A running tab of movies and series I’ve seen in theaters or at home, and a quick comment about them. I’ve succumbed to the idea of assigning a personal score for each film. My scale:
- 4 Stars – One of the best, well recommended
- 3 Stars – Recommended, but some issues here and there
- 2 Stars – Problematic, hard to recommend
- 1 Star – Disappointment, stay away
2020 Movies | 2019 Movies | 2018 Movies | 2017 Movies
Being the Ricardos, December on Amazon with Allie. For the sake of watching something together on Christmas Day, Allie and I chose this newly released film. It was OK, at best, but I really can’t help wonder why it needed to be made…other than as Oscar bait for Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, as well as writer/director Aaron Sorkin. The actors do passable imitations of the real life Lucy and Ricky, but you never really forget that it’s Nicole and Javier. The script wanders around for relevance, condensing a number of real-life events into one week, but it’s never as gripping as Sorkin seems to think it is. I carry a lot of memories of Lucille Ball and Allie has nearly none, but we both finished the film underwhelmed. 3 Stars, barely…really 2 for me.
West Side Story, December at Snowden with Allie. Spielberg’s remake is reverential, studiously correct and very well made. That said, I’m not sure if a new generation will grow up loving the film. By hewing more closely to the original stage play and the Romeo and Juliet tragedy, I left the theater kind of beaten down rather than uplifted. Several of the numbers, particularly “Tonight”, “America” and “Somewhere”, are staged beautifully and brought a little tear to my eye. But in reaching for a more realistic portrayal of the gang rivalries and decaying slum neighborhood, the overall tone is darker and less celebratory than I remember. A few of the songs, particularly “I Feel Pretty”, “One Hand, One Heart” and even the “Jet Song” that opens the movie feel a bit forced and out of place. I wanted to love this film, but left only admiring the resolve in getting in made and not messing it up too badly. 3 Stars.
Minari, December on Showtime. I finally caught up with this film that garnered lots of notice during last year’s award season. It’s an excellent little jewelbox of a movie, very well written, acted and directed. The story of a Korean family struggling with the American Dream in Arkansas could have veered into a number of cliches but it keeps the focus small and moves in unexpected directions. It’s not an especially happy film which probably lowered its box office success (not to mention that whole Covid thing), but it brings many smiles, is very well done and worth seeking out. 4 Stars, belatedly.
The Power of the Dog, December on Netflix. I wish I could say I liked this movie more, but I guess I missed something. I found the film tense and beautiful, but also slow, somewhat predictable and not worth the wide praise being heaped on the actors and director, Jane Campion. I was not convinced by Benedict Cumberbatch as a man’s man cowboy, while Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst leaned too heavily into stereotypes reminiscent of previous roles (Fargo season 2, in particular). Kodi Smit-McPhee is suitably creepy — someone accurately said he recalls a taller, thinner Tony Perkins from Psycho. That seems about right. The moral of the movie (don’t mess with med students…sorry if that’s a spoiler) is I guess supposed to be emblematic of the loss of the Old West. But I’m not convinced there was a whole lot lost. Maybe the movie really should have been about the mysterious Bronco Henry — sounds like he was a real cowboy. I will admit New Zealand does an impressive Montana impersonation. 2 Stars…in retrospect, maybe 3.
Tick, Tick…Boom!, November on Netflix. As a kind of antidote for missing the boat on Passing, I jumped right into Lin Manuel Miranda’s take on the musical biography of Jonathan Larson, who went on to write Rent. I was pleasantly surprised by this ingratiating puppy dog of a musical that wants so much to be liked. It’s done in a “Hey, let’s put on a play!” style that evokes High School Musical or Glee, but wears its love of Broadway musicals on its sparkly sleeve, most notably in the fun set piece “Sunday” filled with cameos called in by Miranda, and recurring nods to Stephen Sondheim. I’ll give it 4 Stars for the sake of being better than I expected and being two of the most enjoyable hours I’ve spent watching anything this year.
Passing, November on Netflix. I’d like to say that I enjoyed this artistically made new film based on a 1929 novel about black women “passing” as white. It’s a fascinating topic but I’m sorry to say this film didn’t engage me, nor did I really give it due attention. Symptomatic of watching films at home, I stopped and started the film several times and dozed through parts of it which made it hard to follow the thread of the elliptically told story. Honestly, after it finished I had to check the plot synopsis to figure out what happened, and then rewound much of the film to see again what I missed. The film is to be applauded for being ambitious, artistic, topical and a stretch of our cinematic senses. I think my failure to “get it” is more my fault than the filmmakers’, but then again they share some culpability for leaving so much unsaid, implied and understated. I’d give it 3 Stars for ambition and style, but really for me it was 2 Stars.
