Remember the Night (1939)

I've seen this a few times but had never before watched it with Gary and, somehow, seeing it with him deepened the story for me. Though Stanwyck's character is a shoplifter, it's clear that she made the same mistake that MacMurray's character did in his youth: stealing from mom. The difference is that his mother used it as a teachable moment, instilling in him honesty and justice, while hers publicly shamed and rejected her, teaching her nothing other than "better not get caught." When she's able to spend a week with his family, their welcoming spirit of kindness goes to work on her and makes her want to be better.

I was wrong in my original review when I said that there's only one surprise in this movie -- it zigs when we expect zags. It both fills the heart and makes me want to extend forgiveness rather than to dispense judgment.

A-

One Battle After Another (2025)

A far-left revolutionary group wreaks havoc on the establishment, including a facility holding immigrants on the Mexico/U.S. border. Lockjaw, the bigoted head honcho at the facility, takes an interest in Perfidia, a black leader romantically involved with Pat, the explosives expert for their group. When she has a baby, Pat's ready to scale back the work to prioritize parenthood, but she is uninterested and is eventually scooped up by authorities and pressured to talk, causing Pat to leave town with his daughter to live under assumed names.

I am not a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson, but I'm also not a hater -- he's just so inconsistent that when I hear his name I think neither "must see" nor "skipping it," but just "we'll see." For me, this one is definitely nearer the top of the list than the bottom. DiCaprio is paranoid magic here: just doing everything he can to keep his daughter safe, while coping with the mess that more than a dozen years of anti-sobriety have made of his memory. Penn also holds his own in a role that's much less fun.

This was a fun ride for sure, but Anderson needs to learn to kill his darlings -- there was no reason for this to be as long as it is.

B

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

I'm gonna sound like an awful grump here, but I really don't get the hype. Sure, there are a few songs in here that everyone (including me) knows and loves -- The Trolley Song, Meet Me in St. Louis, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -- but the movie that introduced them to the world is an empty (but pretty) affair.

The two elder Smith daughters are hormonal and looking for romance, the youngest is a tomboy, and the other one is just kind of around. There's also a brother and a grandpa. Mom is longsuffering and Dad is a sourpuss that the rest of the household has to tiptoe around to get what they want. But they live in St. Louis! And the World's Fair is coming to St. Louis! Yay!

Basically, I think this movie was wildly popular in 1944 because a colorful bit of escapism was welcome during World War II and it's been coasting on nostalgia ever since.

C+ 

Hunger (2023)

Aoy, a young woman working as the cook in her family's noodle shop, gets scouted to try out for a spot in the small support staff of Chef Paul. We've seen this type of boss many times before: so revered that his abuse (both mental and physical) is tolerated because the dude's a "genius." We've also seen Aoy's type of journey before: suffering the indignities because she both values what she's learning and respects him for what he's accomplished. But, eventually, she has to walk away to make her own choices and mistakes.

Though I enjoyed this for what it was, I also was (ironically) hungry for more. This is one of those scripts that somehow runs long but feels incomplete. I barely knew these people by the end of the movie because there was so much focus and time given to style rather than story.

C+

Happy Christmas (2014)

After a break-up, Jenny moves in with her brother and his family until she can figure out what to do next. She almost seems like more trouble than she's worth: she embarrasses a friend by getting black-out drunk at a party, sleeps through a commitment to watch her nephew, and fills the house with smoke in the middle of the night when she forgets about the pizza she put in the oven. But she's also the catalyst to remind sister-in-law Kelly that she doesn't have to put her happiness on the back burner just because she's a mother now.

The story's not bad, but the mumblecore of it all makes it feel super thin, especially because neither Anna Kendrick nor Lena Dunham is any good at improvisation. The best actor in the whole dang thing is the toddler son -- but that's probably due to the cheat that his actual father is playing his fictional father.

D+

A Very Jonas Christmas Movie (2025)

Though I don't care about their music at all and tend toward dislike for Joe Jonas (based on internet gossip), I was almost immediately on board with this silly and self-aware romp. The songs are truly fun and the script was full of both magic and nonsense -- perfect for the whole family.

In other words: oh, what fun!

B+

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

Father Jud is assigned to a parish with a shrinking congregation. It's soon clear to him what the issue is: Monsignor Wicks is deliberately abrasive, aiming for at least one "walk-out" per Sunday sermon so that those who endure will feel superior and even more dedicated. What's left is a tight group of seven parishioners who are fiercely loyal to Wicks and skeptical of Jud's agenda. But then Wicks is murdered in a "locked room mystery" and Benoit Blanc is called in to solve the crime.

