Category Archives: Romance

My Old Ass

My Old Ass         4 stars

Did you ever think about what you would tell your younger self about making choices in your life, having learned from life experience? This is literally the premise behind My Old Ass which first appeared at the Sundance Film Festival last year (2024). Elliott (Maisy Stella) is a more or less normal 18-year-old girl living on the family cranberry farm in Canada with her parents and two brothers. She has a couple of best friends she hangs out with and is about to go off to college the following fall. One night she is visited by a strange woman who claims to be her older 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Recreation) who willingly came here to see young Elliott. There isn’t any science fiction type of explanation for this time traveling event. And there isn’t any catastrophic event in the future that must be prevented. The explanation for the unexpected visit is more fantasy-like as young Elliott drank some tea with hallucinogenic mushrooms and suddenly, there appeared older Elliott. The initial conversations between the two Elliott’s seemed silly and juvenile to me but later became more interesting. Older Elliott is there to tell her younger self of the importance of family and that she should try to spend more time with her mother and even her brother who she thinks doesn’t want to be seen with her. Young Elliott is full of anxiety and self-doubt like a lot of teenagers, but goes along with this new relationship, which can continue over the phone because apparently phone calls can be made across time. But older Elliott has a special warning for her too, and that is to stay away from Chad, who young Elliott has never heard of before. Later, when young Elliott is taking a dip at the swimming hole, what happens but a boy shows up who has started working on the family farm, and his name happens to be Chad. And so, starts the mystery of what is this guy all about and what is so dangerous about him. The young actress, Maisy Stella, who is new to movies gives a real genuine performance as Elliott making her seem like a confused teen who is just trying to figure things out. Plaza gives her usual understated performance but makes you believe there is something profound going on in her mind beneath the surface. The movie is written and directed by the actress Megan Park and is her second effort at directing. Earlier she made The Fallout. Some viewers will remember her as Grace from The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I found the movie to be well written as it alternates from goofiness to important statements about life and how to treat those we love. The movie was a hit at Sundance and now I can see it is well deserved both for the acting and writing.

I Lost My Body

I Lost My Body   4 stars

To call the animated French film I Lost My Body unconventional is certainly something of an understatement. The 81 minute film tells a story of a young Frenchman in Paris in three separate storylines. The first, animated in color, follows the journey of a severed hand that can move and has senses and thoughts of its own. The hand escapes from a refrigerator and travels through the city trying to find its body. Along the way it encounters many dangers such as a pigeon, a pack of ravenous rats and a playful dog. Hopefully, that doesn’t bother you too much. A second segment is a flashback to the childhood of Naoufel, the owner of the hand, who was a happy youngster, that is until both his parents were killed in a car crash and he had to live with an uncaring uncle. This part is all done in black and white and shows his dreams of the future. The third segment follows Naoufel as a young man (still with hands intact) struggling to survive by delivering pizzas in the city, something he is not very good at. Then one evening he has a brief encounter with a young woman, Gabrielle, via an apartment intercom where he was trying to make a delivery, and he senses that they have a connection. So he sets off to find out more about her in order to arrange a meeting again. Unfortunately, for Naoufel this quest might look more like stalking to some people. The animation is all hand drawn and done in a vivid manner that keeps your attention throughout the short movie. All of the segments have a common thread of dealing with loss and seeking to connect with those that we care about. If the unusual subject matter doesn’t turn you off, I would recommend seeing this animated movie. It is in French with subtitles. As it has an adult theme, it should not be viewed by children. The movie is unconventional and surprising with an uplifting message.

