Category Archives: Comedy

The Devil Wears Prada 2

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The Devil Wears Prada 2                4 stars

It has been twenty years since a young Andy Sachs took a job at the high fashion magazine Runway where she worked for the most demanding and condescending boss in the industry; i.e. Miranda Priestly. That was The Devil Wears Prada in 2006, when Academy Award winner Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia!, Sophie’s Choice portrayed one of her most iconic characters and Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, Colossal) had one of her early film roles as Miranda’s assistant. Now they have returned in The Devil Wears Prada 2, again directed by David Frankel (Hope Springs, Marley & Me), where publishing has reached the digital age. (It’s hard to imagine it, but the original movie happened before smart phones.) Andy left Runway long ago, became a successful investigative journalist and won a prestigious award only to find out by text that she was fired. Fortunately, the owner of Runway, Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman) immediately hires her to be the magazine’s features editor where she will once again report to the highly critical Miranda who did not approve the new hire and is just waiting for Andy to fail so she can fire her. The ever-loyal Nigel (Stanley Tucci (Conclave, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)) is still there as the fashion director, where he helps to keep things running smoothly, having a bigger role than in the first film. A lot has changed in twenty years. In the internet age, Runway is no longer a print magazine and is now digital. When billionaires can buy out a company on a whim, journalism is not at all what it used to be. Careers can be quickly destroyed. Budgets get slashed. (Gasp. Miranda has to hang up her own coat!) And guidelines from HR must be followed. Miranda still humiliates her subordinates, but she has lost some of her bite in her later years. When the Runway team must protect their revenue stream, they pay a visit to Dior, one of their biggest advertisers, and find that Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt (The Smashing Machine, Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place)) now runs the place. Miranda now has to accept whatever deal Emily has to offer to the publication with no negotiation. Andy’s friend Lilly (Tracie Thoms (Grindhouse)) is still there to encourage her. Andy shows she still has it by landing a first interview with fashion icon Sasha Barnes (Lucy Liu (Kill Bill)) who has been recently divorced from her billionaire husband, Benji (Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder)). Benji cares little about traditions of the past and is only interested in making more money in this new age. It is clear that the publishing business is not what it used to be, though there is still opportunity to meet celebrities of the fashion industry, particularly in one scene at Miranda and husband, Stuart’s (Kenneth Branaugh (Death on the Nile, Belfast)) sprawling house. (Many celebrities appear as themselves though I didn’t recognize them, save for Jon Batiste.) And what would a fashion movie be without a trip to fashion week in Milan? We get a good look at the latest eye-popping dresses on supermodels in the Italian city. (And there is a special appearance from a certain pop music star, that I will not reveal here.) The movie’s soundtrack is very appropriate to the times, including songs from Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa. The sequel loses a little of its impact from the original, but does have a feel-good ending, showing that despite being in a cutthroat industry, the characters do end up supporting each other. The Devil Wears Prada 2 may not be one of the year’s biggest hits but is certainly worth seeing. Look for Emily Blunt in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Disclosure Day.

The Christophers

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The Christophers             5 stars