It's more of the same and that's just fine.

B-

Never Let Me Go (2010)

The first time I watched this, I suspected it suffered from the fact that I'd so recently read the novel. Seeing it 14+ years later, I can confirm this was, indeed, the case. Now that the story's particulars have faded from memory, I was free to experience this without comparison it to the source material. What I saw was incredibly haunting and beautiful.

Generally, when a film has an oppressive mood that refuses to lift, I can get a little antsy and feel like screaming "LIGHTEN UP FOR JUST A MINUTE COULDJA??" but I never felt that here. Maybe because the melancholy felt honest rather than like a device -- like that's just how these isolated children would feel. It's gorgeously quiet, desperately sad and every single actor knocks it out of the park.

A-

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025)

Bridget Jones is, once again, single. This time, however, it's due to the death of her beloved Mark, leaving her to raise children Billy and Mabel alone. Though her family is doing alright, it's definitely time for her to get back into the world: both professionally and romantically. The first is easy enough as her former employer is eager to have her back producing television segments. The second is also surprisingly easy when sparks fly between her and a much younger man.

It's a sweet wrap-up to the franchise, even if Bridget's childishness seems rather long-in-the-tooth now -- she may have even regressed a bit since the last installment.

C+

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

Without a doubt, the weakest of the franchise. Yes, there are some thrilling sequences, but the actual plot is a big muddle and there's so much exposition, way too much of which is written in that annoying "single speech but several people are taking turns saying the sentences that comprise it" thing. No one talks like that, especially not without stumbling over each other at some point.

It just felt like a big "this is your life, Tom Cruise Ethan Hunt." Such a disappointment.

C-

Annie (1982)

I know most of the songs by heart, thanks to a fuzzy cassette tape of the Broadway cast from my childhood, but I'd not seen this before. And, frankly, I kind of wish I hadn't bothered! While I enjoyed the 1999 television film, this just left me cold.

Mrs. Hannigan was definitely not G-rated: she's drunk, threatening, and weirdly sexual. The childrens' musical numbers had so much choreography that the lyrics almost got lost (though most of the kids could BELT). And then there's just so much unnecessary filler. The only explanation I can think of for that trip to the theater and showing a lengthy clip of Camille -- definitely not a child-friendly movie -- is that it was to give the movie audience an unofficial intermission.

Without the wonderful songbook, this would be a D, but the numbers pull it up.

C

The Thin Man (1934)

I saw this probably 40 years ago and remembered it as delightful, so I was eager to see it again. What I'd obviously forgotten was just how long it takes to get to the good stuff! Powell and Loy are in top form, but we don't see them for nearly the first half-hour. We were introduced to so many characters before we got to Mr. and Mrs. Charles that I was starting to have trouble keeping them straight AND I began to wonder if something had gone wrong and we were somehow streaming a movie other than the one we'd rented.

Seriously, once Nick and Nora show up, things improve dramatically, but dedicating so much time to the rather "meh" mystery up front was a mistake.

C+

The Secret Garden (1993)

Overprivileged yet neglected and extremely unhappy young girl loses her parents in an accident and is sent to her Uncle's home where she is put under the care of the stern Mrs. Medlock. She has a hard time staying unhappy once she discovers a walled-in garden and befriends Dickon, whose many animal friends basically makes him a junior Doctor Dolittle. Her sickly cousin Colin benefits from the discovery as well.

It's so thin and the two child actors portraying the cousins are woefully inept. Though Maggie Smith and John Lynch are doing their best as Medlock and Colin's father respectively, they cannot overcome the extremely dull telling. In short, if you want to see a Frances Hodgson Burnett adaptation about a young girl born in India who loses her parents, relocates to England to live under a strict matron, finds her own joy while helping to transform the life of another unfortunate child, and eventually also gains a loving parent, go for 1995's winning The Little Princess instead and thank me later.

C

Being There (1979)

Simple-minded gardener Chance is forced to leave the only world he's ever known when the master of the house dies. He has literally no experience outside of that house until he's forced to exit it and has spent all of his time either gardening or watching television. After being backed-into by an automobile, the ultra-rich owner of the car decides to take him back to her home since they've already got a team of doctors there caring for her husband. "Chauncey Gardiner" soon has a reputation as wise and careful due to his agreeability and tendency to speak in what is assumed to be gardening metaphors.

I mean... yeah. I get it. If you look the part, people make a lot of assumptions. They'll also peg you as wise when you're reflecting their own ideas back at them. But it got a little icky and a lot repetitive before it was over.

C+