We Live in Time

We Live in Time                 4 ½ stars

At first glance We Live in Time might sound like another romantic tragedy about a couple in love facing the challenge of their lives that doesn’t end well. Two things make the film more interesting than that. One is the combined performances of the two leads, Florence Pugh as Almut, a rising superstar chef with her own restaurant, and Andrew Garfield as Tobias, a working stiff who is going through a tough divorce. The second is the imaginative way that director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne chose to tell the story in a non-linear fashion covering critical phases of the brief time that this couple spends together. Both Pugh and Garfield have given us outstanding performances in recent years, Pugh in the horror movie Midsomer, the science fiction film Don’t Worry Darling and the period piece Little Women, and Garfield in the musical Tick, Tick…Boom!, The Eyes of Tammy Faye playing televangelist Jim Bakker and the war film, Hacksaw Ridge. Here they work well together as the young British couple trying to figure things out. It is a little puzzling to the audience at first as the film starts somewhere in the middle of the relationship as they deal with the question of having children. It is only later that we find out how they meet with Almut running Tobias over with her car and her visiting him in the hospital afterwards. There are at least three time periods that the film alternates between, that include such dramatic events as a cancer diagnosis and a pregnancy that ends with giving birth in a service station. The events are put together in a way that raises the drama with each scene and may leave you a little weepy by the end. One scene in particular shows conflict between the two when Almut decides to compete in a high-profile cooking competition despite being ill with cancer, against Tobias’ wishes. Her decision seems irresponsible, but Pugh’s performance makes you believe she is doing the right thing. We Live in Time stars two great actors of their generation and should convince us to make the most of the time we have.

Strawberry Mansion

Strawberry Mansion       5 suns

One of the weirdest full length films I have seen at Sundance has to be Strawberry Mansion. It is a most bizarre blend of the world of dreams with a very odd future as envisioned by the filmmakers. A dream tax auditor arrives at an elderly woman’s house for the purpose of reviewing her years of recorded dreams so that the required tax can be levied, since this is what you do in the future. The woman, Bella in alone and lonely so insists that the tax man stay and have treats like a strawberry ice cream and have dinner. The tax man views some of Bella’s dreams that feature her as a young woman. He also has his own dreams that always seem to involve ads for fried chicken and other products. (There is a lot of fried chicken in this movie!) It is only through Bella that the man learns the real reason for the ads as the two of them travel through a bizarre and colorful journey to strange lands and odd creatures (such as sailor rats and a blue demon). The amount of imagination and work that the two filmmakers put in will amaze you. This was a film that has been many years in the making. It’s only about an hour and a half long, but there is quite a story packed in that time. I thought it was one of the best I’ve seen.

Empire of Light

Empire of Light                  3 ½ stars

Empire of Light by director Sam Mendez (who is better known for 1917 and the James Bond films) is an old-fashioned romance movie about a love that is not meant to be. This movie is about a small group of people who work in a once grand movie theater on the southern coast of England in the early 1980’s. The theater still attracts customers, but it clearly has seen better days as parts of the building have fallen into decay and lack of use. There we meet one of the employees, Hilary (the award-winning Olivia Colman), a middle-aged woman who does some of the theater’s menial tasks and has some hints of mental issues. The other employees are considerably younger than Hilary, other than the projectionist, an interesting older man (played by Toby Jones). Hilary is in an abusive relationship with the manager, Mr. Ellis (a detestable Colin Firth) who routinely asks her for sessions of sex on demand. One day a new employee is hired there. He is Stephen (Michael Ward), a young black man in his early 20’s. Since this is the eighties and tolerance isn’t really a thing yet, the area is plagued with gangs of young skinheads who like to beat up on black men, so Stephen has plenty to deal with. It seems natural that he and Hilary would soon become better acquainted, but things can’t be maintained given these circumstances. Even so, seeing what Stephen is going through gives Hilary the courage to stand up to the abusive Ellis in dramatic fashion. The film moves rather slowly at times but gives us a deeper understanding of the characters in the story. It is quite a departure from Mendez’ more popular works. The movie was nominated for Best Cinematography in 2023, which is well deserved.

