Category Archives: 2025

Sinners

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Sinners                 5 stars

Ryan Coogler’s new movie, Sinners, about vampires invading a small rural Black town in 1930’s Mississippi, defies genre. While it certainly is a horror movie, it is also a gangster movie and a musical featuring an assortment of Blues numbers with varying styles. It’s hard to believe that this is only Coogler’s fifth time directing, previously directing Creed, two Black Panther movies from the Avengers universe and Fruitvale Station. This time it is in a setting he truly makes his own and is something that could only be made by Coogler. And it is also the fifth time he has featured Michael B. Jordan in a prominent role; this time actually making it two roles with Jordan playing twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. The pair were gangsters in Chicago having acquired a fortune during prohibition, and before that were soldiers in World War I, but now they have returned to their hometown and plan to open a juke joint and make more money. The pair are unsavory, certainly and won’t hesitate to hurt someone who crosses them. Smoke is the serious one of the two, while Stack is more flamboyant. The twins buy an old sawmill from a white man, paying cash, being assured that the Ku Klux Klan is a thing of the past, words that will haunt them later in the film. They link up with Sammie (Miles Caton), a young preacher’s kid who is a master Blues player on the guitar and will play a major part in the events to follow. The brothers reunite with a number of the townsfolk they knew from before and it is clear there is a long history at play here, especially with the women that includes Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Wosaku). The recruiting of musicians, cooks and patrons for the evening’s entertainment takes a good hour of the movie during which we get a taste of the music of the time. It’s apparent to me that the Blues figures highly in Ryan Coogler’s background. It is only after the party starts that we get a hint at the bloodbath that is to come. But first we get a massive display of the music and dancing created here where we see figures from beyond the present dating back to old African culture and future entertainment with musicians on electric guitars and DJs. After the first of the vampires arrives at the venue, it occurred to me that this resembled Quentin Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, the vampire movie from the nineties. As the action filled killing progresses, the characters are not sure who they can trust and suspicions fall on those who were previously close. This was a familiar element that I remember from John Carpenter’s The Thing, when a blood test was used to clear the suspects. Here the act is the forced eating of garlic, a plant fatal to vampires. Everything leads to a final confrontation that leaves few survivors. Not only is Sinners easily the best horror film of the year so far, it gives us an impressive collection of cultures that were a part of the South in the 1930’s including Black, Chinese, native American’s and Irish. I don’t know how long Coogler worked on this soon to be classic, but he certainly had a lot to say. Be sure that you stay all of the way through the credits and don’t miss the multiple endings.

The Accountant 2

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The Accountant 2             2 stars

After eight years, accountant and deadly killer Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is back in director Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant 2, the sequel to the 2016 generically named The Accountant, also by O’Connor. This time around the autistic genius and weapons expert has been recruited by a US Treasury agent (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to help her investigate a human trafficking ring in Mexico that has extended its reach into the United States. She soon finds out that some of his methods aren’t exactly legal. (But first we get an amusing taste of what it’s like for the socially awkward Christian to try a dating service where his literal way of speaking puts off every woman he talks to.) When it becomes clear just how violent and far reaching this criminal gang is that he is facing, Christian must reach out to his estranged brother, Braxton (Jon Berthal) who is a professional killer in Europe, and persuade him to come back to the US to help him in the case. Only now things are complicated by the appearance of a trained female assassin (Daniella Pineda) whose motives are unclear. But, on Christian’s side is a special group of computer savvy teenagers from a special school for autistic children whose hacking skills go beyond that of the specialists working for the US government. There are many moments of comedic banter between the two brothers that the writer must have thought was important to include, but given the serious nature of the crimes involved, it sometimes seems out of place. Like the first movie, the action and violence go to extreme levels with an absurdly high body count. The risks they take and the kill ratio they achieve go well beyond anything approaching credibility. Some people who are familiar with those who are autistic may find it offensive to portray an autistic character in a movie this way. It certainly doesn’t do much for the cause of those with this disorder. Many movie goers may like this type of comedic action movie, but I am not among them. I found last year’s The Fall Guy, also a popular violent action movie, preferable given its lighter premise. There may be another sequel to The Accountant coming. It won’t bother me if it takes another eight years for it to come out.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy            4 ½ stars

