront De Niro's character and we learn that Valerie is suffering from vertigo go on much too long as well as the reveal of the political faction that wants De Niro's character's assistance in their own government takeover.

Russell does put his budget to effective use in crafting the ethereal look of the film, an often dreamy look that made this reviewer think that we were eventually going to have a "and then I woke up" scene that never happened. The camerawork is crisp and concise and the cinematography, art design, and costumes are all Oscar-worthy. Christian Bale offers another of his one-of-a-kind characterizations as Berendsen, losing himself, as always, in a character where he reminded me of Peter Falk's Columbo. Washington and Robbie produced a surprising chemistry that I didn't see coming as well. Stars pop up throughout in supporting roles that serve the story, including Michael Shannon, Rami Malek (superb), Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Meyers, Chris Rock, Timothy Olyphant, and Colleen Camp. There are some terrific performances and Russell employs some style in his execution, but the story takes WAY too long to get where it goes.



For Richer For Poorer
The shocking news of Kirstie Alley's passing motivated my first viewing of For Richer For Poorer, an amusing slapstick comedy with a couple of importsnt themes brimming underneath the surface that does provide sporadic laughs.

The 1997 comedy stars Alley and Tim Allen as Caroline and Brad Sexton, a wealthy married pair of Manhattan-ites on the verge of divorce who find themselves on the run because of a huge debt to the IRS. They steal a cab and flee Manhattan winding up in Amish country where they befriend a family called the Yoders, claiming to be long-lost relatives of theirs.

The screenplay provides knowing winks to 1990's yuppidom as well as messages about the importance of communication, and the importance of family as the Sextons find themselves welcomed into the Yoder family unconditionally. Of course, the Sextons are given a wake up call regarding Amish life when they have to wake up every day at 5:00 AM to do chores. Eventually, the Sextons bring their own talents to the Yoder table, creating a new bond with the Yoders that gets quashed by the IRS.

One thing that worked for this story is the fact that the screenwriters don't forget the fact that the Sextons are in trouble with the IRS. Stories like this usually, at some point, forget why the protagonists are on the run, but this one never does, thanks to a pair of agents who stay on the trail, but stay behind the Sextons just long enough for them to begin establishing a new life. The initial arrival at the Yoders provides the expected physical comedy with Brad learning how to plow fields and Caroline learning how to cook and sew. But once Brad helps the men folk with a real estate deal and Caroline helps the women with a fashion line that features other colors than black, the expected but desired mending of their marriage begins.

Allen and Alley both prove to be gifted farceuers and experts at physical comedy, creating viable chemistry as the Sextons. Jay O Sanders rich performance as Samuel Yoder was a master class in the "less is more" school of acting and Larry Miller and Miguel A Nunez were fun as the IRS agents on the Sexton's trail. And if you don't blink, you'll catch a brief apperance from Marla Maples Trump as one of Caroline's besties. The film does provide some laughs, but it's nothing special. RIP, Kirstie.



She Said
An All the President's Men for the "Me Too" generation, 2022's She Said is a slightly pretentious, but meticulously crafted docudrama about a newspaper's pursuit of a powerful sexual predator that had to be a logistical and legal nightmare for the filmmakers, but they do manage to provide emotionally charged entertainment on a squirm-worthy subject that is more than worthy of a 2022 Best Picture Oscar nomination.

New York Times investigative journalist Megan Twoehy has just completed an expose into sexual harrassment charges filed against Donald Trump when she joins fellow reporter Jodi Kantor in a story on the sexual misconduct of Miramax Pictures president Harvey Weinstein, which eventually led to over 100 women coming forward with their stories and Weinsten eventually being sentenced to 23 years in prison.

