Joyride (2022)

Mully -- a teen grieving the loss of his mother and fleeing his thieving father -- jumps in an idling taxi and takes off. He quickly realizes that a newborn and her mother Joy (get it??? JOYride??) are in the backseat and Joy's not interested in slowing down to take Mully back.

There were a few affecting scenes, but mostly it was by-the-book feel-good laziness. Colman is, of course, perfect.

C-

The Man From Toronto (2022)

Harrelson is "The Man From Toronto" -- known in criminal circles as the guy who can get people to talk when no one else can. Hart is Teddy, a guy with a million get-rich ideas, all of which are bad. When Teddy stumbles into one of TMFT's job sites and is mistaken for him, he has to fake it to live and then fake it some more.

This should be funny. I don't know why it's not funny. We wanted to laugh, we really did.

C

The Amazing Adventure (1937)

Ernest Bliss, a rich man who spends his days at various diversions, visits a doctor to basically diagnose his ennui. When the doctor says the issue is too much money and that Bliss should spend a year earning his own way, Bliss accepts the challenge.

It's a slight but charming little story. Bliss finds out quickly just how difficult it is not to be born into money. Every day's a struggle and he's at the mercy of others just to secure basic necessities. His eyes are opened and the experience changes him in a fundamental way. There are absolutely no surprises, but it's a sweet way to spend an hour.

B 

Vacation Friends (2021)

Marcus and Emily are a strait-laced couple who travel to Mexico for a rare vacation. When their room is ruined due to water damage, a YOLO-type couple invites them to share their suite. They have a wild time together for a week and, when it's time to part, Marcus & Emily are ready to say goodbye forever. But that's not how their new friends roll.

This had the potential to be an "I can't breathe I'm laughing so hard" movie, but it never got there. I think the direction was the most likely culprit. We were just sitting there bored with expectant half-smiles on our faces that never became actual grins.

C 

The Duke (2021)

Kempton Bunton is unafraid of going up against the powers that be. His crusade of choice is opposition to the license that is required for anyone with a television. His stance is that veterans and pensioners should not have to bear this cost since TV helps to keep people plugged into society. So, Bunton's a good guy but a constant source of exasperation for his wife as his reluctance to keep his head down loses him job after job. The story here involves an expensive Goya painting acquired by the National Gallery and then stolen from it. And, of course, Kempton's involved.

It's not a bad story, but it's more suited to a novella or long-form magazine article than a movie. It's just not big or deep or funny or nail-biting enough to fill the screen. I enjoyed the characters more than I enjoyed the telling.

B-

The Quiet One (1949)

What a weird movie. Somehow it was Oscar-nominated for a documentary and screenplay in different years. It's clearly scripted so how's it a documentary? That oddness aside, I see why it would've felt so important when it was presented. Finally we have an answer to what's wrong with these angry kids!

But, with time, it's clear that though this makes some salient points, it's seriously problematic. And extremely boring.

C-

Against the Ice (2022)

Based on fact story about a Danish expedition in the early 1900s to prove that Greenland is a single land mass so that the United States would be unable to lay claim to any portion of it. When a seasoned pair return to the ship after an unsuccessful attempt, the captain and a volunteer with no experience head out for a second try.

It's a tense story with some great acting. The dangers of the landscape give way to the monotony and mental challenges of being alone for so long. But I am one of those people who really do not understand the need to know things that do not directly impact my life. So, while I was interested, it was difficult to be sympathetic to their unnecessary plight.

B

Airport '77 (1977)

A big fancy private plane with a bunch of precious artwork and VIPs aboard  is headed to the owner's museum opening. Not only is the star power ramped up even more (Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Olivia de Havilland and more), but the story's got more going on too. While it's still essentially "oh no, big trouble, we all might die," the heroics are spread more evenly amongst the cast.

Skippable for sure, but you'd still probably have a good time on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and this playing.

C+

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

A literal goldenboy comes after Rocket, seriously wounding him. This sends the rest of the Guardians on a quest to find the passkey that will permit them to get past technology embedded in their friend, which will allow them to do what they can to to save his life.

There's heartbreaking Rocket backstory with a good amount of humor and action to balance. We both enjoyed it immensely and were surprised to be so affected. Definitely the best of the series. 

B+

Beast (2022)

Recent widower takes his two teen daughters to their mother's African home. What's meant to be a vacation turns into a fight for their lives as a lion who's lost the rest of his pride to poachers is now basically poaching all humans (killing to kill rather than to eat).

This story relies wholly on the daughters being unwilling to follow direction even when their lives depend on it. So, not only are they written in the most lazy, irritating "American teenagers amirite??" way, they're also BOTH pretty terrible actors. Sharlto Copley is about the best thing this movie has going for it, and he's not near enough.

