Novocaine

Posted on March 13, 2025 at 5:53 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, and language throughout
Profanity:	Constant very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol, scene in a bar
Violence/ Scariness:	Constant peril and violence, many characters injured and killed, automatic weapons, injuries with ordinary but dangerous objects, graphic and disturbing wounds and other images
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	March 14, 2025

Pain has a purpose. It helps keep us safe. We avoid being hurt and we get help when we are hurt. But Nathan Caine (a game Jack Quaid) has a condition called congenital insensitivity to pain and anhydrosis. He can be injured, but the pain message never makes it to his brain. The only way his parents could keep him safe was to keep him away from anything that might injure him. There’s a tennis ball on the corner of his desk just in case it is sharp enough to hurt him if he bangs into it. The tips of the pencils on his desk are covered. Nate does not eat solid food because what if he bit his tongue? He would never know.

He has a risk-averse job. That tennis ball-adorned desk is in a quiet neighborhood bank, where Nate is an assistant manager. At the office, he is kind to a widower who has missed his loan payments, giving him an unauthorized extension. And he looks longingly at Sherry (Amber Midthunder) but has no idea of how to talk to her. At home, he plays online games with Roscoe a 6’5″ guy with a man-bun, I mean a mini high ponytail, who rides a Harley. They’ve never actually met in person, but that’s as close to an IRL relationship as Nate has.

It is just before Christmas, and the bank is preparing for a busy day with people depositing their bonus checks. Then three men come in, dressed as Santa, and start shooting. Things go badly. The manager is killed. Many police officers are killed. And Sherry is taken hostage.

Nate immediately switches from being the most careful person on earth to being the most reckless as he races to rescue Sherry and basically turns the movie into something between an old school video game and a Road Runner cartoon. That almost but not quite makes it possible not to be overwhelmed by the constant carnage, with the Dolby sound of the guns making the theater seats shake.

It’s just one scene after another of Nate going after the bad guys, the cops going after him, the bad guys going after him, at one point a booby-trapped house going after him. Screenwriter Lars Jacobson comes up with a very inventive series of ways to inflict injury, if not pain, on Nate, whether he is sticking his hand in boiling oil to retrieve a gun, removing a bullet from his arm and sewing up the wound, being slammed in the back with a giant shining spiked flail, and pulling out a big knife that went through his hand so he can use it on someone else. As they used to say in the Timex watch commercials, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. None of it makes sense, even if he does stop for an adrenaline injection, but if we wanted to see something make sense we’d be at a different movie.

Hero Quaid and Ray Nicholson, who plays bad guy Simon, are both sons of Hollywood stars, and we can guess who their fathers are when they smile. Quaid is the son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, and he has his dad’s wickedly charming grin. Nicholson does not look much like his dad, Jack, until we see his smile. Midthunder is also from a show business family; her father is an actor and her mother is a casting director. She is also appearing in another movie opening this week, “Opus,” with John Malcovich. In her first lead role in a film, she is immensely appealing and gives her character more depth than we might expect, deftly rounding some character arcs that would be a challenge for many more experienced performers.

As we careen from fight to shoot-out to chase, it feels more like an FPS game than a story, but what little story there is gives Nate a chance to discover himself and his capabilities, including connections to Shelly and Roscoe. Quaid handles all of that more than capably. It’s not memorable, and there’s too much carnage for the spirited tone it strives for, but the actors make it work.

Parents should know that this film has non-stop very intense peril and violence with many characters injured and killed and many graphic and disturbing images. Characters use constant very strong language. Characters drink alcohol and there is a scene in a bar.

Family discussion: Why didn’t Nate tell the police how to find the robbers? Do you agree with what the judge decided?

