Truth (2015)

I think that THIS is the type of movie that Steven Spielberg thought he was making with The Post: although it's filled with a lot of research and how-the-sausage-gets-made of journalism, it's also compelling. My biggest complaint is that the "crack team" put together to research the story could've been fleshed out a bit more -- particularly Elisabeth Moss's character.

B

Don't Think Twice (2016)

Tight improv group isn’t raking in the cash, but they love what they do. When one of them is tapped to join an “SNL” type show, the remaining members struggle to keep things going.

I really liked this, mainly because the group was one that I'd want to know personally. They were irreverent and sharp while also willfully existing in a state of arrested development. Most of them don’t know what they’d be without their group, so being forced to face that made for a bittersweet story. Nicely done.

B+

The Wave (2016)

Norwegian geologist living in a small fjord community suspects that recent contractions in a mountain crevice signal disaster for the town. The title of the movie pretty much spoils the fact that he’s right.

Pretty decent disaster movie that kept me leaning forward until the end.

B

Enemy (2014)

Sad-sack history professor notices that an extra in a movie he’s rented looks an awful lot like himself. He gets a bit obsessed and tracks down his contact information and convinces the actor to meet in real life. But the actor's a little off -- instead of being amazed and excited, he decides to figure out how to make it as weird as possible by insisting that he should take the professor's girlfriend on a weekend getaway. Since the opening scene of this film was one where the actor was enjoying a fancy masturbation show in a sex club, I probably should’ve assumed that this guy was not gonna react normally.

This is one of those films that works hard to keep you off-balance. For example there was a nightmare sequence involving a room-filling spider. If it had just been told straight rather than adding an unnecessary extra layer of what-the-fuckery on top, this could have been OK. As it was, I just felt kind of like I'd been the target of a weird joke.

C-

The Getaway (1972)

“Doc” (McQueen) doesn’t make parole, so he asks his wife (the blank Ali McGraw) to pass on the message to the big cheese on the outside that he’s for sale. Next thing you know, he’s out and has a job to do: rob a bank with the gang the big cheese has chosen for him. Things go sideways, of course, so Doc and his wife spend the rest of the film trying to get to Mexico… by following the path everyone expects them to take. If there was a reason for that, it went over my head.

The whole endeavor both confused and annoyed us in equal measure. Nothing made much sense and everything had a film of “yeccch” on it. There was a whole b-plot about one of the gang members chasing after Doc with a couple (and their tiny kitten) in tow -- against the husband's will but very much in tune with the woman’s will. That trio has an in-car BBQ rib fight at one point because why not? Absurd in almost every way.

D+

Deadpool 2 (2018)

The surround sound wasn’t on in the theater, which adversely affected the experience -- we missed several one-liners because audience laughter was drowning out the film. But I’m certain that, even if every line had been crystal-clear, this doesn't measure up to the first installment.

The advertising for the movie has been hilarious -- from Deadpool's face being featured on other DVD cases to the video for Celine Dion's "Ashes" theme song -- and the movie felt like it was just keeping it going. It's still a good time out, but it felt more like a series of quips and meta moments (at one point Deadpool signs his name as "Ryan Reynolds") than a real movie. It was almost exhausting.

Yes, I'll still show up for the next one. And I'll be hoping for another X-Force mission.

B

What Happened to Monday (2017)

In the future, the world’s resources are scarce so families are limited to single children while any siblings are put into cryosleep until a better future arrives. When identical septuplets are born to a mother who dies in childbirth, their grandfather decides to train them to act as one -- with each only emerging from their home one day of the week. Now that’s a hell of a set-up.

Unfortunately, even at a full two hours, this movie finds it difficult to develop any of the siblings’ personalities in memorable ways. It also doesn’t help that Noomi Rapace's face doesn't ever seem to register emotion, leaving her outfits to do most of the work. This basically becomes an all-out action movie 30 minutes in, and I wasn’t invested in enough in the characters to care what happened.

C-

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

Hoffman plays an art professor whose own art never really took off the way he thought it should. He’s also “the dad” (as his third wife annoyingly refers to him every.single.time -- as in “the dad is very excited that you brought lunch”) of three adult children, all of whom resent him to varying degrees. It’s clear that he threw over his first two kids once he divorced their mother and chose to "focus" on the third child he fathered with his second wife. But even kid #3 wasn’t parented so much as he was used to favorably compare against the other two children.

Oh my word -- this guy was the worst. Thankfully, the kids are able to find common ground when the dad winds up in the hospital and we get a glimmer of hope that they might actually be able to save each other from his toxicity. But gross. Parents like that deserve to die alone.

C

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

A glimpse into the day-to-day dealings of a movie studio executive. He handles gossip columnists, a pregnant swim-movie star, a cowboy star who can’t act, a young starlet participating in an illicit photo shoot, attempting to quit smoking, and the kidnapping by commies of his biggest star -- all while considering a better quality of life job offer.

And it just never gets funny. It’s fine, but it’s just a bunch of bits that never really take off.

C

Everything, Everything (2017)

A teen romance in the vein of “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” which is A-OK by me.

Maddy has been inside since she was an infant. She’s basically a girl in a really really nice bubble. Then a family moves next door and there's a son who's one of those boys who doesn’t exist in the real world but oh how every girl wishes he did. He entertains her with skits from his bedroom window and texts her and, eventually, visits the bubble.

This movie does have a bit of heft to it -- a serious twist I didn’t see coming -- but the twist wasn't needed for this to be a thumbs-up.

B

Toni Erdmann (2016)

Older man who enjoys pranking people in ways that are tolerated rather than enjoyed (e.g. fake teeth), takes an impromptu vacation to visit his daughter in Bucharest, where she’s working as a consultant. Though she asks him to leave, he sticks around -- basically stalking her in his gag teeth and ridiculous wig. He shows up at her office, a girls' night dinner, a work reception, and her private birthday party. At one point, he lets himself into her flat, hides in her closet, and handcuffs himself to her. In these situations, he becomes “Toni," who is sometimes the German ambassador, sometimes a life coach, and sometimes an efficiency expert, but who's always on the receiving end of behind-the-back raised eyebrows and derision.

The lesson here was basically that if you decide that someone's working too hard, you’re allowed to wreck their life in order to "save" them. But come on. No one gets to decide that for another adult -- even when that adult is your offspring. In the daughter's shoes, I might have filed a restraining order.

D

The Virgin Suicides (2000)

The youngest of five teenage daughters in a restrictive, religious household finally succeeds in killing herself. As a result, the remaining girls become a curiosity -- and even more closely watched by their parents.

The best thing about this film was the mood, which was an unreal mixture of dreamy and melancholy. The problem is that it also felt kind of slow and ultimately too small for the screen.

B-

Tully (2018)

Exhausted mother of 3 is gifted a “night nanny” by her rich brother. Once Tully the nanny shows up, mom's attitude and life are changed for the better. She’s happier, more energetic, and more like the woman she used to be.

But -- spoiler -- it’s just “Fight Club: postpartum edition.” I would've preferred that Tully be a magic genie than a rehash of a much better movie's concept. Speaking of which, it's title isn't unique either -- it's shared by another superior film.

C+