Of Mice and Men (1992)

George and Lennie work on ranches and, to hear them tell it, those are usually the loneliest guys in the world. But these two aren't like that because they look out for each other. They've got also got a plan for the future, including buying a little house they know about with some chickens and rabbits, which Lennie will be allowed to tend. They'll have to get some money together first though and Lennie needs to practice being careful because he's too simpleminded to always understand his own strength.

But, for now, they've got new jobs bucking barley at Tyler Ranch. Curley, the owner's son, has a mean streak and believes Lennie to be an easy target. Then there's also the issue of Curley's wife, who's very pretty and very lonely. But George and Lennie prove themselves in the field and are accepted by the rest of the crew, eventually even bringing the aging Candy into their dreams of the future.

It's gorgeously shot and comes by its emotion honestly by staying true to the source material. Though I admit that I had to get acclimated to Malkovich's choice for Lennie's speaking voice, I was fully invested once I did and -- even with foreknowledge of how their story ends -- I truly bawled. It's a a confusing shame that this is the last thing Gary Sinise has directed.

B+

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Humphrey Bogart is Sam Spade, the prototypical hard-boiled detective -- unfazed by anyone including beautiful women in distress and slimy shake-down men. Everyone's after the titular statuette and they're all sure Spade can help.

Though there are better stories out there, as one of the first and most-referenced noirs, it is a must-see. Doesn't hurt that it's also entertaining with some fantastic performances.

B+

Bull Durham (1988)

Crash (Kevin Costner) is a veteran catcher in the minor leagues, brought on to mentor the Bulls' new pitcher (Tim Robbins) who's got a million-dollar arm and a five-cent head. Local Annie (Susan Sarandon) chooses one player each season with whom to hook up and guide and with a 100% success rate in improving that guy's game, she's earned some club respect. Crash takes himself out of the running, leaving her with the pitcher who adopts the nickname "Nuke" at Annie's insistence. But neither Annie nor Crash is comfortable with the arrangement.

What a fun story. Though Costner's line readings aren't as loose as they should be, it almost doesn't matter because the other points of this triangle are absolutely wonderful (probably didn't hurt that they were falling in love offscreen at the time). "Nuke" is dumb as a bag of rocks, but he grasps -- after much trial and error -- that Annie and Crash know their stuff and he's better when he follows their instructions. Meanwhile, Annie and Crash are committed to improving the kid but can't help what their hearts want.

On top of all of the relationship stuff, there's the baseball stuff. I admit that the first time I saw this way back when (I had this poster up in my dorm room senior year of college) it was all about the relationship and those "long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days." But this time I also appreciated hearing the internal monologues of the players as they walked up to the plate or wound up for the pitch. Yes, it's about romance, but it's also about ball. They're only together because they love this glorious game played on cool spring evenings and hot summer afternoons that only really works live, not through a screen. Magic.

B+

A Room with a View (1986)

Lucy and her chaperone are vacationing in Florence when Mr. Emerson and son George offer to trade rooms with them so that the women can enjoy the view. Unlike the other British travelers staying in the same hotel, the Emersons lead with joy and passion for all the world offers. Lucy, like the rest, isn't sure how to navigate such unexpected behavior, but can't help but get briefly swept up by George. Once back home, Lucy goes back to coloring within the lines again and gets engaged to the snobbish Cecil.

I started this at the end of the night, planning to just watch 30 minutes or so before turning in. But then, there I was, watching the credits and crying lovely happy tears.

B+

Blue Moon (2025)

Lorenz Hart, half of the songwriting duo Rodgers & Hart, is struggling with the fact that his partner has just opened a new show (Oklahoma) with a different partner (Hammerstein). He's sitting in a bar almost monologuing for the bartender, the pianist, and another solitary drinker who turns out to be E.B. White. And, boy, can the guy talk. I would've bought him shot after shot just to hear him ramble about romance and music and movies -- his love of language is something I share.