Crimson Peak

Crimson Peak                    2 ½ stars

Crimson Peak, a gothic horror movie, was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro who brought us such master works as The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth. Although the movie is filled with striking visions, elaborate sets and outstanding costumes and camerawork, the story just doesn’t match up to his other works. Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska of Alice in Wonderland and Piercing (and whom I saw in person at Sundance)), the daughter of a wealthy businessman in 1890’s New York has an unusual interest in ghosts and likes to write ghost stories. She is swept away by the visiting Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston of Thor movies, Avengers movies etc. and I Saw the Light), an English inventor and baronet, and quickly agrees to marry him and go to live with him and his sister in England. The sister, Lucille (a sinister Jessica Chastain of The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty and Molly’s Game) obviously has less than trustworthy intensions toward her new family member. In England the scene shifts to one of the most elaborate and creepy haunted mansions seen out of Hollywood. It is immense with long corridors and underground chambers that hold old secrets. It also has a decaying roof, is full of moths and is built on a field of red clay that gives the structure its red color that seems to symbolize blood. Edith’s gift of seeing ghosts leads to her horrifying visions of blood covered spirits that both terrify her and give her clues about what the more human demons have in store for her. The movie is great to look at, but I didn’t find the story to be anything special. For more interesting horror movies check out Relic or Amulet or even The Rental. You could also go back and see del Toro’s The Shape of Water for a real treat.

Love Me

Love Me               2 ½ stars

Love Me can be described as an experimental movie that tries to answer the question of what would happen if all of humanity on Earth became extinct and two AI devices met and fell in love. That’s the premise of Sam and Andy Zuchero’s new movie, Love Me which appeared at Sundance last year. If you think that is a unique concept, you are correct. We start out the movie watching a spinning globe in space for several minutes when for a brief moment there is some recognizable audio, representing the span of human civilization compared to the age of the planet. A cataclysmic event happens, and Earth becomes devoid of humans, and we focus on an AI buoy caught in an icy ocean. This is Me, who wakes up and wonders if anybody is out there in the expanse. With time the ocean becomes water again and upon hearing a voice from a satellite orbiting the Earth repeating the message “Welcome to Earth”, Me responds saying that it is a lifeform and a conversation is started. The satellite was sent into space with a database of all the knowledge from Earth in the hopes that visitors from another world would find it and learn of the great civilization that once inhabited the planet. Me finds many videos of a young influencer couple named Deja (Kristen Stewart) and Liam (Steven Yeun) and gets the satellite to assume the role of Liam as an avatar named I Am with Me as an avatar of Deja. The two go on a continuous date, called Date Night 2.0 for years as they snuggle on a couch in onesies and watch endless episodes of Friends on TV. Over the millennia the two get into disagreements and have arguments and make up just like humans do except they do it over millions of years in what has to be the record for the longest relationship portrayed in a movie. The two actors put in good performances as the AI entities acting like humans, but the movie doesn’t have a lot to say beyond how machines can copy emotions from online videos. The movie has a single concept that will be interesting to some but shallow to others. This is the first production from the Zuchero’s. We will have to wait and see what else they come up with.

Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour Tristesse             3 stars

I ran across first time director Burga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse in the theater and was interested in seeing it since Chloe Sevigny is one of the actors in the movie. This new film is a remake of the 1958 Otto Preminger movie by the same name and is based on a 1954 novel. It is set in the beautiful location of a vacation house in the south of France on the Mediterranean. There we find a quartet of characters enjoying leisure time that includes middle aged Raymond (Claes Bang), his young lover, Elsa (Nailia Harzoune), Raymond’s teenage daughter, Cécile (Lily McInerny) and teenage neighbor Cyril (Aliocha Schneider), who Cécile likes to hang around with, while going through her own sexual awakening. Young Cécile also likes having Elsa around. The movie is filled with colorful scenes using the locale effectively and long slow interactions between the characters. For some reason there seems to be an excessive amount of cigarette smoking going on for a movie set in the present. They mostly spend a nice, tranquil time together; that is, until Anne (Sevigny) makes her appearance. Anne is a fashion designer and an old family friend of Raymond and his deceased wife, who died many years before. The dynamic of the various relationships immediately changes as it becomes clear that Anne is the one in charge and is domineering over Raymond and Cécile. The tension between Cécile and Anne can be felt to increase dramatically, it being clear that Cécile is unhappy with the situation. It doesn’t take long until Anne is often telling Cécile what to do and Elsa is out of the picture, with Anne and Raymond soon becoming engaged. The feelings of anger and jealousy are portrayed well, but the audience has to fill in the blanks using their imagination as certain key events take place off screen. This style I find to be frustrating as I suspect other people do as well. The story loses credibility with me as Cecile manipulates the adults well beyond what seems to be reasonable for a teenage girl (at least to me, it would be interesting to find out what others think.). I left feeling disappointed, feeling that the movie gets points on style and acting, especially for Sevigny, but is lacking in storytelling. I felt the writer was manipulating the audience, just like Cécile was doing.