D

Airport 1975 (1974)

The star power is up a bit from the 1970 installment (Charlton Heston, Myrna Loy, Linda Blair) and so is the action, but it's still only marginally entertaining. The fact that Heston thought he could make a tucked-in yellow turtleneck work might've been the most compelling thing here.

C-

Ride the Eagle (2021)

Leif's estranged mother has died and left her Yosemite cabin to him on the condition that he complete some tasks. Since he's 40ish, plays the bongos in just-getting-started band, and lives in a "tiny house" on the property of the band's manager, this is no small gift. So he decides to take off in his beat-up van with his dog to check things out.

The tasks are, for the most part, therapeutic. She has him call "the one who got away" (a lovely D'Arcy Carden) and to row a boat across the lake. Jake Johnson as Leif is perfect as a man-child with real potential and I couldn't help but root for him. Though it's never laugh-out-loud funny and doesn't contribute anything I've not seen before, it's definitely got charm and I enjoyed it.

B-

Wheelman (2017)

A getaway driver just out of prison is working a bank robbery. Unable to contact his handler, he accepts direction from an unexpected caller which puts him on the outs with just about everyone else. It's a literal race to stay ahead of bullets and other drivers while working to figure out what to do, whom to trust, and how to keep his 13-year-old on good behavior while she's home alone.

What a ride.

B+

The French Connection (1971)

Though I know it was groundbreaking in its time, it's really only the car vs. train scene that makes this worth watching. The storytelling during the first half-hour or so is muddled by constant cross-talk and it boiled down to just a bunch of tough-guy police hassling everyone they encounter while the audience is left searching for meaning.

The big crime does, eventually, come together, but it's too little too late. Also, I'm pretty sure Popeye Doyle is the very worst person to put on a follow detail. Even if he didn't insist on getting too close and drawing attention to himself, that porkpie hat of his is identifiable from a block away.

C

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

When a West Point cadet is found hanged with his heart removed, the school reaches out to Mr. Landor, a detective who's been isolated since his wife died and his daughter "ran off." With the help of cadet Edgar Allan Poe, Landor works the case even as another victim is discovered.

The mood is just right here, but the BIG REVEAL is rather a letdown. It's the smaller reveal, after the mystery is "solved" that really makes the story here.

B-

Luce (2019)

By all accounts, Luce is a major success story. After experiencing strife and war in his East African home, he was adopted by a white couple in America and is now enjoying his senior year as the pride of his school. But when he turns in a concerning essay, his teacher decides to search his locker, which somehow becomes the worst decision of her life.

I was wowed by this film. It was complex and forced me to shift allegiance several times, but without feeling as though I'd been fooled by red herrings. The more I found out about each person's perspective, the more I could empathize with that person's actions. Though there were definite sides to the story, right and wrong was subjective.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. really delivered here, somehow both sympathetic and terrifying . There are a couple of especially effective bits: 1) the juxtaposition between when he's practicing his speech and mourning his lost self, represented by his original name, and then delivering that speech to an audience and playing it for laughs and 2) the final scene where he seems to allow himself to temporarily discard his carefully controlled persona during a solo run.

A-

They Cloned Tyrone (2023)

A dealer goes to collect money he's owed from a pimp and gets shot to death. When he (somehow) wakes up the next morning and goes again to collect that money, the pimp is understandably freaked out. Soon those two and Yo-Yo the ho are trying to figure out what, exactly is going on. And what they find out is absolutely nuts.

The completely original and utterly bonkers script would've probably been fine with any cast, but I can't imagine any trio bringing this to such vibrant life in the same way John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris manage. Foxx and Parris kept sending me into giggle fits -- I mean that scene in the elevator when they were using their pistols as microphones? Perfection.

A-

Barbie (2023)

As we were exiting the theater, I told Gary "I thought it was going to be way more hilarious." But, less than an hour later, I didn't even really understand why I'd felt that. We laughed a ton and, when we weren't laughing, what we were seeing was so deep and true. For example: the moment with the woman on the bench: I realized Barbie had never seen an elderly person before so her "you're so beautiful" statement could have only been truth. I truly hope that both Robbie and Gosling receive Oscar nominations for their work. Not only are they delightful, but there was some pretty tough acting hurdles they had to clear. When I think about the range of emotions Robbie conveyed when first in the "real world," I mean just wow.

It's a great time that's also packed to the brim with nostalgia and feminism and pure wonderful. My one note, once again, is the tired old "daughter treats her mother like shit for zero reason" chestnut. Ugh.

A