If you like this, try: “Crank” and “Shoot ’em Up”

Love Hurts

Posted on February 6, 2025 at 12:52 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for strong/bloody violence and language throughout
Profanity:	Constant very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Constant peril and violence, many graphic and disturbing images, characters injured and killed, knives, guns, taser, and a lethal straw
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	February 7, 2025

As the poem goes, in this action/comedy/romance starring two Oscar winners, the character played by Ke Huy Quan is bloody but unbowed. As the old Timex commercial goes, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Quan plays mild-mannered realtor Marvin Gable, whose passion is finding homes for his clients. He tells them how much he loved moving into his home and how he wants to create that same feeling of joy, comfort, and safety for them. When he wins the regional realtor of the year award, it brings him to tears. He says that his work as a realtor has given him meaning

And then Marvin receives a handmade valentine that simply says, “I’m back.” Based on this and so many, many other movies, including the recent “Back in Action,” plus “The Family Plan,” “Spy Kids,” and even Viveca A. Fox in “Kill Bill,” you’d think every block in suburbia has a neighbor with a history as an assassin or spy.

As the realty firm’s Valentine’s Day party goes out outside his office door, Marvin is visited by someone from his past, a poetic hitman known as Raven (Mustafa Shakir, making a strong impression in action scenes and more sensitive moments as well). A local gangster named Knuckles (Daniel Wu), who happens to be Marvin’s brother, Alvin, has sent a bunch of tough guys after Marvin. Knuckles thinks Marvin can lead him to Rose (Ariana DeBose). Marvin was ordered to kill her for stealing from Knuckles, but instead he told Knuckles Rose was dead and let her escape. Knuckles has also received a valentine, and he wants Rose captured alive. He does not know that his top henchman, Merlo (Cam Gigandet) wants Rose dead so she cannot reveal that he was the one stealing from Knuckles.

All of this means that we are in for one bone-crunching literal back-stabbing (and other stabbing of body parts, too, including a hand and an eye) after another, plus lots of kicking, punching, bone-crunching, body part slicing, knives, darts, guns, a taser, a giant fork and spoon (production designer Craig Sandells really nails the Pinterest aesthetic staging of homes for sale), and, surprisingly, a lethal boba tea straw. The poster boasts that this film is from the producers of “Nobody” and “Fright Night,” and Quan says this is a tribute to the Hong Kong action films of Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and his other favorites, which means it is bloodier and more graphic than most action comedies. A lovable character is murdered. So is an innocent bystander who tries to help.

Quan and DeBose have endlessly appealing screen presences and the fight scenes are superbly choreographed. There are many touches of humor and even charm, an assassin finding love with Marvin’s depressed assistant (Lio Tipton), Marvin using his karate chop skills to plump the accent pillows in the house he is showing, some clever use of available objects in the fight, especially when Marvin keeps trying to protect his precious award certificate. But the brutality of the fight scenes is so intense and disturbing that it will outweigh the lighter moments for many viewers.

Parents should know that this movie has constant strong language and constant very graphic and bloody fight scenes with characters badly injured and killed.

Family discussion: What did Marvin like about being a realtor? What does it mean to say “hiding isn’t living?” What creates a “beautiful monster?”

If you like this, try: “Bullet Train”

You’re Cordially Invited

Posted on January 30, 2025 at 5:00 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language throughout and some sexual references
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and drunkenness
Violence/ Scariness:	Comic peril and violence with some grisly wounds
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	January 31, 2025

There are so many brilliant, funny, wildly talented people in and behind this movie that it is difficult to understand why it is so hard to watch.

Writer/director Nick Stoller is responsible for comedy hits like “Get Him to the Greek,” “The Muppets” (2001), and “Yes Man” along with lesser entries like “Zoolander 2” and “Night School.” He filled the movie with top comedy powerhouses Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, supported by immensely talented up-and-coming performers Geraldine Viswanathan (“The Broken Hearts Gallery,” “Blockers”), Meredith Hagner (“Bad Monkey”), Jimmy Tatro (“Theater Camp,” the under-appreciated television series “Home Economics”), and solid supporting comic actors Fortune Feimster, Jack McBrayer, and Rory Scovel, plus the very funny stand-up comic Leanne Morgan and Keyla Monterroso Mejia, a standout in this month’s “One of Them Days.”

But one crucial ingredient is missing: the stakes. The entire premise for the film is that a luxury island destination off the coast of Georgia has been double booked. Why? Because the elderly lady who took one of the reservations had a heart attack and died before she could write it down with a working pen in the hotel’s calendar book. Fun, right? It is close to impossible to care which bride gets what services and even more difficult to care about any of the people who do care about it.