Ethan Hawke is the whole show here and he doesn't disappoint. The one criticism I have is that they needn't have been so concerned with Hart's stature. I was put in mind of Tim Conway's knees-on-shoes "Dorf" a couple of times, and that didn't help me keep my mind on the story.

B+

The Forgiven (2022)

When a young man is hit and killed by a couple on their way to a lavish party in the middle of an impoverished area of the Moroccan Sahara, it's treated like an annoying inconvenience by the host, the other attendees, and even the at-fault couple. It's only when the boy's father arrives to claim his son's body that it becomes apparent that it won't be possible to resolve the situation without an act of contrition. The driver reluctantly agrees to accompany the father back to his home more than a day's drive away. 

We go back and forth between his experience in the stark environment of those native to the land and the bacchanalian excesses of the estate party. While he's learning that he's taken something from a community that had little to spare, the partiers are consuming many times their fair share of pleasure in every form. Can he ever return? 

Though it took me a little bit to acclimate, the driver is the perfect avatar here. Even though he lives a life much more privileged than mine (and probably most viewers'), my easy life is much closer to his than those he'd wronged. Ralph Fiennes inhabits it perfectly and helped me feel the journey.

B+

Bugonia (2025)

Michelle (Emma Stone) is CEO of a high-profile biomedical company: rich, demanding, materialistic. Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a low-level laborer in that company, is convinced she's not what she seems to be. To stop her plans, Teddy ropes his trusting cousin into abducting her and holding her hostage until she admits the truth.

Yorgos Lanthimos movies are hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes I am annoyed by what feels like a deliberately false style while, in other films, the weirdness just works. Bugonia is one of hits, right up there with The Favourite and Poor Things. I really liked the slow reveal of Teddy's backstory and how trauma could have driven him to seek a concrete target to slay. I was also really into Michelle's savvy manipulations -- her refusal to admit the upper hand may no longer be hers.

This one's a winner.

B+

Donnie Brasco (1997)

Lefty (Pacino) is a longtime earner in the New York mafia who notices, vets, and vouches for Donnie Brasco (Depp), who is actually undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone. Lefty is a true mentor to Donnie. He's almost always going out of his way to explain how things work -- both to ensure that Donnie doesn't embarrass him, but also because he seems to really care about the younger man.

Instead of enriching the story, the peeks into Joe's "real" life, consisting of a wife and three young daughters in suburbia, felt inconsequential. I didn't care about them in the same way that I cared about Lefty -- which seemed to mirror Pistone's own evolving feelings. Obviously those scenes were supposed to show us how brutal undercover work is on the family and the agent, but a flashback to Pistone in happier times might've helped us feel that.

This really hangs on Pacino's performance, and he delivers. We see him as a man whose every hope has been dashed, who would love to just escape but knows it's not a possibility. Brasco breathes new life into him -- Lefty dares to dream again -- but those dreams are short-lived. His final scene is a heart-breaker.

B+

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+

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

A couple of years after a a very public divorce, socialite Tracy is set to marry the "up from nothing" George. Her ex Dexter now works for Spy magazine and, in order to quash a story about Tracy's father's philandering, he has convinced his editor to send a reporter and photographer to cover the wedding instead.

With Cary Grant as Dexter (still beloved by the family), Jimmy Stewart as Mike the reporter (and frustrated "serious" author with little regard for the useless rich), and Katharine Hepburn as Tracy (trying to move on if her emotions would only let her), there's never a dull moment. I mean, what a trio. It's witty, silly, passionate, lovely and deeper than I understood when I first saw this in my teens.

B+

Laura (1944)

When Laura is shot dead in her apartment, Detective Mark McPherson launches a no-nonsense investigation. Trouble is, her friend Waldo and fiancé Shelby feed him constant nonsense as he attempts to piece together what happened and why. We meet the lovely Laura in flashbacks from both of their perspectives and, along with Mark, can't help but fall a little bit in love.

I've seen this several times over the last 35 years or so and enjoy it every single time.

