Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Unwitnessed, a man falls from an upper level of his remote home to his death and is eventually discovered by his blind son. The man's wife, who claims to have been napping at the time of the fall, becomes a suspect. Because the son will be a witness during the case, the court assigns a companion to ensure that his testimony is not influenced while he continues to live with his mother.

This is an excellent courtroom drama. Though I went back and forth on whether the wife was guilty, the ambiguity was more a fact of the unwitnessed occurrence rather than a source of frustration. The fantastic script holds interest throughout and all nominations are well-earned, though it's a shame that Milo Machado Graner as the son was overlooked. He's a marvel.

B+

Veronica (2017)

Veronica is a teen almost solely responsible for her 3 younger siblings since her father died and her mother has to work almost constantly to pay the bills. She decides, along with a couple of friends, to perform a seance during which she plans to contact her father. But, of course, things don't go quite to plan.

I enjoy supernatural films that are "based on a true story" because they honestly freak me out. This was doing the job for a bit, but then I noticed that the story wasn't developing. Basically, something evil got conjured and now it's hanging around the apartment and mom's not paying attention.

C-

Road to Bali (1952)

A pair of womanizing Vaudevillians need to get out of town quick and wind up taking a job in Bali. They both fall in love with the same princess, get attacked by a giant squid, retrieve a treasure, get shipwrecked, are captured by an island tribe, and are almost forced to marry each other before a homophobic volcano puts a stop to that.

It's silly enough that I chuckled a few times, but -- even for a "Road to" movie -- it was wafer thin.

C

May December (2023)

Elizabeth is visiting with Gracie as research for her upcoming role as Gracie. Gracie and her considerably younger husband have what looks to be a pretty normal life. They've been together more than 20 years and their youngest two are about to graduate high school. The thing is, their relationship started back before he was even in high school.

The arrival of the actress puts some strain on the couple, who are understandably defensive about their history. We are often kept in the dark along with the actress, only learning bits as she asks questions of the family and others in the town. But is she being told the truth? Can a family born from a scandalous beginning truly ever be healthy?

I really enjoyed the way the story was told: how it made me kind of question things, but also just the very late '80s/early '90s vibe of it. That said, the ending was just a copout. We are left to draw our own conclusions about what Elizabeth took away from the experience, whether Gracie is a little girl in a woman's body or a manipulative monster, how the young hubby will proceed now. Generally, I don't mind an open end but, in this case, it felt like the final chapter was simply deleted at the last minute.

One last comment: every time the piano motif would pound out, I half-expected the cast to gather around a mirror to mug into it Californians-style.

C+

Maestro (2023)

The film drew me in quickly, but then -- almost as fast -- pushed me away. Basically, Cooper's Bernstein loves making music, screwing pretty boys, and having a home base. Other than his hair and skin, he doesn't really change over the 40 years or so covered here. 

In short: did Cooper do a good job of mimicking Bernstein? Probably. Did Cooper do a good job making a compelling film about Bernstein? Not so much.

C

Oppenheimer (2023)

I had preconceptions about the type of person who'd create an atom bomb and none were complimentary. This story helped me understand how a person could do such a thing for good (or at least pragmatic) reasons. Such a complicated man in a complex situation -- I truly loved it.

Though the long run-time made me pre-grumble, I was impressed with the way this film moved along without ever feeling indulgent or padded: every scene was earned and felt necessary. At times, it felt like I was immersively experiencing what it might be to possess a top-tier mind. What a smart, thrilling and gorgeous movie.

A-

Heart of Stone (2023)

The first 45 minutes or so was like a budget Mission: Impossible -- which is to say it had great action, quippy dialogue, and a sense of danger -- so I buckled up for a great time. But then the story goes down the predictable "this powerful tool can't fall into the hands of that madman" path. And, though both Dornan and Gadot are beautiful people, Gadot simply does not have the acting chops to compel interest in the non-action scenes.

Very disappointing.