There is single dad Jim (Ferrell), whose entire life has revolved around his daughter, Jenni (Viswanathan) since her mother died when she was a little girl. It is supposed to be both funny and endearing that she is his whole world. It is not. For example, the two of them have a “cute” little musical number they like to perform together, apparently without ever having listened to the lyrics. It’s “Islands in the Stream,” which is of course a love song duet with the couple singing about making love.” Ew. Jenni wanted her best friend and maid of honor Heather (Mejia) to make all the plans, so Jim has not confirmed any of the details.

In the other corner is reality television producer Margot (Witherspoon), who does not get along with anyone in her family except for her baby sister Neve (Hagner), who is her favorite person in the world. As a producer and, if this is not redundant, control freak, Margot has made three visits to the island to nail down everything up to and including the canapés. And as someone who feels her family does not appreciate or approve of her, she is ready for battle over every one of those details.

Both have emotional attachments to the venue. Jim and his late wife were married there. Margo and Neve spent summers on the island with their late grandmother. At first they try to get along but very soon this leads to a succession of petty, silly, and mostly dull efforts to obliterate each other, with escalating hijinks that make these people more and more unpleasant. A bride gets hit in the face, leaving a huge bruise. A wedding party gets knocked into the water. There is a sharp contrast between the slapstick and the exquisite music (not “Islands in the Stream” — the soundtrack also features a gorgeous song from Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and operatic selections). It is a nagging reminder of the gulf between the meaning of the events, which even the couples seem to have overlooked, and the ridiculous pettiness of the conflicts.

Parents should know that this movie has a lot of very strong and crude language with sexual references. There is also a lot of comic peril and violence. No one is badly hurt but we do see some bloody woulds and a bad bruise.

Family discussion: Would you want to attend either of these weddings? What weddings have you been to that you especially enjoyed?

If you like this, try: better movies with the cast including “The Broken Hearts Gallery,” “Stranger than Fiction,” and “Legally Blonde”

We Live in Time

Posted on October 17, 2024 at 5:28 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
Profanity:	Rated R for language, sexuality, and nudity
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Cancer and cancer treatment, sad death of a parent, car accident with injuries
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	October 18, 2024

“We Live in Time” tries so hard to be a better movie that it seems churlish to point out that it just isn’t. The movie goes back and forth between three different time periods in the relationship of guy with soulful eyes and a boring job with a cereal company Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and successful and very creative chef and life force Almut (Florence Pugh). If it was told in a straightforward chronological manner with less talented and charismatic actors, it would just be a soapy second-rate streamer.

But it is told elliptically, so at the very beginning of the film, before the “how did they meet” and rest of the backstory, we learn that Almut has cancer for the second time. She knows how brutal the treatment will be and this sets up the existential questions of the movie: will/should she choose quantity of time or quality of time? How will she make the time she has meaningful? This sets the stakes, and then we go back to learn their story. This is where the movie star gloss may keep audiences from noticing that there is less than meets the eye.

Tobias, in something of a daze as he tries to sign divorce papers in a hotel room, leaves in a bathrobe to find a working pen and is hit by a car when he wanders onto a highway. Almut is the driver. This is one of the most contrived and least appealing meet-cutes in movie history, especially factoring in an awkward misunderstanding about Tobias’ marital status.

Almut has her own restaurant, specializing in Bavarian-English fusion cuisine. This is one of the many details in the movie that are intended to be meaningful and/or character-defining but are not. We do not understand why her job is important to her or what it reveals about her, and the same goes for a mid-movie revelation to us and Tobias about something she excelled at in her teens and then left behind. Tobias has a job that seems meaningless to him. We suspect it may be lucrative or demanding, but none of that matters to the story. Nor does his brief description of what happened to the wife he was divorcing the night Almut ran into him. His job in the story is to have his eyes well up with tears and be lop-sidedly supportive of his wife, and Garfield does as much with that as a top-level movie star can do.