B+

Saint Maud (2021)

Maud feels certain that God has big plans for her and is having trouble seeing his hand in her current situation. She's starting a position as a live-in palliative care nurse for Amanda, a former dancer, and slowly comes to believe that this woman might be her mission. Amanda herself seems open to Maud's message, going so far as to refer to Maud as her "saviour." 

I was so impressed with the suffocating tone here. A few times, Maud's eyes or mouth would open just a little wider than should be possible, but the moment was so fleeting that I could never be sure if I was imposing my own dread onto the image. I was put in mind of Rosemary's Baby and Servant -- is this madness or divine? Wonderfully scary.

B+

Double Indemnity (1944)

Walter Neff is the top selling insurance agent at his firm, which also employs a crack claims adjuster who always sees through attempted fraud. But when Neff meets Phyllis, his good sense goes out the window and he's soon embroiled in a scheme to get her out of her marriage and into a pile of money.

It's one of those stories that starts at the end and then flashes back to fill in the details, so we're aware from the outset that the plan doesn't work out for Walter and Phyllis. But, boy, it's good fun watching it go wrong. It did take a little bit to get used to Fred MacMurray as a hard-boiled type delivering worldly quips every time he opened his mouth, but he makes it work.

Definitely a noir touchstone.

B+

It Happened One Night (1934)

Colbert is a famous "poor little rich girl" who eloped against her father's wishes and is now being pressured -- on the family yacht in Miami -- to annul. Instead, she jumps overboard with no other plan other than to get to New York to reunite with her husband. Though her father has dispatched dozens of men to find her, she's savvy enough to stay on the downlow while pawning what she had on her to get travel clothes and a little bit of cash for a bus ticket. Clark Gable is a newspaper man who stumbles across this naive and entitled traveler and only realizes who she is after they've antagonized each other. It becomes a sort of "Planes Trains and Automobiles"-type story with everything possible going wrong, which gets them at each others' throats and hearts. 

It's impossible not to root for these two: they are clearly having fun on the road together even while grappling with problem after problem. Colbert goes from "I don't need you" to a grudging realization that she'd be in over her head without him while Gable is surprised at how capable and savvy this sheltered heiress actually is.

This is one of those movies that could probably still please a crowded theater.

B+

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+

Strange Darling (2024)

From the outset, we're told that the story will be told in six chapters... then we start right in with "Chapter 3" and a bloodied woman running for her life. It's this transparently jumbled telling that makes this really work. I knew I'd find out the whole story eventually, which allowed me to just enjoy the ride rather than getting frustrated or feeling manipulated.

A very violent fun time.

B+

Will & Harper (2024)

Harper (formerly Alex) has transitioned to life as a woman. When living life as a man, one of her great pleasures was to road trip and visit holes-in-the-wall along the way. It occurs to Will Ferrell (one of her friends) that Harper might no longer feel safe doing this on her own, so he suggests a cross-country roadtrip together.

This would've been a fantastic movie if it just focused on the conversations in the car. We learn about Harper's loneliness and a desire to just be allowed to be herself -- even behind closed doors where no one else can see her. Harper's stories put me in mind of the truism "you are who you are when no one's looking" because it's clear that she's been a woman in every moment she could snatch for herself. 

But this film looks beyond the chat between friends and expands to the response from outsiders. Though most people are lovely, there's a bit of a question mark as to whether that's because they're excited to meet Will Ferrell. Many of the patrons of a certain Texas Steakhouse can go fuck themselves, though. Genuinely moving: more hopeful than sobering.

B+

The Hater (2020)

Tomasz goes immediately into damage-control mode when he is expelled from college for plagiarizing. Though he is a born manipulator, his talents don't work on his patrons who view him as a yokel who squandered their largesse. He jumps at the opportunity to rake in cash as a professional troll and is soon indispensable to his company, making it possible to worm back into his patrons' lives.

What a compelling story! I saw this described as "Parasite meets Nightcrawler" which definitely works due to the themes of class and a talented/despicable outsider. But adding in the modern social media aspect takes this story to a different level -- a scarier level. Though it's difficult to be sympathetic to a character like Tomasz, it's easy to see how someone like him is created.

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+

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+