Asteroid City (2023)

A playwright is working on a story about a small town in the desert hosting a kind of nationwide science fair that turns into a quarantine. We get scenes about the writing, the backstage happenings, and the play itself. I was disoriented for quite some time, but then I finally stopped trying to understand what was what and the frustration melted away.

It's your basic Wes Anderson nonsense: visually impressive with prevailing twee.

C+

A Little Prayer (2023)

My uncle married Marta when I was 7 or so, but they'd broken up before I was in high school. I remember feeling really weird about the fact that she used to be part of the family -- sleeping on our foldout bed on Christmas Eve -- but my uncle decided for all of us that she was out. I never saw her again. This story brought that to my mind, but in a much more poignant and adult way.

Young couple David and Tammy live in a small home on his parents' property. Every morning, Tammy gets up early to pack lunches for her in-laws and share a coffee. They clearly adore her quiet presence, which becomes even more clear when their own daughter blows into their lives like a tornado after impetuously leaving her drug addict husband (again). David works with his father Bill at the family business and it's there that Bill becomes aware of David's infidelity. 

David Strathairn plays Bill just right: he's kind and quiet but can confront when he must. His concern for his son, his business (the woman is an employee), Tammy, and even the woman herself feels genuine. Despite the discomfort of butting in, he does it because his love for his family demands it. But he must also accept that the outcome might be painful. I loved the relationship between Bill and Tammy. Jane Levy's minimal approach was surprising and effective.

A-

Champions (2023)

Hothead assistant coach gets fired from his minor league basketball job, gets a DUI, and is assigned to 90 days of community service as the coach for a team with intellectual disabilities. The cast is comprised of actors who actually have the disabilities their characters do, which is commendable. But, with Harrelson in the lead, I expected there to be more of an edgy storyline as he learns how to coach in a different way. Instead, he's almost effortlessly patient with this demographic even though he dropped the the r-word at sentencing. 

Feel-good? Yep. Believable in any way? Nope.

C+

The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (2023)

Just as was the case between seasons when the show was airing, it took so long for this movie to come out that I've pretty much forgotten everything that was going on. But, just like in times past, it doesn't really matter -- it's still gonna be a good time.

My biggest complaint? Not enough Brock.

B-

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+

Leave the World Behind (2023)

A New York family takes an impromptu getaway to a beach house AirBnB. They almost immediately lose phone and internet signals, then witness the confusing beaching of a oil tanker. It's not until the home's owner and his adult daughter show up late at night that they're told about chaos and blackouts in the city. Together, these two families must face a new reality, without even being sure that they can trust each other.

I liked the surface premise: how would you handle the "owners" showing up at your rental requesting shelter? Could you trust their news of what's going on elsewhere when you have no way to verify? But the weirdly written women almost derailed it. Why did the owner's daughter have such a big chip on her shoulder? And why was the vacationing matriarch treated as paranoid just because she didn't want to let strangers into a home with her children? The script obviously wanted us to think about race relations (the vacationers are white while the owners are black), but I just read it as a ridiculous distraction. I also think I would've enjoyed the ambiguity being explored a bit more: leave out the tanker and let it be a real question mark if the visitors are on the level.

In short: it made me think, but mostly about ways this could've been a lot more intriguing.

B-

Perfect Days (2023)

Hirayami wakes up early, folds up his bed, brushes his teeth, gets dressed, waters his plants, gets a coffee from the vending machine outside of his apartment, and heads off to his job cleaning public restrooms in Tokyo, listening to one of his cherished cassette tapes on the way. At one of his stops, he greets the unhoused man with a smile and a nod. He is patient with his chatty, but not very careful, junior co-worker. During his lunch break, he greets the woman eating her lunch at a nearby bench with a smile and a nod. He takes a picture of his tree friend. When he's done with a book, he visits a book shop to select another. After work, he gets dinner at a busy eatery where the owner always makes a point to bring him ice water "for his hard work" or at a quieter restaurant where he's also well-known. He heads home, reads a bit, sleeps, repeats.