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, November with Barb on Disney+. Allie saw this in a theater when it first came out (her first post-Covid movie, I think) and recommended it. Barb and I were content to wait for it to be free on Disney+. I appreciated the Asian-inspired story and cast but it’s still a Marvel comic book movie with an entirely predictable plot and set up for sequels. I am not a devoted follower of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; in fact, I mostly wish it would go away. I enjoyed the “Making of…” documentary at least as much as the movie itself. 2 Stars.
The Beatles: Get Back, November on Disney+. I eagerly awaited Peter Jackson’s three-part, nearly eight hour reworking of the Beatles’ Let It Be album documentary and gobbled it up over three days of the Thanksgiving weekend. It’s a very lengthy, fly-on-the-wall treatment of the creative process for all its ups and downs; I doubt the casual fan will have patience for the whole thing, but there are plenty of non-casual fans that appreciate the opportunity to be in the room for a while. It’s hard to believe how unprofessional and improvised the whole three-week project was. No one, least of all the band members, knew whether they were doing an album, a live TV concert, some other type of TV show, a documentary, a film, or nothing. On the other hand, it’s fascinating to see the band dynamics shift day-by-day and hear these well-known songs taking shape. Allie seems interested in watching it over the Christmas break but we’ll see if she has the time or patience (no worries if she doesn’t…after all, I didn’t make it through the Taylor Swift documentary that she recommended). I’ll be happy to be her guide anytime. 4 Stars for me but 3 Stars for normal humans.
Six Minutes to Midnight, November on Showtime. Another quasi-historical film based on actual events, this time about a finishing school for German girls in England, just before World War II. Eddie Izzard is the unlikely writer/star of this production which also features Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent in largely wasted roles. The film itself is not nearly as interesting as the underlying story, which is too bad. There’s probably a reason the 2020 film popped up on Showtime recently with little fanfare. Barb read about it somewhere and sought it out. 2 Stars.
Belfast, November at AMC Columbia. Kenneth Branagh’s loving remembrance of his boyhood days in Northern Island at the start of the Troubles. A film mainly about family told from the perspective of Buddy, the 10-year old (or so) stand-in for Branagh. Everyone is prettier and wiser than they need to be, and the Troubles are scary but not gory. That’s not really a criticism on my part — I was glad that things didn’t get depressingly gritty — but the phrase “air brushed” has been used by others and seems accurate. It’s a sweet film with a touch of 2019’s JoJo Rabbit. The music by Van Morrison is terrific but it would have been better if Van kept his mouth shut about vaccinations this past year. 3 Stars.
King Richard, November on HBO Max. A fairly standard-issue but well-done dramatization about the father of Venus and Serena Williams and his role in shepherding them toward tennis stardom. Will Smith is very much the center of the film and every now and then I forgot that it was Will Smith up there (acting!). But mostly I was impressed by the actresses they found to play Venus and Serena, as well as their mother, Oracene. The complete story of Richard Williams is considerably more complex than what’s included in the film and at some point I’d like to see a more thorough documentary. There certainly is enough filmed archive to put together a compelling feature, if one could get permission of the family. Venus and Serena were evidently closely involved with this production but withheld their endorsement until seeing the final product. I’m glad they were happy with it and the film is probably about as good as it could get…but the fuller story and the long excellence of their two careers on and off the court is even more remarkable. 3 Stars.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, November on Amazon Prime. What a strange little film! Benedict Cumberpatch leads a strong cast in this sometimes comic, often sad, vaguely historical dramatization of the life of the actual Louis Wain, a peripatetic English illustrator of cats in the late 19th and early 20th century who evidently did much to popularize the notion of cats as household pets. The tone of the film is all over the place. It’s not really aimed for children or cat lovers or romantic comedy…maybe more for schizophrenics. I can’t really recommend the film but it is a pretty remarkable story. 2 Stars.