The Oscar-worthy screenplay is a collaborative effort between Twoehy, Kantor, and Rebecca Lenkiewicz that had to have all kinds of logistical issues blocking its creation. It's not just the fact that we're looking at a real story, but a story where people involved in it refused to go on the record, so why would they go on record for a movie? Not to mention the fact that a lot of the players in this story were very famous and the only one commits completely to the movie is Ashley Judd, who appears onscreen in her own voice. Gwyneth Paltrow, a major player in this story, only lends her voice to this film and doesn't appear onscreen. It was interesting during the climactic scene where Weinstein is trying to stop the story from being printed, the only thing he was worried about was if they were going to name Paltrow. According to this film, that was his ony concern about this story,,,very telling in this reiewer's opinion and I won't spoil the scene where Paltrow does lend her voice, but it's quite effective.

Director Maria Schrader, director of the Emmy winning mini-series Unorthadox displays a polished, if slightly melodramtic directorial eye here. The shots of Megan and Jodi always glide smoothly into focus from a shot of the entire floor of the New York Times, a set as breathtaking as the one of the Washington Post in Alan J Pakula's 1976 classic. The danger these reporters put themselves in is made apparent from te beginning. Schrader lovingly documents a moment where Megan receives an anonymous phone call where the caller threatens to rape and murder Megan and throw her in the East River. It was a terrifying moment that, oddly, is never again referenced in the story. It did prepare us for the dangerous mine fields that Megan and Jodi are about to navigate.

The story also brilliantly establishes different elements of support, terror, and resentment for Weinstein. It wasn't just the obvious matter of NDA's. We see people who blindly support Miramax and Weinstein, we see people who want their story told but won't go on the record, and the people who have the dope and want to halp, but can't for varied reasons. LOVED the scene where the reporters question one of Harvey's lawyers, brilliantly played by Peter Friedman, who played a similar role on the HBO series Succession. The legal tap dance this guy does in this scene is a joy to watch.

The film is gorgeously mounted featuring first rate cinematography and production design. Carey Mulligan could earn a third Best Actress nomination for her hard as nails Megan. Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of legendary director Elia Kazan, works very hard in the Jodi Kantor role. Patricia Clarkson, Andre Brsugher, Jennifer Ehle, and Tom Pelphrey offer standout support as does Keilly McQuail as the voice of Rose McGowan. Needless to say Weinstein doesn't appear oonscreen either except from the back. Considering all the legal issues that probably came up in bringing this story to the screen, Schrader and Lenkiewicz nail bringing this still disturbing story to the screen.



Inherit the Wind (1960)
The thunderous performances by two of the greatest actors in Hollywood history make the 1960 classic Inherit the Wind worth watching by themselves.

This is the fictionalized version of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 where a teacher named John Scopes is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution to his students which was, of course, in direct conflict of the teachings of the Bible and had the small town where Scopoes lived up in arms. Scopes is renamed Bertam Cates for this movie and the prosecutor, Matthew Harriosn Brady and the defense attorney, Henry Drummond both travel from out of town to face each other in this historical trial. Brady is actually legendary attorney Williams Jennings Bryan and Drummond is really Clarenca Darrow.

The film is based on a play by Jerome Lawrence that opened on Broadway in 1955. The Oscar-nominated screenplay adapted by Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith is a balanced account of a squirm-worthy topic. The theories of church and state are once again put on theatrical display in the form of a compelling legal drama, though it does take its time in setting up the story and characters since the actual trial doesn't begin until about halfway through the film. During the first half of the film, we learn that the townspeople want to lynch Cates without a trial and are observed throwing things at the window of his jail cell. An element of the story revealed in the set up that was news to this reviewer is that Drummond and Brady were old friends before this trial began, bringing a layer to the proceedings we don't see coming, not to mention Henry's friendship with Brady's conflicted wife, Sarah, whose feeling about this whole trial are difficult to guage throughout.

The way the two lawyers are greeted upon their arrival in Hillsborough is like night and day and only intensifies the conflict between the lawyers. We also have our own tour guide for the trial, a newspaper reporter named EK Hornbeck (based on HL Mencken) who has come to town to cover the trial for his paper, liberally spreading his atheist sensibilities throughout the story providing unexpected but welcome comic relief.