Left to himself, his days would not vary, but he would fully inhabit each one with grace and appreciation. He is not left to himself, which is also fine with him. He makes room for the unexpected. This is living.

A

Aporia (2023)

Since Malcolm's accidental death, his widow Sophie and their daughter have been so overtaken by grief that when his best friend tells her of a machine that could get Malcolm back to them, it's an immediate lifeline for her and she insists they try to use it. Though this machine can't send a person back in time, it is strong enough to hit a target with a "bullet" of energy, assuming you know exactly where the target was at a certain time. Theoretically.

Even though time travel has been done dozens of times before, this story found a new idea to explore. No one goes anywhere new or repeats any days -- instead, reality itself shifts around its inhabitants. The exception to this reality shift is that the person/people in the room with the machine only remember the "original" timeline, having to play catch-up with the new reality everyone else has lived. 

Judy Greer made me feel the weight of the unintended consequences and the guilt that goes along with them. It's a real "what would I do" story and, in the end, I was so satisfied with their answer to that question.

B+

Robots (2023)

Robots are everywhere in the near future, serving in menial roles. They mostly wear the same oddly offputting rubber masks so you know when you're dealing with one... unless you've got enough cash (or blackmail fodder) to force someone into making one that looks and behaves just like you do. Both Elaine and Charlie have these illegal robot doubles that they use to have sex with the rich assholes who buy them things (Elaine) and to wine and dine women to prime them for sex (Charlie). When wires get crossed, Charlie's bot and Elaine's bot meet up, copulate, fall in love, and then steal their owners' identities, which forces Charlie and Elaine to team up and find them.

It's a fun premise, but not a fun movie. It's all so tame.

D

The Wrath of Becky (2023)

Orphaned teen flees her foster family and finds a home with a widow who doesn't ask many questions. She's obsessed with survival and setting traps due to the violent way in which she lost her father. After taking a petty revenge on an asshole customer at the diner where she works, the customer tracks her down and ruins her relatively settled life. Since he kidnaps her dog, she has no choice but to come after him.

It's quick and bloody and I sure wish I'd known this was a sequel. I doubt that knowledge would've changed my opinion, but I still would've like to have known.

C+

Relax, I'm From the Future (2023)

Casper travels from the future but struggles to get anything going until Holly, an aimless millennial, offers him some leftovers and a place to crash. Armed with Casper's lottery and sports knowledge, Holly can live a comfortable life and Casper can pursue his passion for memorabilia, mostly by befriending close-to-death nursing home residents in hopes of inheriting their stuff.

The script quickly dismisses the "butterfly effect" -- making it clear that small changes won't be felt, but they've got to be careful about altering anything big. The result is a charming, if somewhat weightless, story with winning performances. I had a good time.

B-

Reptile (2023)

I watched this -- well, stared at it -- with my sister and both of us were pretty lost throughout. Characters would disappear, plotlines would get dropped, and it seemed to move at a snail's pace until the last act which felt unreasonably rushed. Though I was confused, I wasn't at all surprised at the who and why reveals. 

It was just a basic story wrapped up in confusing storytelling. Also, you have to watch JT try to act. No thanks.

D

The Lesson (2023)

Aspiring author Liam takes a live-in position as a tutor for the son of a revered novelist. The son is dismissive and difficult, the wife -- an artist and curator -- is aloof and melancholy, and the novelist is petty and demanding. Liam absorbs and adapts and makes himself useful to all of them.

Though I've seen this type of closed-system family with an outsider before (Saltburn comes to mind), I found this to be mesmerizing and unpredictable. Each of the players were three-dimensional with both personality and agenda. The eventual end was both surprising and satisfying.

B

Rye Lane (2023)

Still dealing with their respective breakups, Dom and Yas keep each other company as they tie up a couple of loose relationship ends. In the same vein as Before Sunrise: two strangers experience an immediate connection and just keep it going for as long as possible.

