Sweet Virginia (2017)

Hitman is tasked with killing a cheating husband, but winds up killing two others besides. While waiting to be paid, the young man books a room at the local motel and becomes friendly with the proprietor.

There's a lot going on in this film, but there's a blanket of quiet over it all. I'm not sure if it was the scenery, the soundtrack, the character of Sam the motel owner, or some combination of those that made it feel so serene despite the horror, but it really worked. It put me in mind of The Sweet Hereafter, one of my favorite quiet tragedies.

But, despite everything that the movie did right, it was undone somewhat by Christopher Abbott's portrayal of the hitman. He came off as more mentally disabled than emotionally removed.

B

Summer of '92 (2015)

I don't follow soccer now, so I certainly didn't follow the sport 30 years ago, which means I had no idea what was going to happen in this movie about the real-life Danish national team from 1990-92.

Coach Nielsen has an uphill battle taking over the team from his predecessor. He's interested in winning rather than putting on a show and that is the opposite of what Denmark's national team had become known for. He has neither the respect of the players nor the confidence of the owners, who courted 7 other coaches before settling for Nielsen. But it's his steadiness and lack of vanity that serves him so well in the role. Despite all of the knocks, he is insistent that his way will work.

I loved that the game scenes were intercut with what looked to be footage of the real matches. This is a feel-good movie without a lot of flash -- simply lovely.

B+

El Camino Christmas (2017)

A stranger in search of his father comes to El Camino and quickly attracts the attention of the local cops. Though he's done nothing wrong, circumstances wind up trapping him in a liquor store with four others and a reckless officer.

This story relies completely on the presence of an out-of-control lawman and, even then, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why everyone in the store doesn't gang up to subdue the cop is beyond me. All could've been sorted quite easily if everyone would've just acted on what they knew rather than what the guy with a badge was saying and doing.

D+

Love Wedding Repeat (2020)

A man and woman meet for the first time and feel an instant connection, but have to say goodbye before any real move is made. More than a year later, they meet again at a wedding -- will it work out this time? Or, more accurately, will it work out in one of the "sliding doors" timelines the story explores?

This really wants to be wacky, but it's just annoying. None of the "bits" work at all: the non-Scottish boor in a kilt, the irksome chatterbox with an unrequited crush, the coked-up stalker -- they all seem to have been told to "wing it" and the result is shockingly flat. it doesn't help in the least that the couple for whom we're, presumably, supposed to be rooting is terribly dull.

A few cut scenes roll at the start of the credits and they were all funnier than what made it into the film -- that's by comparison, of course. They weren't funny by any sane metric.

F

On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Covers Ruth Bader Ginsburg's college years through her first courtroom win for equal rights. It's inspiring, never boring, but also never really jumped off the screen to excite me in any way. I'd call this competent.

B 

Athlete A (2020)

Well-told and damning documentary about the sexual-molestation scandal in USA Gymnastics. It's one thing to hear about it on the news and another to actually hear the actual women -- who were children when abused -- speaking about what went on under the guise of "treatment." I'm constantly amazed by how much pedophiliac behavior is hushed-up by institutions. Every adult who knew and didn't do everything they could do to protect the minors in their care should not only be ashamed, they should be indicted.

Seriously. Fuck all institutions that cover this shit up. And especially fuck the pastors of the churches who transfer these problematic leaders rather than being actually on the side of God and those whom you have claimed as your "flock" by doing everything you can to make sure they cannot abuse again. You have done more damage than you can possibly know.

B+

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

This is a sequel that proves its right to exist by giving us the same fun while smartly shaking things up. Almost everyone is playing a different "avatar" (Kevin Hart really nails his new persona) and a couple of new characters are added to the group. Very fun.

B

The Little Hours (2017)

A young servant who had been carrying on an affair with his master's wife must flee when he's found out. He winds up working at a convent as a deaf-mute, but his handicap doesn't deter the horny group of nuns at all.

Weirdly unfunny and -- despite full frontal nudity -- unerotic.

D-

Closed Circuit (2013)

A "special advocate" is appointed to review secret evidence which could compromise national security and is tasked with arguing for its inclusion at the trial for the suspected ringleader of a terrorist attack. Thing is, anyone who digs too deep into the case finds themselves in grave danger.

This is a competent thriller, but not special enough to be memorable.

C+

The Rental (2020)

To celebrate the successful launch of their company, two business partners and their significant others plan a weekend getaway at a home-share rental. Things are tense even before their arrival due to some possible racial profiling during the booking process, but they decide to shake it off and have a good time despite it.

This is a standard tension-filled "I know something bad is going to happen, but I'm not sure of the details yet" thriller. It works because it's quick, spare, and doesn't bother with reasons. Though it's not a masterpiece, it is an effective thriller -- plus, the denouement is truly frightening.