It’s 2025 and Bridget Jones, the confused and lovesick English woman is back for a fourth installment of the series that audiences love. It was back in 2001 when we first met Bridget starring Renee Zellweger in the title role, when she was trying to manage relationships with two different men: Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). Now in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, only available by streaming, Bridget finds herself single with two children after husband Mark died four years earlier. Bridget, the widow, has gotten back into TV production work and is successful and has surrounded herself with supportive friends. Some of them are encouraging her to get back on the market, as she should not be alone at this point in her life. Her charming and bumbling behavior is still there as she is constantly second guessing her own decisions (such as hiring a new nanny who looks like he could be a fashion model). Then she meets Roxster (Leo Woodall), a young man of 29 who is some sort of tree trimmer, under very amusing circumstances. Bridget decides to pursue the relationship, claiming she is 35 when it is obvious to all that she is over 50. She meets him for a date that immediately leads to sex, (of course) with all the amusing scenes and sexual references that are familiar to audiences of the earlier movies. The comedy necessarily sets a more serious tone than the previous editions since this is a woman dealing with the grief of losing a husband as well as being a single mother. So, there is a lot of emotion on display including an appearance by Daniel due to a scary health issue, who we have not seen since 2004. Nevertheless, there are still plenty genuine rom-com moments such as when Bridget has to be rescued from trying to climb a tree by the tree man. The movie manages to keep its comedic energy that we remember from the previous films while reminding us that Bridget is moving on and learning to deal with the things that life throws at her. Be sure to stick around through the credits as a few film clips from the earlier Bridget Jones movies are shown, including that memorable fight between Mark and Daniel.

Death of a Unicorn

Death of a Unicorn          3 stars

Death of a Unicorn by first time director Alex Scharfman combines two genres of movies that I really like to see: the skewering of the rich and the comedy horror creature feature. So, if you think you might enjoy seeing some greedy ultra-rich bastards get what they deserve thanks to a murderous monster, this one could be for you. As is the case with most monster horror movies, there are some bad choices made by the characters that lead to unfortunate results for them. It features a few well-known stars and despite some unconvincing special effects, it is entertaining to watch. We meet lawyer Elliot (Paul Rudd of Ant-Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up) and his teenage daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega of Wednesday) who are on their way to meet with his client, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant of Salt Burn) at their isolated mansion in the mountains, so that he can get him to sign a new contract. (Remember one of my first rules from the movies: If a billionaire invites you to their isolated mansion/compound, DO NOT accept!) Leopold and his family are major players in the Pharma industry and even have a live in security force and access to some top pharmaceutical researchers. On the drive to the mansion Elliot collides with an animal on the road that looks like a young horse like creature with a long horn on its forehead, injuring the animal. Not wanting to get caught by local authorities, Elliott bashes its head with a tire iron, spraying the animal’s blood all over poor Ridley and loads the dead animal into the back of the car. Later, during the meeting with Leopold (who is dying of cancer), his privileged wife (Tea Leoni of Tower Heist and Fun with Dick and Jane) and screw up son (Will Poulter of Midsommar and The Revenant) the unicorn in the car is discovered since it’s not really dead, so it is killed again. The group is fascinated by the fact that Ridley’s acne has cleared up after coming in contact with the creature’s blood. Naturally, the thing to do is to have the creature’s blood analyzed by Leopold’s scientists. They soon discover that it has mysterious healing powers so Leopold volunteers to consume some of the samples (as you do) and of course, his cancer is instantly cured! So, the greedy family must find a way to capitalize on this amazing discovery and make a ton of money. Ridley does some online research of her own and discovers some dangerous aspects of the legend of unicorns dating from the Middle Ages and tries to warn Leopold and family, but they aren’t willing to listen, since that would interfere with their plans to make more money. Things go predictably bad when Mama and Papa, two very large unicorns come looking for junior and aren’t at all pleased that these humans have killed him. What follows is a prolonged killing spree as the creatures hunt down their prey in quite violent and bloody fashion. Of course, most of the characters make one bad decision after another resulting in their being skewered and ripped apart by the pair of hooved parents. The animals are even smart enough to cut communication and power to the mansion. The writing for these ultra-rich idiots wasn’t the most convincing and the special effects creating the unicorns had a cheesy look to it. Better movies attacking the ultra-rich would be The Glass Onion and The Triangle of Sadness. For more entertaining comedy monster movies look for Werewolves Within, Shadow in the Cloud, The Dead Don’t Die and of course, the ever-popular Cocaine Bear. The movie is far from perfect but does provide a fun time for comedy horror fans. We will have to wait for a later attempt at combining attacks on the ultra-rich with a killer monster for something even better.