C

The Holdovers (2023)

Giamatti is a history teacher at an all-boys boarding school who looks weird, smells bad and is unyielding when it comes to grades. Over the winter break, he's dealt the task of staying on-campus with the kids who, for various reasons, have nowhere to go. Eventually the students are whittled down to a single angry young man. The two men, along with the cafeteria worker handling the meals, become a little family over the couple of weeks they're together.

It not only looks authentically '70s, it feels like it too. The acting, the story, the whole vibe is perfect. Just a wonderful throwback that sucked me in.

B+

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

De Niro is very very good here. And Gladstone, though she's not given nearly enough to do, holds the screen every time she's on it. And... dammit. I'm all out of compliments.

This movie is a mess. At least half a dozen times Gary and I had to sanity-check stuff that just popped up out of seemingly nowhere. Things like "whose kids are those?" and "have several years passed without any indication? I thought it'd just been a couple of months." Yes, this is an important subject, but that does not automatically confer importance to art based on that subject. I got way more out of my wikipedia dive after the movie than I got from this.

C-

The Burial (2023)

Jamie Foxx plays Willie Gary, a flamboyant personal injury lawyer with a history of winning. Though it's outside of his area of expertise, he agrees to take on a contract case for a David going up against a Goliath. It's based on a true story, but there's no way those court cases were honest -- there was more grandstanding and objectionable theatrics than in any episode of Law & Order.

C

Ammonite (2020)

Mary Anning is a well-known fossil hunter living quietly along the coast with her mother, selling small finds to tourists. Charlotte Murchison, the young and sickly wife of a fossil enthusiast, is entrusted to the care of Anning while he travels. The cover art and most-used stills from the movie spoil what happens next.

Despite a truly steamy yet believable sex scene, this story is too quiet. It's also needlessly inaccurate for a film based on actual people. I don't mind that there's little evidence of a romantic relationship between the two women. I do, however, mind that Anning is played by Winslet who's about two decades older than Ronan as Murchison when, in reality, Murchison was senior by more than a decade. What was the point of that switcheroo?

C+

Saltburn (2023)

Scholarship student Oliver is on his own at Oxford until he gets an "in" by being in the right place at the right time to help out big man on campus Felix. Eventually he's invited to spend the summer at Saltburn, the vast estate owned by Felix's family. Oliver is a quick study and navigates the many affectations of the household despite clashing with another hanger-on from the wrong side of the tracks.

This didn't go where I was expecting! That said, if I'd realized earlier that this was a twist on Mr. Ripley, I wonder if I'd have been quite so entertained.

B

Flora and Son (2023)

Flora's a struggling single mom with a teen who's constantly being picked up by police for minor infractions. She's still living like a kid herself: staying in clubs 'til closing, bringing one night stands back to the apartment and filching cash from her boss's purse. As a late birthday present to her son, she grabs a battered guitar out of a dumpster and has it cleaned up and restrung but he's not interested so she decides to give it a go herself.

It's a truly heartwarming story. Flora's world opens up as she gets to know her online American guitar teacher and begins to connect with her son through music. The script smartly keeps this from being a magical "happily ever after"-type of story -- there're are plenty of bumps for this family -- but that's what grounds this. Time and effort are what matter here: both when learning a new skill and when working on relationships.

B

Ferrari (2023)

This movie is in desperate need of some joy. The only happy people in the film seem to be the drivers, and we get precious few scenes with them. Most of our time is spent with Ferrari, his wife, and his mistress: bland, angry, and annoyed patience respectively. Laura Ferrari (Penelope Cruz) wears a permanent scowl that made me wonder how huge her headache was at the end of every shooting day.

This was a pure drudge, except for the final race which, frankly, saved this from an "F" rating. There is one short sequence in that race that is so surprisingly well done that this could win an Oscar for effects, but I'll be mad it it's nominated for anything else. I was pissed on the way out of the theater but will likely never think about it again.

D

Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)

I was eager to watch this, so I can't fault the filmmakers from wanting to make it. That said, the winning equation is Jackson + Reynolds = Fun. Changing the expression to (Jackson + Hayek) + Reynolds does not, unfortunately, increase (or even equal) the previous result. She's just not funny enough to be used in anything but small doses.

C