Steven Soderbergh has directed, written and done cinematography for more great movies than I can count including Sex, Lies and Videotape, Magic Mike and the Oceans Eleven series. Now he has done it again with The Christophers, a film that takes on the subject of what makes art great while also criticizing the influence of the rich in valuing art. Plus, it shows off the talents of two great British actors working today: Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings series and the dreadful Cats) and Michaela Coel (Mother Mary). McKellan is Julian Sklar, an aging accomplished artist who hasn’t painted any new works in thirty years. He is known for painting a series of portraits called The Christophers but never finished the last series of paintings. It is rumored that the partially done works are stashed away in his attic. Now he has become a recluse, hiding away in his London house while collecting checks for his appearances as a judge on a TV reality show. Coel is Lori Butler, who once had a starting career as an artist but now works as an art restorer, as she is known for her ability to mimic the styles of famous painters. Lori is approached by Sklar’s two greedy children (James Corden (Cats) and Jessice Gunning) who offer her the chance to make some money by getting hired as Sklar’s assistant. The plan is for her to gain access to the house, find the unfinished paintings, complete them to make them look like Sklar’s work, and put them back. Then, after the artist dies his children will “find” these lost works, put them on the market and make millions. Sounds like a great plan, right? What could go wrong? If you have ever seen a similar crime movie, the answer is plenty, right? The appeal of the film doesn’t depend on how the plan will turn out. We are pretty sure the crime won’t go according to plan. The real interesting thing is watching how this pair interact with each other, relating their experiences in the art world, while engaging in a battle of wits against each other. The two are masters in mind games against the other. At times Sklar becomes abusive, issuing caustic comments, walking around dressed in a bath robe and criticizing Lori. Lori stands up to him but keeps silent when needed. When she gets fired, she refuses to accept the termination. Most of the movie takes place in Sklar’s home and special recognition must go to the production team for creating something that looks like it would belong to an artist who has lived there for decades. The house is filled with tools of the trade and various knick-knacks that one would expect. It is a pleasure to see these two stars on the screen together. Can it be too early to think of Oscar nominations for both?

Gloria Bell

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Gloria Bell            4 stars

Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore as Gloria, a middle aged divorced woman who loves to go to clubs and dance to seventies music is one of the most fun movies I have seen so far this year.  It is directed by Sebastian Lelio, who also directed the previous version, Gloria made in Chile, a few years earlier.  In the movie, Gloria seems happy, but she is dealing with her two adult children, who don’t seem to have time for her and have their own problems.  She also is trying to start a relationship with a newly divorced man, who she likes, but soon finds out that he is certainly not right for her.  Through it all, Moore puts on a convincing performance as a woman who is resilient and won’t allow others in her life stand in the way of her own happiness.  I encourage everyone to see this one while it is still in theaters.

Us

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Us                           4 stars

By now everyone has heard of Jordan Peele’s latest horror film Us. It’s his second directorial effort after 2017’s much heralded Get Out.  With Us he goes much deeper into the horror genre with his story about the Wilson family on a beach outing at their summer cabin.  We learn that the mother, Lupita Nyong’o, experienced a traumatic event at the beach when she was a girl.  In the present the family has a few strange encounters until everything explodes with the arrival of another family who look exactly like them except they are very different too!  This is truly a horror film with the odd developments and bloody encounters that you would expect with such a film.  Peele puts his own spin on the genre that has a moral message somewhere in the story.  As the film gets toward the conclusion there are some unanswered questions and some things that don’t quite make sense, but I think that’s ok for horror movies.  Be forewarned that there is plenty of blood and interesting ways of dying in Us.  It’s a film that’s probably not for everyone.

Green Book

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Green Book        4 ½ stars

I finally viewed Green Book the much acclaimed Best Picture winner by director Peter Farrelly about Tony Lip, an Italian American bouncer from the Bronx who is hired by Dr. Don Shirley a world class black pianist to drive him on a concert tour that takes them to the Deep South.  Set in the early sixties, the travelers must depend on the Green Book, a travel guide published to allow black people find safe places for them to stay and eat in the days of segregation.  The two very different characters must learn to understand each other and deal with their differences to allow them to safely navigate some of the perils they are bound to face in this time of troubled race relations.  While certainly not a perfect movie, it has certain charms that will please audiences and first rate performances from Viggo Mortensen as Tony and Mahershala Ali as Don Shirley.  While the film touches on issues of racism in America showing us some the effects of it, it is not a deep study of the roots of the problem.  Green Book works best as a human drama showing us the value of trust despite our differences.