The Alto Knights

The Alto Knights               2 ½ stars

The latest movie about the mob wars of the 1950’s is The Alto Knights by director Barry Levinson which is out now in theaters. Levinson is probably best known for the movies Rain Man, Good Morning, Vietnam and Bugsy. This time he applies his creative skills to a gangster movie that pits one high level mob boss against an aging underling bent on expanding his realm on the streets of New York. Now, if you are going to make a gangster movie about the Italian mafia, you can’t do any better than casting the eternal gangster, Robert DeNiro in the lead role. And if you want to do even better why not cast DeNiro in two roles in the same movie? That’s what Levinson has done here with DeNiro playing Frank Costello, the boss of the gang in New York, who is in his later years and wants desperately to retire. The only thing is that his childhood friend from the streets, Vito Genovese (also played by guess who? DeNiro) has returned from Italy where he was exiled for many years and now wants a bigger piece of the action, like it was during prohibition. For him this means getting into the narcotics business, something that has a much larger profile with the authorities than alcohol ever did. Frank is all about keeping things calm and steady, while Vito is a real hothead who wants to be feared and will not take No for an answer. Thus, the conflict is set up leading to an attempted hit on Frank. DeNiro is the expert at talking like an Italian gangster, speaking in the coded language we know from such films. He shows us his other side as Vito, whose temper flares at the slightest provocation, much like the roles we have seen Joe Pesci play. But as I was watching I could not help but think I was looking at the Robert DeNiro tribute show. Sure, the two characters look different with the help of some astounding makeup, and Vito is always seen in glasses, but I still wonder how hard could it be to find another grade A actor to play one of the roles? There has to be many such suitable men who could do a great job with it. It was entertaining to listen to the dialogue used by crime bosses, the type we have seen in such classics as Once Upon a Time in America, Good Fellas and Casino, but it eventually gets tiresome. And there is a lot of narration from the aged Frank telling how things used to be. The focus was more on the tension between the two characters than on any of the actual crimes or hits they carried out. In fact, there was surprisingly little violence in the movie. I can only think of three hits in the two-hour movie. I do have to credit Debra Messing in her role as Bobbie, Frank’s wife. It was a great departure from her comedic characters like Grace from Will and Grace. I almost didn’t recognize her at first. Anyway, if you want to see the great Robert DeNiro in a memorable gangster film, go back and see The Irishman from 2019. And if that isn’t enough there will always be The Godfather. Otherwise, forget about it.