The French Dispatch, October at Snowden. Wes Anderson’s latest was my first solo outing to a movie in a theater. This love letter to the New Yorker magazine was fun and interesting, with Anderson’s signature visual and verbal density on full display. No one does tableaux vivant quite like Wes Anderson and I think he had a bigger budget than ever for this one…the list of extras in the movie goes on forever. While not quite as consistent as Anderson’s best (The Grand Budapest Hotel or Isle of Dogs, in my book) it was enjoyable, particularly the third “article” featuring Jeffrey Wright as a sort-of James Baldwin. I’d like to see the movie again on cable where I can freeze the screen…some things go by too fast in real time, including the end credits with homages to New Yorker cover illustrations. Still, as with most of Anderson’s films, you get the feeling that the best time was had by the actors and crew being together at dinners in the evenings after filming wrapped for the day. 3 Stars.
The very best part of the experience came after the credits ended and the lights went up in the theater. I had been sitting close to the screen with no one else in my row. I got up and turned around to see there were only three people in the theater with me. One was a youngish lady in the handicapped seating area with her support dog, a white standard poodle with a dashing red cape. It occurred to me I wasn’t sure which of them wanted to see the movie the most. It’s possible the poodle was a big Wes Anderson fan ever since Isle of Dogs and what with this film being set in France and all. The other couple, further back, was a moon-faced bald man with his wife. I made eye contact with the man for a moment before realizing that his wife was sacked out in her recliner, mouth agape, sound asleep (or dead, perhaps?). I was glad I had my mask on otherwise he would have seen me laugh. I felt like Wes Anderson would approve of these observations.
No Time to Die, October at Snowden with Leslie. I’m a little embarrassed to say that the first post-pandemic film we screwed up the courage to see in a theater was this James Bond potboiler, the last in the Daniel Craig era. The deeply convoluted and improbable plot was only slightly redeemed by the vicarious pleasures of seeing car chases and explosions in scenic corners of Italy, Norway, Jamaica and the Faroe Islands (substituting for a Russian island off Japan). But the popcorn was good, and I didn’t need to pause the movie for a bathroom break, so, victory. Now I can go see something good, perhaps. 2 Stars.
In the Heights, June on HBO Plus. I quite enjoyed this film adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s Broadway play. Allie and I saw a touring version of the play in Baltimore years ago and I remembered enjoying the music, dancing and spectacle though I recalled little of the plot. The same can be said for the movie — thin on plot but amped up musical extravaganzas filmed on site in Washington Heights. It’s a love letter to the neighborhood and succeeds well on that score. There are some extra plot elements to do with Dreamers and immigration that don’t really hang together very well, and Barb couldn’t fathom the problems the Nina character was having with Stanford. But the main point, as with any classic movie musical, is the big production numbers and the film mostly soars with them. 3 Stars.
Mulan, June on Disney. Disney+ was charging $30 extra for this film when it was initially released in September 2020. We wanted to see it with Allie but were put off by the price. At some point this spring, the Disney dropped the extra charge and I finally watched it. I’m glad I didn’t spend $30. The live action movie sticks relatively close to its animated predecessor, minus the songs and Mushu sidekick. The film seems to straddle Chinese myth and Western stereotypes without satisfactorily reconciling either. It’s pretty, but not compelling. 2 Stars.
Lupin, Season 2, June on Netflix. I watched season 1 of this French series a few months ago and got hooked. Season 2 just came out and I binged all 5 episodes in two days. The series is an updated take on the Arsene Lupin stories about a “gentleman thief” written over a century ago, a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes — not that I’d ever heard of them before. It’s an intricately plotted “Mission Impossible” kind of show with a winning cast led by Omar Sy who has a long list of French credits but seems ripe for more international stardom. It’s an enjoyable show in a preposterous vein, suspenseful but not overly violent. 4 Stars.
Mare of Easttown, May on HBO. It took me a few episodes to get hooked by Mare of Easttown which generated a lot of buzz, particularly surrounding its finale and twist ending. I enjoyed the series overall; the performances are excellent and the plot pulled me along, but I was dissatisfied with the ending. In reaching for an emotional climax that pulls lots of strings together, I felt it skipped over a lot of procedural and legal steps and strained credibility. Not that it was terribly credible to have so many deaths in one small community — worse than Cabot Cove or Midsommer. It was well-acted and deserves awards, but hopefully not for its screenplay. 3 Stars.