But what really makes this movie sizzle is director Stanley Kramer's atmospheric direction and the performances by double Oscar winners Spencer Tracy and Fredric March as Drummond and Brady, respectively. Tracy's sensible good ole boy characterization against March's theatrical fire and brimstone performance burn a hole in the screen and actually had my heart beating faster. The pleasure of watching these two acting powerhouses chewing the scenery to maximum effect was unlike anything. We just don't have actors like this anymore. Especially loved Tracy during the selection of the final juror and when he calls March as his only witness, we know we're in for high octane drama and it totally delivers.

The film's Oscar nominated cinematography is a big asset, perfectly enhancing the sweaty atmosphere of the story. The solid supporting cast includes Gene Kelly, perfection as the cynical Hornbeck, providing comic relief without singing or dancing; Dick York, five years before he became Darren on Bewitched, properly sincere as Bertram Cates, Harry Morgan as the judge, and Claude Akins as Rev. Brown. Kudos as well to an actress named Florence Eldridge, in a classy turn as Brady's wife, Sarah. This is appointment viewing for classic movie fans. Remade for television twice...Jason Robards and Kirk Douglas played Drummond and Brady in 1988 and in 1999 the roles went to Jack Lemmon and George C Scott.



Tar
An extraordinary performance by Cate Blanchett that could earn her a third Oscar anchors Tar, a pretentious and long-winded dramatic character study that is mad with extraordinary film technique which is eventually dwarfed by its severe overlength.

The 2022 film stars Blanchett as Lydia Tar, a world renowned composer and orchestra conductor looking forward to the release of her book and becoming the first female conductor of a German symphony. Sadly, the incredible accomplishments of Tar's career are about to be eclipsed thanks to some questionable decisions in her personal lkife.

This film has the privilege of being written and directed by the gifted Todd Field, whose resume includes In the Bedroom, Little Children, and playing Nick Nightingale in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, so challenging and squirm worthy stories are nothing new to him and he employs skills from all his work into the mounting of this story. It starts off with the central character being interviewed on an Inside the Actor's Studio-type TV show that initially gives the film an almost documentary feel. It feels so authentic that one might be tempted to google Lydia Tar to find out whether she was a real person, like the first time I saw Zelig. However, as the film progresses, the onscreen analysis of Lydia Tar becomes more personal, more intimate, more voyeuristic...the story feels like it's being told from the point of view of a private detective who has been hired to tail Tar. There are so many scenes shot from afar or off the center of the screen, like the camera's not supposed to be there.

There is no denying that Field has created a fascinating central character in Lydia Tar and has forced Blanchett to do the work required to give the performance as much authenticity as possible. This role requires Blanchett to play more than one musical instrument, conduct, and speak fluent German, all of which she makes appear effortless. There are a few scenes with Blanchett and the German orchestra where she floats effortlessly between English and German without missing a beat. Her conducting was also far superior to JK Simmons' conducting in Whiplash...more passionate and more technical.

Unfortunately, Field does get a little full of himself padding screentime with stuff that adds nothing to the story. We get several shots of Tar jogging that add nothing to the story, the most aggravating of which is a scene where she hears a woman screaming while she's jogging and trying to figure out where the screaming is coming from that goes dark with no resolution and we think Field is going to get back to it, but he never does. It's initially a very titillating scene that just comes off as a missed opportunity.

The film is technically splendid including first rate cinematography and production design. Ironically, for a movie about music and musicians, the film barely had any music score, except for what was produced by the orchestra but it's not really missed. But more than anything, it is the sizzling and emotionally demanding work by Cate Blanchett that energizes this film and will make Blanchett a dead lock for a Best Actress nomination this year. Sadly, not even Blanchett's work can justify this film's two hour and thirty eight minute length.



