Captain Marvel (2019)

Citizen of Halla (not earth) who's been given great strength is learning to control it and serve her planet. When she crash lands on earth along with members of a rival alien race, she has to evade capture by S.H.I.E.L.D. and death at the hands of the enemy aliens until her own people can retrieve her.

It's fast and fun and forgettable.

B

Await Further Instructions (2018)

Young man brings his Indian girlfriend home for Christmas, knowing that his family is unlikely to be welcoming. When the added pressure of forced quarantine and instructions from an unknown source are added, things get ugly quick. This is an inventive horror movie -- it's almost like a mafia game with an obvious suspect: the foreigner. Add in a dash of religious zeal and learned authoritarian misogyny and you've got a frightening mix.

Problem is, once the "monster" is revealed, it's pretty hard not to giggle. It's a solid B-movie for the first 1:15 and then really goes off the rails right at the end.

C

Strong Island (2017)

Young, upstanding black man is murdered and the killer isn't even indicted. Tragedy. Especially when you take into consideration that he was in the process of becoming an officer. And that he had recently tackled a man who'd robbed and shot a man on the street then spent time testifying for the prosecution in that case. A good guy from a solid family. But this movie is just not good. Especially early on, there is so much irrelevant information about the family and long shots of places such as messy bedroom or a home's exterior (notably NOT the deceased's home), that it felt as though the filmmaker was just filling screen time.

Oh, and the filmmaker himself. Yes, his brother died. And yes, it's a miscarriage of justice and he should be very angry. He should not, however, put me in mind of the scene in Broadcast News where William Hurt interviews a woman and takes the time to get a reaction shot of himself crying. And why were we always all up into his face so that we could see his pores when every other interview was at a normal distance? It felt like a way to make himself the focus of the story, which only minimizes the heinous injustice.

D+

Bird Box (2018)

I put this off for a while because, when I heard the premise, I just thought "Oh. Gotcha. A Quiet Place but with sight rather than sound." But this is a different movie altogether.

Switching back and forth from the present to the past -- seeing not only the present situation but also the early days -- was a powerful way to tell the story. Yes, our protagonist is a hard woman, but there's a reason for that. Most people haven't survived but she's gotten through on strength and savvy.

Worthwhile for the smart scares, but I do want to mention that this is the second film in a row in which Bullock was overly made-up when it didn't fit the situation. Ocean's 8 made both my husband and I chuckle audibly when she comes in for her parole hearing with raccoon eyes & the same thing went on here. It's an apocalypse situation & she's holed up in a gay couple's house... where the hell is she getting the Maybelline? It frankly made me sad at the thought that Bullock may not be comfortable looking "real."

B+

The Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)

Wonderful documentary about a scrappy independent baseball team founded by Bing Russell, a character actor and father of Kurt.

When a sanctioned minor league team couldn't make a go of it in Portland, they pulled out of the town. This left an opportunity that only Bing was interested in taking. He'd grown up near the Yankee's spring training field, played a bit himself until an injury ended that career, and then moved to Hollywood, but his first love was always baseball. Turns out there are quite a few men whose first love is baseball -- and a whole lot of them will play for almost no money, but for boundless love of the game. This affection for the sport spread to the town. The team became so successful -- both in profitability and wins -- that establishment ball decided to squash it.

It's truly a heartwarming chapter that didn't last long enough. It's hard not to be discouraged at the way money takes precedence over fun in a game. Left me pretty sad.

B+

Super Dark Times (2017)

From the very first minutes -- two friends hanging out, flipping through their yearbook talking about which girls are hot -- I was sold. The banter felt real. The friendship was unforced. I could believe these kids had known each other for a decade or more; their day was incredibly conventional.

When things go very wrong, the kids' responses felt consistently authentic. Even the ending, which both scared and confused me at first, I feel is justified. It's neither tidy nor explained to death. It just is. And that's an impressive level of directorial assurance: tell the story & let the viewer respond as they will.

B+

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

For the first 15 minutes or so, I felt off-balance and not in a good way. There were two problems: I was kind of bored by the low-key family drama and I wondered if perhaps we'd somehow rented the 3-D version of the film and didn't have the necessary eyewear to see it clearly. But once we start meeting Spider-people, the story whipped into shape. And once I grew accustomed to the various animation looks, I could appreciate them rather than feel as though I was constantly noticing/adjusting to them.

It was fast and clever in the vein of Deadpool, but without the raunch. It was also inspiring to see so many different types of spider-people... a terrific message of diversity and that, even when we feel like we're alone/not like anyone else, there are others going through the same stuff.

A worthy recipient of the Best Animated Feature Oscar.

B

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)

Lara Jean, though adorable and fun, has a habit of pining from afar rather than letting the objects of her affection know her feelings. When she gets a crush, she writes a letter to them then puts that letter in a box that she pulls out every once in a while. Her latest crush is her next-door-neighbor who was, until very recently, dating her own older sister.

It's no surprise that the letters find their way to the addressees. There's actually no surprise in the entire film, but I'm not complaining. I grew up with "Can't Buy Me Love," so I had no problem buying into and being enchanted by the story. There were times it felt a bit low-budget -- like a coupla more takes could've improved some scenes -- but that's just quibbling. This is a sweet charmer.

B

3 Generations (2017)

Ray is a teen transitioning from Ramona. He lives with his mother, who is supportive but nervous, and his grandmother and her long-term girlfriend, who doesn't get it at all. And that's about as deep as we go into Ray's story. He's basically used as the set-up for Mom to get in touch with her ex-husband and ex-brother-in-law (the actual biological father of Ray) and have some drama.

This is a mess of a movie. It took decent actors and made them seem inexperienced and took the opportunity to tell a deep story about the difficulty of transitioning -- even when you have a supportive family who should understand more easily than most -- and squandered it by getting off-topic.

What a waste.

D

Paddleton (2019)

Two bachelors in the same apartment complex almost function as a married couple. They watch movies together, work puzzles, make pizza, play a made-up racquetball-type game together -- they're just comfortable. When one finds out he's got terminal cancer, he decides that he'll take his own life before it gets too bad and entrusts his friend with that information as well as with the responsibility of being there with him through it.

There was a lot to like about this. It was super low-key, but it made a decent case that sharing your life with a good friend can be just as fulfilling as life with a romantic interest. This felt almost revelatory as I tend to assume that all "normal" people would prefer a romantic partner to a platonic one. And, I guess, that's the problem here. I felt that Romano's character might not have been quite as "normal" as I'd have liked. I'm not talking about the social awkwardness that he talks about during the film -- I'm talking about episodes like the petty jealousy he couldn't conceal when his friend invited someone to a bar with them and his truly weird interaction with the family moving into the complex at the end of the film. I want the true friendship here not to be compromised by one of the characters seeming possibly "simple."

B-

Abducted in Plain Sight (2019)

This is a mesmerizing story. A young girl was preyed-upon by a family friend, right under that family's noses. Actually, right under the girl's nose too. This "friend" had the family fooled and literally conned the girl into believing she had a divine destiny to fulfill by becoming his wife.

It would be almost laughable if it weren't so devastating. I can barely believe how innocent the family  -- father, mother, and children -- were. Their trust was almost boundless. Their inability to suspect that an evil man could possibly be evil is almost inspiring. What must it have been like to live in their minds before this monster came knocking on their door?

B