Long Shot

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Long Shot                            3 stars

It has been a long time since we’ve had a good rom-com at the movies.  This week’s offering of Long Shot attempts to address that drought and goes a long way towards succeeding.  The movie stars the beautiful Charlize Theron as Charlotte Field, the youngest Secretary of State in US history and the wildly comical Seth Rogen as an out of work sharp witted journalist named Fred Flarsky who crosses paths with the Secretary at a big Gala.  Remarkably, the two have a shared past that involves a shockingly amusing episode when the two were only teenagers.  The Secretary then pitches to Fred the idea of hiring him as a speech writer which he then accepts which leads to more awkward situations.  Since this is a Seth Rogen movie there are plenty of sight gags, awkward sexual encounters and some serious drug use.  As this is also a political comedy, there are gags involving world leaders and celebrities that are based on some pretty absurd circumstances, such as, the president wishing to leave after a single term to pursue a movie career.  (But then in these times we live in who am I to claim something is absurd.)  Although it has its funny moments, it doesn’t quite measure up to the comedy I’m used to seeing in an episode of Veep.  One sign of the film’s shortcomings is the use of actors for the roles of TV news anchors instead of casting real anchors to play themselves.  I felt that would have helped it to look a little more authentic, like other political comedies have done.   One surprise in the film is the casting of Andy Serkis as Parker Wembley, a wealthy billionaire and media owner seeking to influence the politicians to favor his personal political views.  He was amusing and completely unrecognizable.

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come

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Ready or Not 2: Here I Come                       4 stars

I thought I was due for a horror movie, so I went to see Ready or Not 2: Here I Come directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. (Actually, I have already seen a few this year.) Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are known for co-directing both Scream and Scream VI. This is definitely a comedy horror, my favorite kind, and it happens to be a sequel to 2019’s Ready or Not, which I have not seen. But no matter. It was easy enough to pick up the movie’s premise from the opening scenes. A bloodied woman named Grace (Samara Weaving (of Scream VI and Bill and Ted Face the Music)) is seen walking out of a burning mansion and is taken to a hospital for treatment. Once she is well enough to talk, a police detective is there to question her, so we find out that she was getting married in the previous movie, but it turned out that her husband’s family, the Le Domas family, was part of a devil worshipping cult and Grace was being hunted by them in a deadly game of Hide and Seek. If Grace survived until dawn, then she would be free. She succeeded, but the family all died in the fire. While still in the hospital Grace’s younger sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania)), finds her and we find out that the two had a falling out and haven’t seen each other for years. Unfortunately, both Grace and Faith are then kidnapped by the devil worshipping cult and brought to the expansive country estate of the Danforth family, one of the cult’s member families. The Danforth family is now led by twins Ursula (Sarah Michelle Gellar (I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream II)) and Titus (Shawn Hatosy of The Pitt). Both Gellar and Hatosy (especially) give command performances in their evil roles. These families are part of a conspiracy that controls governments across the world. In the Danforth mansion, in the presence of four of the member families, the plan is explained to them by a sort of sinister attorney (Elijah Wood (Frodo in Lord of the Rings)) with a very large book of rules. Since Grace survived the earlier night, she must now be hunted by members of the various families and whoever can kill her will be rewarded by becoming the Chairman of the High Council making them the most powerful person in the world. But if Grace can survive until dawn, she will be freed along with Faith. But the cult has certain rules that must be followed as they are civilized after all. If the head of any family is killed, then the next most senior family member must take their place in the hunt. No person may kill a member of another cult family. (Your own family is acceptable.) If they do, intentionally or not, then that person must immediately spontaneously explode into mass of blood along with the remaining members of that family. So, there is plenty of incentive to follow the rules. In addition, each family is restricted to using weapons that were in use at the time that their family was inducted into the cult. So, they use weapons that vary from broad swords to rocket launchers. Now, such an absurd setup can’t help but make for a hilarious comedy, as the characters inflict extreme violence on one another. At one point Faith takes such a horrendous beating that you would expect she would never walk again, but in true horror movie fashion she is soon back in action, though a bit bloodied. But wait! There may be another way to settle all this chaos. One character identifies a clause in the bylaws that says if the hunted party marries a family member, they can escape, while the spouse may ascend to the chairmanship. This scenario leads to an even more absurd situation by the climax of the film. By the end, Ready or Not 2 reaches Scream levels of violence while inflicting multiple laughs on the audience. The closest thing to it I have seen before was the comedy horror The Hunt back in 2020. Ready or Not 2 was a real hit at the box office. Horror fans should enjoy this one. Now I may have to go back and see the first Ready or Not.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3     3 stars