Badlands
Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven) made his first serious impression as a filmmaker with 1973's Badlands, a handsomely-mounted fact-based crime drama rich with stylish direction, arresting visual images, and two enigmatic lead characters brought beautifully to life by the actors portraying them.

It's South Dakota in the late 1950's where we meet Holly (Sissy Spacek) a sensitive and introverted 15 year old who finds herself drawn to the decade older Kit (Martin Sheen), an angry young man with a James Dean complex. Holly's father doesn't approve of the relationship and when Kit's attempt to win over Holly's dad fails, he impulsively murders the man, sending Kit and Holly on the run, resulting in a killing spree that resulted in the death of at least a dozen people.

Malick's screenplay is based on the real life killing spree by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, but the names are changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. One element of the story that grew on me was Holly's narration, which initially seems unneccesary, but as the film progresses, it becomes important because it is our only exposure to how Holly really feels about Kit.

And this where the story becomes alternately confusing and riveting, thanks primarily to Malick's direction. Kit is instantly attracted to Holy but respects her, while it is clear through Holly's body language, that she wants more than anything to have a sexual relationship with Kit, but she never says anything nor does she try to start anything, which creates an undeniable sexual tension between the characters that never really gets resolved (at least according to this film). The characters only share one kiss, which occurs 25 minutes before the closing credits. Don't really believe that these two never had sex, but maybe one of the conditions put upon Malick to get the film greenlighted was to leave out any implications of sex between a 15 year old girl and a 25 year old man.

Malick mounts this story on a breathtaking canvas, offering superior camerawork showing Kit and Holly traveling across the South Dakota badlands, determined to start a life together, but not really having a set in stone plan either. There's such a realism in the fact that Holly sees most of the wrong that Kit does in this story, but only says no to him once during the entire running time. It was also interesting watching Kit's self-preservation and his compunction for homicide eventually be dominated by the feeling that he will be caught and pay for the consequences of his actions, a rarity for movie characters like Kit.

Malick gets first rate assistance from his cinematography team and I loved George Aliceson Tipton's loopy music, over which Malik obviously exercised some control, as it doesn't punctuate every second of film. Martin Sheen is sexy and dangerous in his Oscar-worthy turn as Kit, looking exactly like his son Charlie, a few years before he started on Two and a Half Men. It's a powerhouse performance with minimal scenery chewing...that scene where he talks the rich guy into letting him and Holly hide out in his mansion made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Sissy Spacek is equally charismatic, effectively foreshadowing the movie star she would become three year later starring in Carrie. Warren Oates makes his brief role as Holly's dad count and also liked Alan Vint as a young deputy. A riveting and intense fact-based story that was the inspiration for the Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers and for a 2004 TV movie called Starkweather.



Deon Cole: Charleen's Boy
Comedian Deon Cole, probably best known for playing Charlie on the ABC sitcom Black-ish, returns to the mic for his second Netflix special entitled Deon Cole: Charleen's Boy.

Shot live from am unidentified theater in Brooklyn, New York, Cole hits the stage dressed in olive green leather pants, a black shirt, and a medallion around his neck that looked like it weighed thirty pounds. He demands attention immediately by jumping right into the most popular topic for standup comics: sex and relationships. His material definitely has a very sexist slant and like Chris Rock, his material contains observations that only one sex or the other would find amusing, but he never offends the males or the females in the audience, keeping them all on his side throughout the evening.

At one point, during a very abrupt transition, Cole suddenly bursts into a diatribe about homophobia and tolerance that seemed to be pandering toward political correctness, which led to a bit about a very homophobic uncle that brought major laughs but, for this reviewer, kind of revealed the homophobia in Cole.

Another thing I loved that I loved that Cole had an affinity for that comics like Howie Mandel and DL Hughley were very good at. He was very good at aiming a jokes at specific audience members and embarrassing them in front of the rest of the theater. At one point, he forced a guy to admit that his date was "big boned" and also put one of the few white member of the audience in the comedy catbird seat until she admitted what he wanted her to admit. He also scores in his presenting the advantages of dating an older woman.