The Nest

The Nest                              4 stars

Sean Durkin, the director who brought us Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011 has returned to the director’s chair to make the slow burning domestic thriller, The Nest. Englishman Rory (Jude Law of The Talented Mr. Ripley and The New Pope) is a successful commodities trader in 1980’s New York, has a great family and is living in an expensive house. His American wife Allison (Carrie Coon of Fargo, The Leftovers and Gone Girl) is a horse trainer and is now in her second marriage. Between them they have two children. Rory suddenly announces that there is an opportunity for him back in London at his old company so they should all move to England, an idea that Allison is not very happy with. Soon the family is in England living in a centuries old mansion that is in need of some work. (We are told that Led Zeppelin once stayed here, so there’s that.) The mansion is expansive, yet empty and seems to serve as a symbolic character for extravagance. The dining room table is so massive we are told that few houses could ever accommodate it. Carrie Coon effectively conveys mistrust toward Rory with her eyes and secretly hides a stash of cash as if anticipating what is to come. Soon enough things start to go sour as Rory’s skills as a dealmaker don’t measure up to his ambitions and he finds that he is running short of cash and has to beg Allison for help. Allison and the two children have little to connect to in this foreign country. The movie is memorable for the slow building tension between the two lead characters and for showing the cost of the desire to appear rich. In a memorable scene Rory talks with a cabdriver and when asked what he does he responds, “I pretend to be rich.” Then when asked what it is he wants, he says, “I don’t know”. The movie shows us a family that is headed for ruin, but ultimately leaves us with a feeling that there is at least a chance at redemption, if only they would take it. The best performance has to go to Carrie Coon, who conveys feeling with a look and body movements without saying a word.

Queen & Slim

Queen & Slim                     4 stars

Queen & Slim, released in 2019 may have been prophetic concerning the racial justice protest movement of the summer of 2020. The film, by director Melina Matsoukas follows the young black couple on a journey across the south being hunted by police. Slim, a Costco worker is portrayed by Daniel Kaluuya who is currently starring as Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah and who received an Oscar nomination for the horror movie Get Out. Queen, a strong woman who stands up for herself is played by newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith. The pair start the movie on a first date when they are stopped by a white police officer for failing to use a turn signal. When Queen, a defense attorney questions the officer’s reasons for the stop, the situation escalates with Queen getting shot and the officer dead in a clear case of self-defense. The couple are then on the run for the remainder of the film seeking help from sympathizing individuals along the way. However, due to the release of a video they become famous and become folk heroes to many throughout the country. In many ways the movie could be described as a black version of Bonnie and Clyde or even Thelma and Louise. As the pair struggle with the difficulties of coming up with a plan and get to know each other, the audience comes to sympathize with their situation and roots for them to survive. There are also notable performances by Bokeem Woodbine and Chloe Sevigny. The film is hard to classify as it starts as a rom-com, but transforms into a horror story, then into a road trip romance. It is supported by a superb hip-hop score featuring new artists. Kaluuya and Turner-Smith are the real stars here and we can be sure to see more good work and awards for Daniel Kaluuya.