B-

Just Friends (2005)

When visiting online with my family, we had this question come up, "What's the funniest movie of all time?" When our secretly given answers were revealed, everyone had said "The Big Lebowski" except one, who claimed that this movie is the funniest of all time. And, while I love the answerer, the answer itself is just plain wrong.

I can only think of one moment in this film that got a chuckle from me, and it's none of the big, "wacky" segments, but a small one where -- after watching two brothers continually antagonize and pummel each other throughout the film -- we see them matter-of-factly say "love you, bro" without even thinking about it. But the rest of the film is just so one-dimensional. Everyone loves the nice and pretty girl. No one loves a fatty, even if they're kind and smart. And if you're sexy but shrill, you can be abused and mocked without a thought.

Either the world has evolved a lot in 15 years or this was never funny. I'm honestly not sure which it is.

C-

Mojave (2016)

Ennui-fueled actor Tom drives out to the desert alone, wrecks his car, and finds himself hosting a rifle-toting stranger around the campfire. Things get tense quick and -- though Tom finds his way back to L.A. -- he hasn't left the danger behind in the sand.

Interesting little movie in that I never felt I had a good grip on. At first I was annoyed with what seemed like laziness in the leading man, but I got on board soon enough because it worked. This one was surprising.

B

Good Boys (2019)

A trio of best friends are new to sixth grade and doing their best to stop acting like fifth graders. First step: learning how to kiss before they go to their first make-out party. This is both charming and raunchy and it does a wonderful job of capturing how it feels to be that age. I kept thinking "I remember *just* how that feels!" Super fun.

B

The Lovebirds (2020)

A couple on the brink of a breakup hits a cyclist with their car and then gets dragged into a web of intrigue involving blackmail and an "Eyes Wide Shut"-style secret society. It's silly and doesn't always work, but Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani are winning in the title roles.

B-

The Lovers (2017)

Mary and Michael have been married for a long time and the spark has gone out. They barely show any interest in each other, let alone have a physical relationship. Each has their own cubicle job and a serious affair going on. Each has even independently decided to leave the marriage and to tell the other during their college son's upcoming visit. But then the spark randomly reignites. And they find themselves lying to their side pieces in order to be with their spouse.

I liked the couple and where things were going. I was rooting for them. But then... it went a bit off the rails when the son came into the picture. I don't know what would actually happen if this were a real-life situation, but I doubt it would've been this. I was really disappointed.

B-

The Take (2016)

American pickpocket in Paris steals and discards a bag that had a hidden bomb in it. When it goes off, the CIA sends an agent (Idris Elba) to track him down. False leads, corruption and lots of great fight sequences later and we haven't seen anything new, but it's definitely a fun ride.

The chemistry between Elba and Richard Madden as the pickpocket is what sells this film. It's not quite a comedy, but it teeters right on the edge.

B-

The Interview (2014)

A producer on a low-stakes celebrity talk show wants to do more important work. When they find out Kim Jong-un is a fan, they chase and land an interview. This, in turn, gets them recruited by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader.

James Franco is truly hilarious as the impressionable host Dave Skylark. Easily the funniest segment is the first one, in which Eminem casually reveals his homosexuality on the show. But Franco delivers consistently, even though the movie eventually runs out of ideas.

B-

Richard III (1956)

Looks cheap and the story, though sordid, comes off as flat. The dialogue and its delivery were lifeless. This might as well have been a high school play.

F

The Woman in Green (1945)

Sherlock Holmes is working the "Finger Murders" case -- women are being killed in London and their index fingers cleanly removed. There's hypnotism, a femme fatale, and a bumbling Watson. Yet, somehow, it's still a yawn.

C

Son of Rambow (2008)

Two kids are lonely for different reasons: Lee is a poorly behaved nuisance that no one wants to be around, and Will is a naive kid growing up in a very strict religious family. Despite their differing homelife and experience, they quickly become a team working together to create a movie inspired by First Blood.

What a delight this was. I really appreciated how the kids' trust in each other developed naturally. I didn't have to search too hard in my memory to come up with very similar experiences from my youth. Back then, it didn't matter who our families were -- if we could spend a few hours playing hide and seek or Red Rover together, we could become inseparable.

I also got quite a kick out of the French foreign exchange student's immediate rise to fame among the British students. All of the little scenes with his posse following his every whim like he was a god among children were hilarious. What a sweet joy this movie is.

B+

True Conviction (2017)

This documentary follows three Texas men, exonerated after serving time in prison for crimes they did not commit, now spending their time working to get others out of prison. It's undeniably powerful and inspiring to see these men moved by those still stuck in the same way they themselves once were -- they truly seem to care and want to do right by these forgotten prisoners. The problem is that they are not well-equipped for the job.