And not since Richard Pryor have I seen a comic talk about bathroom habits that hit a direct bullseye. I was also surprised when, at one point, he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "All right, I'm going to tell y'all some jokes now" and the audience burst into wild applause. I'm assuming this was connected to something he did in his first special, but I didn't see his first special. But these jokes on paper were probably the strongest part of his evening. His work needs a little polish, but Cole definitely shows the potential to be the next Chris Rock. And I have to admit his final speech did leave a bit of a lump in the throat.



Love, Actually
Director and screenwriter Richard Curtis is the creative force behind a unique and epic look at the universal concept of love in 2003's Love, Actually, a lavishly produced melding of multiple storylines that requires undivided attention from the viewer and pays off for the most part because some of the stories work and some don't. Fortunately, the stories that do work work so well that we're able to forgive what doesn't.

It's contemporary London a month before Christmas where we see several different kinds of love stories unfold before us. Hugh Grant plays the new Prime Minister whose attraction to his new assistant is stalled when he mistakes something he thinks happened between her and the President of the United States. The Prime Minister's sister, Karen (Oscar winner Emma Thompson) is in a long term marriage with a business executive (the late Alan Rickman) who begins to suspect her marriage is not what she thinks it is. Jamie (Oscar winner Colin Firth) is a writer who falls for his non-English speaking housekeeper. Peter and Mark are BFFs whose friendship is challenged when Peter marries Juliet (Kiera Knightley) because Mark is secretly in love with Peter or Juliet, but we're not sure which one. Liam Neesom plays a widower trying to help his young son deal with his mad crush on a classmate. Laura Linney plays an office worker who finally faces up to her office crush, that the whole office knows about. There's also an aging rock star named Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) whose new smash hit recording of a Christmas cover has helped him discover what love really means.

Yeah, there's a whole lot of story going on here and the description in the above paragraph doesn't even cover all the stories told in this movie, but these are the ones that worked for this reviewer. Curtis has provided fresh and funny dialogue that provided selected laughs in all the stories, even the ones that don't work. Sometimes it seems like Curtis has forgotten about certain stories that he's started and just when that occurs to the viewer, the movie goes right back to that story. The connections between the stories are initially paper thin and sparse. More connection are revealed during the final third of the film that happen so quickly that it's a bit confusing, but most of the stories have an individual charm that keep us invested.

Didn't really care about the story of a romantically challenged guy who thinks the solution to his problem is to move from London to Wisconsin. The story of nude body doubles in a movie really didn't do anything for me and sort of faded in the background. To be perfectly honest, the two funniest scenes had nothing directly to do with any of stories: One was Hugh Grant's dance to the Pointer Sisters' "Jump" and the other was Rickman being frustrated trying to get a gift wrapped by a persnickety salesclerk, delightfully played by Rowan Atkinson.

Curtis' direction is as stylish as his writing, even if it is bit obvious in places. Loved Emma Thompson, who brings a richness to her role that's not in th script and Grant has rarely been so charming, but if the truth be told, Bill Nighy steals the show as the aging rocker, a performance of such humor and pathos that it should have earned him an Oscar nomination. Also have to give a shout out to Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton's slimy turn as the POTUS. Not everything works, but the stuff that works is amazing. Yeah, it's longer than it needs to be I guess, but I sure wasn't checking my watch.



The Fabelmans
After his spectacular remake of the musical West Side Story, it would be nice to report that Steven Spielberg's highly-anticipated semi-autobiographical epic The Fabelmans was just as good. Spielberg's 2022 look at his childhood and teenage years has been getting serious Oscar buzz for quite awhile now, but this reviewer is scratching head as to why this long-winded fact-based melodrama is getting the attention it is.

