The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2020)

Holiday, beloved in American for her unique voice, becomes the focus of a sting operation when she refuses to stop performing her song "Strange Fruit." Because it wasn't illegal to sing a protest song on the subject of lynching, they went after her drug use instead by embedding an undercover agent in her entourage.

The best I can say about this movie is that it's absolutely fine. I can't point to anything really wrong about it, but I was pretty bored. It felt like it hit the same beats over and over.

C+

Pieces of a Woman (2020)

Martha and Sean decide to deliver their daughter at home, but there are complications and the child dies soon after birth. In the months that follow, the couple struggles. Though they're both grieving, they need different things and cannot seem to help each other. Martha's mother has strong opinions on what Martha should be doing and is especially involved in the court case against the midwife on the scene.

It's an extremely difficult watch but, thankfully, it ends with a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.

B-

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Kong is being held in a Truman Show-esque bubble to protect him from Godzilla because, for some reason, the earth isn't big enough for two "Titans" to exist on it at the same time. Solution: take Kong to the theoretical hollow earth because... maybe he came from there?

Whatever. We're not watching this for the plot. We're watching this for two men in rubber suits fighting each other in a scaled-down model Hong Kong. And that part of the film did not disappoint. Turn off your brain, and enjoy the throwback ride.

B-

The White Tiger (2020)

Balram is smart enough to go onto higher education, but his grandmother isn't having it. In order to keep him in his place, she pulls him out of school and into the workforce. Once he grows into manhood, he goes for the best job he can think of: driver to someone in the high caste. He lands a sweet gig with a young Americanized couple and quickly makes himself indispensable (or so he thinks).

The biggest problem with this movie is that there is literally no one to care about here. The family for whom Balram works is horrible. They are thoughtlessly cruel at the best of times, and consciously cruel at others. Balram himself is conniving and grossly obsequious. I simply couldn't wait to be free of this terrible collection of humanity.

D

1922 (2017)

A farmer's wife inherits a nice parcel of land and decides she wants to sell it and move to the city with her teenage son. Problem is, neither her husband nor son want to leave. The farmer's solution is to enlist the boy into helping him kill her and then to tell everyone she ran off, a plan that actually works. But once his son knocks up the girl next door, things get nasty pretty quickly. By the end of the year, everything -- and I mean everything -- is pretty much in the toilet.

I would've liked this so much better without the supernatural elements. Life and consequences are scary enough without pulling ghosts into the mix.

C

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020)

Lara Jean and Peter hit a few bumps in their relationship. Self-doubt, an ex-girlfriend, and a returning crush all share the blame. I smiled through a lot of it -- LJ is a winning protagonist -- but the story's brightness is a bit dimmer than the first installment's. I'll still watch the third one, though.

B-

Judas and the Black Messiah (2020)

Car thief Bill O'Neal is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the Black Panther Party, with the goal of getting close to chairman Fred Hampton. As O'Neal climbs in the party, he also comes to believe in its message, which makes his mission more difficult than he anticipated.

Kaluuya as Hampton is magnetic, which is the whole reason it works at all. The story itself is told a bit flatly -- a "this then this then this" structure -- and I was often confused about the passage of time. Martin Sheen's Hoover makeup is distracting and Dominique Fishbach's portrayal of Hampton's girlfriend is rather non-engaging. Still, it's worth a watch because I'm sure that a good chunk of the American population, just like me, is unfamiliar with this important chapter.

B-

Ma Raineys' Black Bottom (2020)

Viola Davis is undeniably terrific in the title role. She's a black woman in a white man's world who understands where her power lies and how to wield it -- sometimes making a point of asserting herself just to make others feel it. But giving a hell of a performance in an ugly story doesn't make the film magically worthwhile.

D

Thunder Force (2021)

Of course I like Melissa McCarthy. I'm not a monster. But I don't enjoy her collaborations with her husband nearly as much as I do her other films. He seems unable to distinguish when her adlibs are actually worth keeping in the film, which is kinda sweet, but not great for the movies.

The whole thing feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. The premise is awesome: an event gave superpowers to the portion of the population predisposed to sociopathy. One smart girl who lost her parents in one of these "miscreant" attacks grows up to create a superpower formula -- but her one dose is accidentally injected into the wild card/not-so-bright McCarthy. Tons of fun, right? Well, no. It's only a cupful of fun. Sigh.