We see them work on behalf of two prisoners: one dies of cancer before they can prove his innocence and the other is released on parole, but without exoneration. There's no denying the passion of these men, but they are less persuasive than they need to be. Also, their messy personal lives are often captured on film. Though that's a dose of reality, it rather dilutes the message of the movie.

C

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Although I've seen a couple of Star Wars "stories" in the last few years, I haven't bothered with the trilogies since Phantom Menace stunk up the screen. But, Gary won a bet and got to choose the movie we watched tonight without debate so... here we are.

The story demanded that viewers be familiar with the prior films. For example, when the blue guy showed up, I had to ask my husband for his identity, which caused the follow-up question: "you mean the dead guy from the opening words?" So, perhaps I would've liked this more if I was up-to-date... though, judging from my husband's reaction, it seems pretty unlikely that being plugged-in would've helped much. The whole thing felt like a wrapping up of loose ends rather than its own story and it also felt extremely juvenile.

My takeaway was: for completists only.

D+

Hamilton (2020)

I am still, four years after first listening to the soundtrack, mindlessly singing "Helpless" and "One Last Time" to myself while washing dishes. It's just become part of the music in my soul -- like The Sound of Music and West Side Story -- and I will always be a fan.

Though Gary and I were lucky enough to see this in front-row balcony seats in Chicago -- what we both remember most vividly about that show is, unfortunately, the punishingly small amount of legroom for the seats. The show was fantastic, but out pain was real and intrusive. Another issue I experienced at the live show was that there was, at times, so much happening on stage that it was impossible to know what to focus on. So seeing the show again, with the original cast, in our much more comfortable living room, with a director pointing our eyes at the most important action was perfection. Sure, there's nothing like being alongside other spectators, feeling the life-force of the performers in the same room, but I really hope that this is the future. We don't all live in New York, so getting to see an original cast production without any "Hollywoodizing" is a service for which I -- and I'm sure many others in the midwest -- are starving.

One complaint: the Maria Reynolds storyline. Miranda seems to want to have it both ways: that Hamilton was a womanizer who had a feral tomcat named after him by Martha Washington ("that's true!") AND that this affair was one he fought and, seemingly, the only one in which he engaged. It's far more likely that he had several affairs but he got blackmailed for this one, which made it become THE one. It just really bothered me that we weren't trusted to understand that humans are capable of both greatness and egregiousness -- that we could admire a man who was both a product of his time AND who pushed the country forward in positive ways.

A

Our Souls at Night (2017)

Addie comes to Louis, a neighbor with whom she's been acquainted for nearly 50 years, with a proposition: that they spend the nights together -- just sleeping. As the surviving spouses of long-time marriages, they have both had to learn to sleep alone, but Addie believes they might sleep better with a nice person lying next to them. Turns out, she's right.

This is a lovely and practical romance complicated by others (as almost everything is). The ending is frustrating, but so is life sometimes -- it felt honest.

B+

Archipelago (2014)

A mother and her two adult children arrive at a country cottage ahead of the father for a two-week family holiday that is to serve as a send-off for the son, who is heading off to volunteer in Africa for a year. There's a hired cook and a hired art teacher (I think??) who are around quite a bit.

The family sits around moodily or eats moodily or goes on moody outings and gets more and more annoyed that the patriarch isn't showing up. Can't say I blame him, though. His family is the worst. And this movie is a big ol' pile of nothing but scenery and birdsong and brooding.

F

The End of the Affair (1955)

Near the end of World War II, writer Maurice (Van Johnson) meets the wife of a civil servant, Sarah (Deborah Kerr), at a party in their London neighborhood. He is almost instantly smitten and soon they're spending lots of time together. When the building they're in is hit by a bomb, Sarah quickly ends the relationship, much to Maurice's confusion.

This is a complicated story involving faith and morality, but it fell quite flat in this telling. I think the biggest problem was that I didn't believe that Maurice and Sarah were in love. There was no chemistry in their actions. We were, apparently, supposed to simply take the script's word for their passion.

The 1999 remake with Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore puts this one to shame. I graded the newer film an A+. This one just gets a:

C+

The Best of Enemies (2019)

The racially divided town of Durham, NC has two strong community leaders: Ann Atwater, champion of the black population, and CP Ellis, president of the Klan's local chapter. When there's a fire at the black school, the city government decides to hold a 2-week summit in order to put the responsibility on the residents themselves as to what to do about it: integrate or keep education separated by race.

I liked this for what it is -- a history lesson that the whole family can watch -- but disliked it for the same reason. It's a toothless telling of a time that probably had quite a few more incidents of pressure and fear than we're shown. Yes, the n-word is prevalent, but it could've been felt with more impact.

Gary and I have interest in the America in One Room experiment and the summit ("charrette") in the film reminded us of that. It seems that simply getting people out of their echo chambers and into the same room with people of differing opinions can truly change minds. Once people work together and truly listen to each other, they cease to be "other," and that's powerful.

B-