This film is a thinly-diguised look at the childhood of Spielberg and his family, renamed the Fabelmans for this film. A devout Jewish family that was supposedly pulled in multiple directions due to the troubled marriage of Sammy's parents. Burt Fabelman is a hard working computer engineer who, while away from the office, is a bit of a dullard. MItzi Fabelman is a fun loving woman who always wants to be the center of attention, which leads to an implication that the woman's bizarre behavior is due to some mental health issues, which Burt has tried to shield his children from, but his relationship with Sammy's mother has severe effects on Sammy as he gets older.

Spielberg and his West Side Story screenwriter Tony Kushner have collaborated on the screenplay that should have been much more compelling than it was due to the subject. The story is filled with cliched dialogue and moves in some funny directions for an alleged fact-based story of a living cinema legend. The screenplay is very protective of little Sammy/Steven...everything that goes wrong in his life seems to be blamed on all the people in his life. The thematic through line of Burt always referring to Sammy's love of filmmaking as a "hobby" smacked of cliche and Sammy's feelings about his mother seemed to change from scene to scene. One thing that did ring true was whenever Sammy shows one ofhis finished films to an audience, as impressed as they might be, Sammy was never completely happy with his work, but what director was?
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After a very slow moving first half, the film picks up a little when the Fabelmans move to California and Sammy finds himself being bullied and harassed because he's Jewish. I'm a black man who grew up in the 1960's and I can't remember any Jewish kids going through the kind of bullying that Sammy does in this movie. Personal, this felt more like Spielberg's discomfort with being Jewish blown up for drama than the lifestyle of his high school years. And the scene where his bully can't understand why Sammy's movie made him look like a hero was unintentionally funny.

There is a lot to admire here. The film is beautifully photographed, lovingly recreating 1950's and 1960's Arizona and California. I was also impressed with Spielberg's choice for a song score...not the same old songs from the 50's and 60's that we hear in every period piece. After four previous nominations, Michelle Williams has a real shot at winning her first Oscar, despite some tough competition, for her powerhouse performance as Mitzi Fabelman that was so riveting that her performance alone made this film worth seeing. I also wouldn't mind seeing Paul Dano earn his long overdue first nomination for his conflicted Burt and a supporting nomination for Gabriel LaBelle as the thinly disguised Spielberg is a possibility as well. Production values are what one would expect from Spielberg, but I really don't get what all the fuss is about this film. I felt the same way after watching Licorice Pizza last year: "Ok...so?"



Barney's Version
A ferocious performance by the always watchable Paul Giamatti is reason enough to give 2010's Barney's Version a look.

This dramedy/character study is a voyeuristic cinema verite into the life of one Barney Panofsky, a hard-drinking, womanizing, television producer who has a son from one of his first two marriages and is abut to dip his big toe into the marital waters once again. This film asks us to place judgment upon this poor schlub, who is struggling with the same things most average Joes are, but, for some reason reason, is getting blasted from all sides when he swings and misses.

The life of Barney and his friends unfolds like the standard biography, but then allows the other characters to expound on their friendship with Barney. Just a clue on the type of guy this Barney is, on his wedding day, his third wedding day, he asked another woman to fly to Rome with him.

Just like Miles in Sideways, this role is an actor's dream and Giamatti makes the most of it. Love the scene at the wedding where he tears his new father-in-law a new one for disrespecting his father (Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman). Or the confrontation on the dock with his best friend, Boogie (Scott Speadman). There are slow spots here and there, mostly whenever Giamatti and Hoffman aren't onscreen.

The film features some beautiful photography and loved the music too. Giamatti is Oscar-worthy in a flashy role where the character is rarely seen in s flattering light. Oscar nominee Rosamond Pike (Gone Girl) is surprisingly subdued as the woman Barney wants to take to Rome. Minnie Driver also steals every scene she's in as Barney's high strung third bride.
There's an occasional lull in the proceedings, but Giamatti and Hoffman make this one worth investing in.



Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
Remember a 1955 Warner Brothers cartoon called One Froggy Evening about a magician who finds a frog who sings and dances but refuses to do it in front of an audience? The cartoon seems to be the inspiration for a 2022 musical fantasy called Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile that starts off promisingly but eventually succumbs to melodramatic predictability.

Oscar winner Jarvier Bardem plays Hector Valenti, a 3rd rate magician with some serious debt hanging over him, who discovers a singing baby crocodile named Lyle (voiced by 3 time Grammy nominee Shawn Mendes) and he thinks he's out of the woods until he realizes Lyle has stage fright and will only sing with Hector. Touched but more concerned with his legs being broken, Hector abandons Lyle in order to save his own neck. Lyle is then befriended by the new occupants of Hector's brownstone, a neurotic pre-teen named named Josh and his tightly wound father and stepmother.

This film has some good people behind its origin. The film was co-directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, who co-directed Office Christmas Party and a musical score by the current go-to guys for a musical score, Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the scores for La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and Dear Evan Hansen, And despite some very clever use of Manhattan locations and some terrific camera work, the whole thing is so predictable for the most part, except for one element of the film, which I didn't see coming at all.

And that element was the performance of Jarvier Bardem as the slightly smarmy Hector Valenti. When thinking of movie song and dance men, Bardem's name is probably at the bottom of the list, but his dazzling musical comedy performance is easily the most interesting aspect of this movie, which starts out as a tribute to One Froggy Evening and during its final act, is pretty much taken from last year's Clifford the Big Red Dog. Honestly, the film screeches to a halt when Bardem is not onscreen, which is almost half of the running time, not a good thing.

Pasek and Paul contribute some nice songs to the movie, but their songs are beginning to sound a lot alike and not as groundbreaking when they wrote La La Land six years ago. Constance Wu Hustlers is charming as Josh's mom and Brent Gelman is appropriately obnoxious as the tight-ass downstairs neighbor, but if the truth be fold, when Bardem is offscreen, this film is pretty rough going. BTW, Bardem is doing his own singing.



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I was looking forward to Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. It was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.

I'm still planning to see it, but I'm just a little less hyped about it now.
__________________
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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.



Gidget (1959)
Four years before Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello hit the beach in Beach Party, filmgoers were introduced to a pretty young beach bunny in a 1959 piece of cinematic cotton candy called Gidget that, despite some dated plot elements, offers slight entertainment thanks to the charming performances by the leads.

Sandra Dee, one of the biggest stars on the planet at the time, inhabits the starring role of Francie "Gidget" Lawrence, a bubbly, 16 year old who wants a boyfriend more than anything else in the whole world and decides that her search for romance would be abetted by the purchase of a surfboard and hanging out with the college age surfing buddies, where Gidget finds herself torn between the Big Kahuna (Cliff Robertson), an aging beach bum who lives in a shack on the beach and Moondoggie (James Darren), a cute beach bum wannabe who is actually what we now refer to as a trust fund baby.

Screenwriter Gabrielle Upton, whose primary experience in the business was as a writer for soap operas, definitely shows her hand here, creating a fluffy romantic triangle that goes all the places that a soap opera triangle would. It's cute watching these three trying to deny their feelings for each other and using each other to make each other jealous. There are some adult touches to the story that surprised me. like the fact that at one point, Gidget actually offers financial compensation to Kahuna to make Moondoggie jealous, but even that plot point takes a detour we don't see coming.

The story does feature a lot of the same dated elements we saw in the later Beach Party franchise where we saw a lot of kids hanging out on the beach who appeared to have no home, parents, or appeared not to attend school. College is mentioned by a couple of characters along the way, but outside of Gidget's parents, no one in this movie seems to have any kind of adult responsibility. The only thing Gidget and her girlfriends had on their mind was getting a man and the guys at the beach treat Gidget ( a mashup of the words "girl" and "midget") like a school mascot. And not sure why, but I was a little bit shocked by a brief scene where Gidget is observed doing breast exercises, something I definitely didn't expect in a 1959 teen comedy.