C

6 Underground (2019)

Ryan Reynolds (aka "One," but could've easily been called "non-superpowered Deadpool") leads a group of 6 people, each recruited for unique skills. As far as the world knows, each member of the team is dead, which allows them to pull off grand "heist"-type missions in hopes of making the world a better place without fear of reprisals.

It's fast, quippy, and would've been awesome on the big screen.

B

What Keeps You Alive (2018)

Married couple Jackie and Jules are celebrating their first anniversary by spending the "weekend" (though I counted at least 5 nights) at the secluded lake house Jackie inherited from her family. Jackie shows her true colors by pushing Jules off a cliff, but Jules survives and makes so many dumb decisions that, honestly, I could not in good conscience root for her.

The scenery is pretty.

D-

The Signal (2014)

Three college friends (Nic, Haley, and Jonah) are traveling cross-country to help Haley relocate. Along the way, they discover that a hacker who compromised some of their work at MIT is nearby, so they take a detour to confront him. I was enjoying this story: it was one about an imminent break-up, a kid trying to figure out how to navigate his life in the wake of a recent diagnosis affecting his legs, and the excitement of an encounter with a hidden foe.

But then this turns into some other movie. Nic wakes up in a bare-bones medical facility and is being handled by people in HAZMAT suits. Haley's in a coma, and -- though Jonah is supposedly not in the facility -- Nic is able to communicate with him through the vents. And there's something weird going on with his legs.

I wound up pretty frustrated and in need of an explanation.

C-

Uncut Gems (2019)

Adam Sandler (strike one) is Howie, the owner of a jewelry store like no other jewelry store I've ever seen... it seemed to be some kind of invitation-only deal with freelancers procuring buyers. Howie gets a rare opal, which NBA's Kevin Garnett sees and has to have, which starts a whole big mess because the gem is set to be auctioned. Howie's wife hates him, but that's OK because one of his salespeople loves him. He's got a gambling problem, he's in debt to a brother-in-law, he can't get hold of the guy who brought in KG and... it was honestly exhausting. Sandler doesn't ruin anything, but the movie itself is just grimy. 

It almost redeemed itself in the final act.

C-

The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

Lisbeth Salander: Family Affairs edition. Well, the main plot is about some computer software that can control all of the defense systems across the globe -- this is serviceable but uninspired. Her incestuous family bookends the story for no real reason that I can tell. 

It's slick, loud, and nothing new.

C-

Minari (2020)

Jacob Yi has a dream of supporting his family through farming, so he moves his reluctant wife and children to a beat-up mobile home in Arkansas. Their new lives are full of culture shock and frustration, especially for wife Monica. Not only is she stressed about money, she's concerned about their distance from medical facilities as their son has a heart defect. Eventually, Monica's mother joins them from Korea to handle the childcare while the parents are at work. Grandma is undeterred by the circumstances and her grandson's dismay at her presence -- she's the embodiment of finding joy in the every day.

I grew up poor with an immigrant father, going to Baptist church while my family struggled to make ends meet. The grandmother's arrival with all of her strange "presents" made me laugh out loud from familiarity, as did her grandson's complaints that "she smells like Korea!" It's such a heartbreaking charmer of a story, just full of reminders that family is a universal concept.

A

City of Tiny Lights (2017)

"Melody" hires down-market PI Tommy when her roommate fails to come home. He quickly finds out that there's more to this case than a missing prostitute -- an Islamic center driven to action by drugs in the neighborhood, American feds, and real estate development all play a part. Meanwhile, a flame from his past returns to town, and the pain of an old wound reawakens.

Riz Ahmed stars, which is why I watched it. He's really good, but the story is kind of all over the place -- lots of moving pieces in service of a tired plot. Also, the camera effects felt straight from '80s movies, when they had to convey "that dude's HIIIIIIGH" by bouncing the camera and smearing the visuals.

C

Sergeant Rutledge (1960)

It's 1881 and a black cavalry officer is being court-martialed for rape and murder in Arizona. It somehow manages to be both sordid and sanitized with a bunch of stiff overacting and laughable speechifying. Just yeesh.

D+