Opus

Opus     2 stars

Based on a few recent films that include Blink Twice, Glass Onion and The Menu, we have learned that if a billionaire invites you to their private island, you should probably politely decline. Now we can modify that rule to say that if a wealthy celebrity resurfaces after a 30-year absence and invites you to their isolated compound in the desert, you should not accept! That’s the premise in the social thriller Opus, from first time director Mark Anthony Green, which recently appeared at the Sundance Film Festival and is now in theaters. The film is partly a commentary on the culture of celebrity worship and partly about a psychopathic cult leader. We meet Ariel (Ayo Edebiri of The Bear), a young writer for a pop culture magazine who is lamenting how she is being overlooked in her job. One day she is greeted by the news that a pop icon from the nineties who seemingly vanished has reappeared with the announcement of a new album. Moretti (John Malkovich of Velvet Buzzsaw and Young Adult) who is also known as the Debutante, has invited Ariel along with her boss, Stan (Murray Bartlett of The White Lotus) and a few other media types including TV talk show host Clara Armstrong (Juliette Lewis) to his compound in the Utah desert for the weekend to be the first to hear his new tunes. Ariel is happy to accept thinking it will be good for her career, but she seems out of place in this crowd. Upon arrival at the airport, the group is picked up by bus for a 4-hour ride to the compound. There they are treated like royalty to 4-star meals, a fabulous wardrobe and massages. Each of the six in the group is shadowed by a personal concierge who watches their every move plus they are under surveillance even in their rooms. Ariel finds this disturbing in addition to the fact that they must relinquish their cell phones and laptops. She seems to be alone in her concerns as everyone else is mesmerized by the persona of Moretti, who preaches great platitudes about the religion he has written about in a book they all received called Meditations of Levels. He sings and dances in what looks like a metallic space suit and has a group of followers who he calls Levelists who follow his every command, including a disturbing scene where one of them must manually open a roomful of oysters in search of rare pearls. (Many followers have scars on their hands from performing this ritual.) Ariel is the only one of the guests to be suspicious when one of their members mysteriously disappears and on her own goes on a hunt for clues as to what this cult is about. Ultimately, as predicted by the audience, the terror is unleashed when Moretti finds his guests unpleasing, and it is up to poor Ariel to find a way to escape and bring justice to this psychopath. In the end you can tell that the film thinks it has something to say about false prophets and the role of the media in a culture of fandom, but it amounts to a tired formula that we have seen many times. I found the ending unsatisfying as I felt it didn’t really explain Moretti’s motives. For a much better movie about a terrifying experience in a cult I recommend 2019’s Midsommar.

Mickey 17

Mickey 17            4 stars

Six years ago, Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho brought us his award-winning movie, Parasite, a social satire about the haves vs. the have nots. Before that there was Snowpiercer, about a futuristic train traveling the world where the passengers were divided up based on social status. In Mickey 17, Ho’s brand of dark comedy and social commentary extends to outer space and alien worlds. Early on we meet Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson, an actor more known for his good looks than for comedic performances) who has just fallen down an icy crevice on an alien planet where he is sure to die. Mickey then proceeds to narrate his backstory to us in his whiney poor schlub of a voice. In this future reality, Mickey and his friend, Timo (Steven Yeun) owed money to some nasty mobsters who aren’t friendly with those who can’t pay their bills. Their best chance out was to sign up for an interstellar journey on a spaceship on a mission to colonize a distant ice planet called Niflheim. Only poor Mickey unwittingly also signed up to become an Expendable. It seems that in this time, human printing has been realized. It’s a way to reprint a person’s body after they have died and then restore their consciousness which has been stored in a bricklike hard drive. Thus, an expendable can be sent on dangerous lethal missions where they are certain to die and then be “reprinted” so the cycle can be repeated. So, Mickey is routinely exposed to radiation, deadly viruses and the like so that researchers can study the effects on humans, have his body disposed of, then reassembled from organic waste on the ship. Our Mickey is number 17, so he has already died 16 times, and is often asked “what’s it like to die?”. Now, this colonization mission isn’t being done by any government. It is headed by Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a narcissistic politician who acts like the leader of a cult and demands total loyalty but has lost his last two elections. (Sound like anyone you know?) Marshall is not above killing someone to make a point. His wife is Yifa (Toni Collette) who is as self-absorbed as they come. The practice of human printing has been outlawed on Earth, but Marshall was only too glad to use it as part of his mad scheme in space. Returning to Mickey, his story takes a turn when after falling into the crevice he meets up with the local alien lifeform on the ice planet, a sort of giant bug species who may be intelligent. Upon returning to the ship, he is shocked to find there is another Mickey, this one is number 18, who has been reprinted based on the assumption that 17 has died. Only this version of Mickey is a sociopath, lacking in empathy, as opposed to 17’s quiet and pathetic demeanor. Thus, we get to see two roles played by Robert Pattinson, a challenge for any actor. Pattinson makes them both look believable. Tensions rise dramatically through the rest of the movie as a showdown occurs between the psychopathic cult leader and the aliens in a high stakes game risking total annihilation, with our two Mickey’s caught in the middle. Mickey 17 may or may not be a commentary on the current state of affairs, but it is something of a showcase for the two versions of Pattinson. Plus it presents some interesting ideas from Bong Joon Ho.

