A Real Pain (2024)

After the death of their Polish grandmother, a pair of Jewish cousins book a tour of significant sites for Jews in Poland. Davey is the family man with a stable job while Benji is a charismatic manchild who both charms and exhausts. 

I just don't know what this film is about. For me, Benji was a bully who put his own opinions, comfort, and desires above everyone else's. Clearly he's lonely and directionless, but he also assumes everyone could learn a lot by following his example. The other people in the tour group seemed to be annoyed with him but they also preferred to enable rather than confront. Once the trip was over, Davey goes back to his family and Benji decides to hang out at the airport (I assume because he can't stand his own company). Nothing has changed, so what're we supposed to take away from this story?

C

Dune: Part Two

Paul Atreides & his mother join up with the sand people Fremen and are embraced as the long foretold messiah and reverend mother. They become part of the group, slowly gaining more loyalty the longer they're there and the more they learn the Fremen ways. Then they all go after the powers that be to make sure the control of the spice doesn't fall into the wrong hands or something and also to take revenge for the death of Paul's father. 

The good: it looks great & sand worms are pretty cool. The bad: it takes forever, gets monotonous, and there's gonna be another movie. This installment is slightly better than the first (though that may just be because I was less confused this time), but I'm not looking forward to the third.

C+

A Complete Unknown (2024)

We aren't Bob Dylan fans so I wasn't really looking forward to this. Compounding my indifference was the memory of the 2007 Dylan movie I'm Not There. You know, I could also complain about the fact that it was hard to decipher quite a bit of Dylan's mumbly dialogue -- another reason I'm so much more comfortable watching movies subtitled & pausable in my own living room -- but I'll instead focus on the brilliance of the story itself. 

We meet Dylan as he's searching for the convalescing Woody Guthrie, one of his inspirations. Pete Seeger happens to be visiting Woody when Dylan finally tracks him down and, since he's no dummy, gets him onstage. Though it takes little time for his star to rise, it's clear that Dylan isn't cut out for the kind of rabid fandom his music inspires and he struggles with the expectation to keep delivering the same thing over and over.

This covers a lot of ground and does so with finesse. Chalamet shows both steel and sensitivity in the role, meaning that I was never anywhere but firmly in his corner. Actually, let me amend my first statement: We weren't Bob Dylan fans.

B+

The Fallout (2022)

Tomboy Vada and hot girl Mia are the only ones in the bathroom when a shooter opens fire in their high school. They hide in a stall together and are joined by Quinton -- stained with his brother's blood -- just a few minutes later. In the days to come, the girls seek solace in each other despite having no relationship prior to the tragedy.

Though the subject is important, I never felt as though we got beneath the surface to the real "fallout." The responses of the girls' families were especially odd: Mia's parents don't even bother to come home from a trip abroad while Vada's family's way of dealing with things seemed to be simply looking worried. Weeks after the shooting, her mother asks "who's Mia??" when Vada tells her where she's been. Has she never asked her daughter about her experience during the shooting? How can she possibly not know the name of the girl who was trembling alongside her during the scariest moments of their lives?

I don't know... maybe that's supposed to be the point. Perhaps the takeaway is supposed to be that school shootings are almost a rite of passage now? That we're supposed to take a bit of time but then everyone needs to just get back to normal?

C

Infinite Storm (2022)

Despite storm warnings, seasoned hiker Pam sets off on a solo trek. Hours underway, she encounters footprints that eventually lead to a man woefully underdressed and too inexperienced to be out in the approaching storm. Lucky she's trained in search and rescue because they'd be dead otherwise.

Slow and frustrating -- there didn't seem to be near enough story for a movie. The screenplay worked hard to keep both characters a mystery to the viewers, which just meant that I wasn't at all invested in their survival. The denouement would've likely been frustrating if I felt like I'd gotten to know them at all.

C-

Say Anything (1989)

Anyone who doesn't get how John Cusack could've ever been a heartthrob needs only to watch this and gain immediate understanding. The romance between Lloyd and the way-out-of-his-league Diane is what teen girls across decades dream of.

When I saw this during its original theatrical run, I thought it was all about these teens navigating their first love affair. But watching it more than 35 years later, the theme became a loss of innocence: Diane isn't just graduating from high school, she's graduating from being "Daddy's little girl." Maybe she and Lloyd aren't destined to be eternal soulmates, but he's the one who helps her envision a life of her own and believe that she can attain it.

A wonderful film that works for teens and those of us well into adulthood.

A-

The Novice (2021)

College freshman pushes herself to the brink in order to excel. Though physics is her worst subject, she's decided to major in it -- seemingly because it's so difficult.

Despite having no experience in the sport, she joins the rowing team and throws herself into that training with the same heedless drive she applies to her studies. The toll her new obsession takes on her both mentally and physically seem like a drug to her: she just can't get enough of it and she's determined to rise to the top. Though her commitment is admirable, the "attack it relentlessly" technique that works for her in the classroom just doesn't apply here. Her fevered work ethic makes her alien to the rest of the rowers, which means that she can't be easily absorbed into their team. 

The struggle plays out almost like a thriller: I was scared both for her and those around her. My only complaint is that the final sequence is so frenetic that I didn't quite understand what occurred -- and my confusion was only amplified by the fact that her results were deliberately obscured.

B

The Substance (2024)

A celebrity is aging out of her current gig as the star of a fitness show when she hears about a life-changing serum. It sounds great: a "better" version of herself will be produced and they will alternate weeks of dormancy and being out in the world. But, of course, it's a little more messy than the pitch makes it sound.

We were really into this at first: the premise is fantastic and it felt like a Black Mirror or Twilight Zone episode. But then it just goes off the rails in so many ways. Not only were we questioning the level of awareness each has of the other, but we were so baffled by the choices each of them made (as well as how a nearly crippled person could absolutely fly down flights of stairs). I know that this was both written and directed by the same person and that might be the problem right there. Brutal editing could've made this absolutely soar -- as it is, though, I can only mourn this great but squandered premise.

C

Tollbooth (2021)

Turns out that the guy who's been operating the toll booth on the least busy stretch of road in Wales for the last 29 years isn't quite what he appears to be. When a blast from his past pulls up, he's got to call in a few favors to make it through. Of course this occurs on the same day that a lot of other stuff is happening as well.

The quirk is in full force here. While it's definitely got some charm, the "character" count was off the charts. Triplet hooligans trying to make a name for themselves on instagram, a female Elvis impersonator, a mumbling sidekick who's only clear when he's spontaneously shouting "WOOO," a cop who rides around with her dead father's ashes, a blind card player, a young hood who dresses like he's the lead in the revival of Grease... it's just too much.

C+

Hundreds of Beavers (2024)

After his business is destroyed, a man has to figure out a way to survive in the frozen landscape of North America in the 1800s. Each success is hard-earned, but he eventually works himself up to being the bane of beavers across the land.

This is basically a live-action cartoon. It's wall-to-wall slapstick, has virtually no dialogue & dead animals are signified as such with Xs over their eyes. It's fantastical and silly and a great time. My one complaint is that it's at least 20 minutes too long.

B

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Wick's got one more thing he's gotta do before he is square with The High Table and it's basically kill kill kill. Even though that's all the story there is for nearly THREE HOURS, the combat scenes are so inventive and well-shot that I didn't mind at all. 

The best of the four Wick films, in my opinion.

B+