High on the Hog, May on Netflix. I thought this would be a food tourist show but it turned out to incorporate a much higher than expected quotient of African American history. Plus it’s just beautifully done. I missed this NY Times review which would have clued me in. I quite enjoyed the first three episodes about African roots in Benin, some of the impact in South Carolina and Gullah cuisine, and the roles of the enslaved chefs of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. I recommended the show to Laurie and Allie. Unfortunately the fourth episode about Texas was the weakest. They also could have easily done a show about New Orleans and Creole cuisine, and perhaps one about the Great Migration and spread (and co-option) of African American food around the country. I’m hoping there will be a second season. 3 Stars.
Forever, Chinatown, May on Kanopy. I was working through photos of our 2006 trip to San Francisco and came to our walking tour of Chinatown. I had a picture of our excellent tour guide who was a Chinatown native and I wanted to say more about her and the tour. I searched the Wok Wiz website and found her photo and name, Dorothy Quock, and she is still a tour guide for them. That led me to this article about her which in turn led me to this 2017 documentary. It looked interesting but I didn’t know about Kanopy, the streaming service it was available on. I discovered Kanopy was an arrangement with libraries, created my account through Howard County Library and watched the film.
The Forever, Chinatown film was utterly charming and I actually cried a few times through it. Frank Wong’s miniatures are simply amazing and he was a wonderfully disarming subject, plus the filmmaker, James Q. Chan, wove the real life and miniatures together so seamlessly. The film itself is understated but just left me feeling good, an excellent piece of work — but it never crossed my radar before. Dorothy was an advisor on the film and popped up in a couple of cameo scenes but never spoke. The article mentions she and the filmmaker are working on another project, and it’s now growing online: Chinatown Shorts. 4 Stars.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday, April on Hulu. The Oscars came and went and for the first time I hadn’t seen most of the top nominees, including Nomadland or Minari, largely because they not available on the streaming platforms I already pay for and I was unwilling to pay more to rent them. I saw this Billie Holiday film the week after the Oscars when Xfinity gave us a week to watch a few selected Hulu items. Andra Day was nominated for Best Actress in the title role and it’s well deserved, particularly for her singing…which is not really acting, but so be it. The film itself was not very good, however. The script meandered and some of the other performances were cardboard cutouts. Billie Holiday’s life was hard enough; she deserves a better tribute. 2 Stars.
The Dig, March on Netflix. A small, quiet film about an actual archaeological dig in England in 1939. I enjoyed it though it ended up feeling like any number of BBC/Masterpiece dramas; I guess I’m glad it wasn’t strung out over 6 or 8 episodes. Features fine performances from Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort!) and Carey Mulligan. I kind of wondered about the subplot featuring Lily James as archaeologist Peggy Piggott until I learned the original book’s author was her nephew. 3 Stars.
Coming 2 America, March on Amazon. All you could hope or fear from a sequel to Eddie Murphy’s 1988 original. There are plenty of good, dumb laughs and cameos with tongues stuck firmly in cheeks. Hardly a great movie but light fun, especially compared to the heavy handedness of Borat. Would have actually been fun to see in a theater with other people. 2 Stars.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, February on Amazon. This heavily political anti-Trump effort is commendable at some level but doesn’t make it a good film. Sasha Baron Cohen deserves credit for getting the film made during the pandemic and distributed before the election but I don’t think he gets credit for taking down Trump. The coarseness of Cohen’s comedy is the same sewer in which Trump and his ilk thrive, not to say I didn’t laugh here and there. 2 Stars.
The Sound of Metal, February, Amazon with Allie. About a heavy metal drummer encountering a loss of hearing, the film deserves its good notices for Riz Ahmed’s performance but I didn’t love the downward spiral of the story. It’s a gritty film reflecting lots of questionable decisions, one of those films where I felt manipulated by the screenplay to go down paths that could have been avoided. 2 Stars…boosted to 3 Stars in hindsight — it’s an ambitious, well-made film that I liked but didn’t love.
The Prom, January, Netflix with Barb and Allie. Another gay-friendly piece of wish-fulfillment from Ryan Murphy. The film, based on a Broadway musical, has a stellar cast but a stale story, glitzily executed. 2 Stars.
One Night in Miami, January, Amazon with Allie. The film, about a meeting of Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown, directed by Regina King and based on a play, is somewhat stagey and theatrical like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but well done. It’s a fanciful recreation of an actual event and sparked further discussion and research for Allie and me. I was pleased and a little ashamed that Allie knew more about Malcolm X than I did. The film is not especially wonderful but effective in making you want to learn more. 3 Stars.
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