One of Them Days

One of Them Days           3 ½ stars

I took a break from seeing the Oscar worthy films to take in a much talked about comedy set in South-Central Los Angeles, One of Them Days, starring two funny black women, Keke Palmer and pop star Sza. This is one of those all-in-one day comedies like Ferris Buehler’s Day Off where all sorts of crazy things happen over the course of a single day. Dreux (Palmer) and Alyssa (Sza) have been best friends since childhood and share an apartment in a complex in The Jungle. Dreux works in a restaurant and has an interview scheduled at corporate for consideration to run a franchise. Alyssa is a struggling artist. Early in the morning the landlord knocks on the door for the rent money surprising Dreux because she thought it has been paid. After some comic inquiry she discovers that Alyssa’s freeloading boyfriend has taken the rent money and spent it on t-shirts. The friends are told that if they don’t pay the rent by 6:00 that day they will be forced onto the street. Thus starts their adventure to find a way to come up with the rent money before time runs out. Plus, Dreux must make her interview a well! So we follow the pair through various spots in LA as they track down the boyfriend, and try various schemes to get the much needed money as the clock is ticking as we watch via the strategically placed graphics on the screen. The pair work well together and have good comic timing and handle all the physical comedy too. I’ve seen Keke Palmer in a wide range of movies going all the way back to Akeelah and the Bee in 2006, then Joyful Noise, Hustlers and then Alice. She always has a cheerful presence on the screen. Sza shows promise of comedic talent as well. Don’t take anything seriously in this movie. It’s strictly for laughs and the violence leans toward the slapstick variety. It is interesting to see the many places in Los Angeles and wonder what it looks like now in the wake of the recent fires.

By Design

By Design            2 stars

If there is a movie genre for absurdity, then Amanda Kramer’s By Design would certainly fit that category. I am sure there are people that like this type of movie, but it’s not me (at least not this one). Camille (Juliette Lewis) likes to spend time with her friends, but she mostly listens to them, not participating in the conversations much. One day the friends go to a furniture store to look at the chairs they have on sale. One of them, a wood chair that is plain but elegant, attracts Camille’s attention and she must have it. Before she can buy it though, someone else purchases the chair and Camille is so upset that she transfers her soul into the chair leaving her own body behind in a trance. The chair comes into the possession of Olivier (Mamoudou Athie) who senses something special about it and essentially falls in love with the chair as if it is a person. In the meantime, Camille’s body at home is visited by her friends and her mother who have conversations with her as if she is engaged with them. Camille herself only stares into space without ever speaking. The movie sends a message that we are defined by the objects we possess. We have relationships with our possessions that can be as important to us as people. There are some interesting performances that can be called interpretive dance with bodies climbing over one another and over chairs. Some acting performances are very good, but at other times they have a bland speaking tone. Athie is especially good in his role. The movie tends to drag on too much and could have been better as a short. It was not a good start at Sundance with it being my first film. Amanda Kramer has directed several movies before, none of which I have ever seen.

Where the Wind Comes From

Where the Wind Comes From 4 1/2 suns

From the country of Tunisia comes what I thought was one of the best films I’ve seen at the festival. Where the Wind Comes From is a sort of road trip movie featuring a pair of young friends on an event filled journey. Alyssa is 19, rebellious and tired of her boring life in Tunis and dreams of a better life away from her home. Mehdi, a 23 year old man is her close childhood friend, who is a talented amateur artist who has taught himself to draw. Alyssa learns of an art contest being held in a city across the country and sees it as a chance for the two of them to escape their boring lives in Tunisia and travel to Germany. She convinces Mehdi to enter and devises a rather haphazard plan to get to the contest which is tough since they have almost no money. Alyssa is a real risk taker, putting them in dangerous situations and it’s up to the calm and thoughtful Mehdi to keep things from getting out of control. There are some musical interludes that use animation as a way of showing Alyssa’s active imagination. The movie includes scenes that show the male dominated Arab culture and how this can be difficult for women. Generally, the movie is optimistic in tone and is about the relationship of close friends that have a shared interest. And it deals with African migration as those in tough economic conditions seek a better life. The two young actors portray their contrasting personalities, convincing us of the close friendship. The movie also features some beautiful Arabic music that was great to hear. The film is mostly in Arabic with some French. I am hoping that it wins some awards from Sundance and that it will be seen by a wider audience.