There're plenty of laughs, hi-jinx and colorful supporting characters, but this wouldn't work if the couple at the fore weren't brimming with chemistry. I enjoyed spending the day with them and was rooting hard for them to work out.

B+

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Mahito moves to his mother's ancestral home after she dies and his father marries her younger sister. On the estate, Mahito is harrassed by a persistent gray heron. When his pregnant stepmother goes on a walk and doesn't return, he is lured to a mystical tower by the heron and enters into a dreamlike world in his pursuit of rescuing her.

It's a nightmarish mess of a story and the heron morphs into a scary trollish man wearing a heron costume. I rarely understood what was supposed to be happening. Beautiful animation, but who cares when it's put to use for such a nonsensical tale?

C-

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023)

I am a very casual fan of Swift. I know most of her big songs -- but not when they first become big. For example, I remember being mystified when my son showed up in a "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me" T-shirt in 2023. But she can craft a song and pack a stadium and she definitely went out of her way to make this an event that its attendees will remember on their death beds.

While I am in awe of her talent and commitment to her fans, I doubt I'll ever count myself among them. She's really good but I might be just a smidge too old to be anything other than an admirer.

B

American Symphony (2023)

I'm rather new to Jon Batiste -- I was aware of him as Colbert's former bandleader, but only got to know him recently through a YouTube video where he listens to Chappell Roan for the first time (below). Gary and I became instant fans of this joyous, incisive, and full-of-life presence on that introduction and watched several more videos of him immediately.

This documentary covers a very taxing time in Batiste's life. He's hard at work on an original symphony to be performed at Carnegie Hall -- which, alone, would be enough to fill a plate. But his wife is also suffering a recurrence of her rare cancer, fracturing his attention and muting his natural exuberance.

But, still, his essence shines through. He's human and he has his bad days, but he is fundamentally a man whose heart is open to the universe and others. An inspiration. Though, to be completely honest, I did not care for his symphony at all.

 

C+

Fingernails (2023)

In the future, couples can take a test to find out whether or not they're in love with each other. Just by removing a fingernail from each, you'll know for certain whether or not your feelings can be trusted and if you can move forward in confidence. Ryan and Anna tested at 100% (both partners in love) years ago, which is enough for Ryan. Anna, however, would like to keep working at the relationship and is especially interested in taking classes at the Love Institute. She's so interested, in fact, that she takes a job there and hides it from Ryan.

Though I've seen variations on the "soulmate" story many times, there was something about this one that was super affecting. Yes, there's comfort in knowing for sure, but that can obviously lead to stagnation and taking a partner for granted. I think the real triumph here -- what really puts this story above the others in the genre -- is the character of Amir (Riz Ahmed, killing it as usual). He knows so much and yet yearns to understand.

B+

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Very much in the same vein as Guardians of the Galaxy and Princess Bride: an eclectic group of adventurers work together to take down the bad guy & retrieve a powerful relic. Hugh Grant is in "hammy" mode as the villain and everyone else is just having a grand ol' time. I was especially surprised by how much Michelle Rodriguez (as the group's muscle) cracked me up.

Lots of fun even if the plot is a bit generic.

B

On the Fringe (2023)

Follows several storylines of poverty in Spain, each more miserable than the last. A woman about to lose her home for failure to pay works with a "Stop Evictions" group in hopes of her family being allowed to stay put. A young girl is taken into care when she's found at home alone since her mother works every waking hour to keep them housed. A man grabbing temporary work where he can has stopped taking his mother's calls out of embarrassment at his inability to pay her back. Meanwhile, that elderly mother can no longer pay her own housing costs and is falling into despair. From a different viewpoint, we see heart-of-gold middle-class Rafa chasing around all day to reunite the young girl with her mother at the expense of his own family obligations.

Though the acting is solid and the story's important, the non-stop hopelessness is hard to watch.

C-