I continue with my catch up on Marvel movies I missed with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, the third iteration of these heroes who are always there to save the galaxy, courtesy of writer/director James Gunn. This one could be called the one where Rocket finally realizes that he is a racoon. While it has all the action and the wisecracking of the earlier two movies of 2014 and 2017, it does have a more somber tone to it. Both Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) are in a funky mood near the beginning, and the end of the movie feels like the gang is breaking up. The heroes are tasked with a mission to save the life of Rocket who has been gravely injured. They must retrieve a computer file from a ship that seems to be made of living tissue that belongs to the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). We are introduced to Rocket’s backstory while he is in a coma and find out that when he was a small racoon cub, he was captured by this villain for the purpose of experimentation to produce a perfect species. (This explains Rocket’s extraordinary powers.) Now the High Evolutionary wants to capture Rocket again to learn his secrets, but in the meantime, he tries to destroy an entire civilization that he created since they are not perfect. (Does that sound like a familiar theme?) So, the stakes are certainly high enough to deserve the Guardian’s attention. The membership of the Guardians has expanded since the first movie with past differences being put aside. They include Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan), of course a full-sized Groot (Vin Diesel), Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and Cosmo the Spacedog (Maria Bakalova). The movie is worth seeing based on the emotional way that Rocket’s story is told. However, the overall tone feels off with Peter Quill and others going through internal struggles that take away from the usual upbeat feel of these movies. Of course, the soundtrack features a variety of popular seventies rock music as always. The special effects are quite impressive which explains why Guardians earned a Best Visual Effects Academy Award nomination. The ending feels like this is the end of the franchise, though of course, you can’t be sure.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

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The Miseducation of Cameron Post          4 stars

I recently saw The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a little seen movie from last year by director Desiree Akhavan and recipient of the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize.  The film tackles the subject of gay conversion therapy for wayward teens in 1993, which was a prevalent thing then.  It stars Chloe Grace Moretz as Cameron Post, the teen girl caught making out with her female best friend who then gets sent off to a Christian gay conversion camp by her relatives.  The topic has been tackled before but feels real here as Moretz gives a convincing performance that is aided by two costars playing teens that she connects with at the camp.  The camp directors (John Gallagher Jr. and Jennifer Ehle) use half thought out methods on their subjects that seem to mainly make the kids feel badly about who they are.  (Each has to create an iceberg on paper that lists what they don’t like about themselves.)  One nice thing about it is how the film is not all heavy drama but includes several moments of comedy (making it different from Boy Erased also from last year).  Miseducation does show us the pain that these young people go through as they experience what can only be described as abuse.  One scene near the end involving a troubled teen is especially shocking.  See it if you can find it.  It is just too bad that so few people saw it when it hit the theaters.

Booksmart

Booksmart          4 ½ stars

In what may be the funniest movie of the summer, Booksmart takes us a wild ride with two young female best friends who decide to have one night of fun (i.e. partying, sex and drugs) before high school graduation after having spent their school years focusing on studies and getting into the college of their choice.  It’s a formula that we’ve seen plenty of times before but with a very feminist bent to it.  The film pulls it off with a series of comedic pieces involving conflicts with other characters, failed attempts at finding the secret location of the ultimate teenage party and a strange encounter with the school principal that includes porn videos.  The story written and directed by women, including director Olivia Wilde feels mostly authentic though some of the characters are stereotypes (like the high school drama kids).  The two lead girls are well suited for the roles of Amy and Molly, (Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein), both of whom I have seen in previous roles despite their young ages.  It feels like they really are best friends, but with some personal issues between them that are eventually revealed late in the movie.  I did like the fact that most of the high school characters don’t hold ill feelings against Molly in spite of her attitude of superiority being the class President.  There is one notable exception being Gigi played by Billie Lourd who mysteriously keeps showing up at the most opportune times and would like to spoil all the fun for them.  Though the movie can be described as a raunchy comedy the friendship and conflict between the two lead characters seems authentic and is a well written aspect of the film.  I recommend that you see Booksmart when you have the chance.