Columbia didn't put a lot of money into production values, but audiences only cared about teen idols Sandra Dee and James Darren cuddling onscreen, making almost as engaging an onscreen couple as Frankie and Annette. Robertson was quite slick as The Big Kahuna, but the age difference between him and Dee gave their scenes a bit of an "ick" factor. Arthur O'Connell and Mary La Roche were fun as Gidget's parents. You might remember La Roche as Ann-Margret's mother in Bye Bye Birdie. This film also features early film appearances from Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack), Doug McClure, and Yvonne Craig. Cute, but nothing special.

The character has been revisited over the years in several forms. Deborah Walley played the character in Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Cindy Carol played her in Gidget Goes to Rome. There was an ABC sitcom in 1966 with Sally Field playing the character and Karen Valentine also played her in a TV movie called Gidget Grows Up. The character was also revived in 1986 for a syndicated series with Caryn Richman in the role. Even though she only appeared in the first of three films, Dee and Field are the actresses most associated with this role.



Violent Night
For those whose favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard, a whimsical and bloody black comedy/action adventure called Violent Night could become a new favorite Christmas movie tradition.

The 2022 film opens with Santa Claus getting drunk at a bar during a break on his Christmas Eve duties. Santa leaves the bar and arrives at the home of a very wealthy family who, while enjoying the homemade cookies and skim milk they left out for him, are actually being held hostage by a group of terrorists who are after a whole lot of money in the basement of the mansion. The reindeer desert Santa and it is up to him to save this family.

Screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller (Sonic the Hedgehog) really strike gold here with an intricate screenplay that borrows elements from several movies, other than Die Hard and give them just enough tweaking that we accept what turns out to be a thinly disguised homage to films like Home Alone, Knives Out, Miracle on 34th Street, and The Santa Clause.

There were a couple of minor plot points that were hard to legitimize. Primarily, number one son of the wealthy family, Jason, gives his daughter, Trudy, a walkie talkie and tells her it's a direct line to Santa Claus. Later on in the film, the corresponding walkie talkie is found on the body of a terrorist that Santa Claus takes out and maybe I missed how he ended up with the walkie talkie, but falling into Santa's hands, it allows Santa and Trudy to communicate throughout the film even though they're separated physically for most of the story like Bruce Willis and Reginald VelGleason in Die Hard.

What I really loved about this movie is the sometimes hard to swallow hook for the story that this guy is actually Santa Claus. We assume when we see him at the bar getting drunk that he is some sort of department store Santa, sick of his job because he's bewailing the ingratitude of today's children, something that was hard to argue with, but the story never wavers from the fact that this guy is really Santa Claus (though a new backstory provided for the character legitimizes his John McLane tendencies). Lost it when he got mad at the reindeer for deserting him in his time of danger and berating them again for conveniently showing up when the danger is over.

Director Tommy Wirkola mounts this story on a grand scale with bloody and unrelenting violence not expected in a Christmas movie. A Christmas tree star becomes quite the deadly weapon here, as does a fake icicle from a nativity scene. There are some great set pieces, my favorites being Santa's "nice" and "naughty" lists.

One of Hollywood's most underrated actors, David Harbour is Oscar-worthy as Santa, a role that requires gut busting machismo and undeniable sensitivity. Action movie performances rarely get Oscar nominations but Harbour is absolutely superb here, exploring every nook and cranny of this character and John Leguizamo scores as Scrooge, Leguizamo's first straight up villain since playing Tybalt in Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet, Alex Hassell made the most of his role as Jason and have to give a shout out to the long absent from the screen Beverly D'Angelo as the bitchy family matriarch. What can I say, this movie was all kinds of fun and had me on the edge of my seat. Well done.