The primary indicator signaling the different time periods is Almut’s hairstyle and where they live. We see them meet. We see her first diagnosis, when she is given a choice between lowering the risk of recurrence or keeping the possibility of giving birth. We see her pregnancy and the emotional and hilarious childbirth in an unusual location. And then we go back to what she does after the second diagnosis and the strain it puts on her marriage. But even with the existential questions about what we do with the time we have and how we cope with terrible loss, the movie does not earn its jumbled storyline, which is more confusing than illuminating. More important, the screenplay is not up to the level of its vastly talented and charismatic stars.

Parents should know that this film includes very strong language, explicit sexual references and situations, nudity, cancer and cancer treatment, the sad (offscreen) death of a parent, and a car accident with injuries. Characters drink alcohol.

Family discussion: Almut was faced with two difficult decisions following her diagnoses. What do we learn about her from the choices she made? What did she learn about herself? What does the final scene tell us about Tobias?

If you like this, try: “Love Story,” “Terms of Endearment,” and the stars’ comic book movies, “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “Black Widow“

My Old Ass

Posted on September 19, 2024 at 5:19 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language throughout, drug use and sexual material
Profanity:	Very strong language used by teens and an adult
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Teen drug use
Violence/ Scariness:	Reference to sad death, some family conflict
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	September 20, 2024

I don’t think there is a sadder sentence than this one: “I thought I would always be able to go back.”

We all know that feeling, captured memorably in the last act of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” When Emily gets a chance to revisit a day from her early teen years, the mingled joy, nostalgia, and regret for taking every part of that life for granted are overwhelming. Something like that happens to Elliott (a terrific Maisy Stella) on her 18th birthday. Instead of dinner with her family, Elliott (a terrific Maisy Stella) goes off with her friends for a celebration involving some sketchily-sourced mushrooms. While her friend Ro (Kerrie Brooks) dances and her friend Ruthie (Maddie Zeigler) zonks out, Elliott has a conversation with…her future self (Aubrey Plaza), age 39.

If you were 18, what would you ask your future self? (Don’t ask for stock tips; that’s off limits.) If you had a chance to talk to your 19-years-younger self, what advice would you give? If you were 18, what advice would you take?

Elliott’s family owns a cranberry farm in a spectacularly beautiful section of Canada. But all she can think about how how excited she is to be leaving — she is about to go to college in Toronto and she has a been dreaming of the excitement of independence in a big city for as long as she can remember. Her middle brother, Max (Seth Isaac Johnson) loves the farm and is happy to be the one to take it over when his parents retire, but Elliott cannot wait for what she considers her real life to begin.

Older Elliott has had almost two decades of that “real life.” The wonderful Aubrey Plaza does not often get a chance to show the kind of warmth she does here, and it is a pleasure to see. Her 39-year-old Elliott is fragile in a way the younger version is not. She insists she is happy with her life (and proud to be a near-40-year-old PhD student) but she has clearly experienced some difficult times. The least successful moments in the film are a few brief indications that humans have had some setbacks in the next 29 years. They seem to be from an earlier draft that someone forgot to leave out.

The one very clear piece of advice older Elliott is very firm about is telling her younger self to stay far away from anyone called Chad. This is a mystery because younger Elliott has no idea who that might be and she is exclusively attracted to girls, so she cannot imagine how anyone named Chad might be a problem.

And then Chad (Percy Hynes White) suddenly appears, as Elliott is skinny dipping in a pond. He is her parents’ summer hire for the farm. And he is…irresistible. Despite her promise, despite her resolve, despite her fundamental notion of herself as exclusively gay, his patient kindness and “symmetrical face” are intoxicating.

Older Elliott has somehow managed to put her phone number in younger’s cell (as My Old Ass), so they are able to have some conversations and text exchanges, and older keeps reminding younger to have nothing to do with Chad. She also tells younger to be nicer to Mom (a lovely Maria Dizzia) and her brothers. For those last few days before she leaves for college, younger Elliott takes time to realize how much she has at home and how much she will miss everyone and everything. One of the toughest parts of growing up is realizing that you will not always be able to go back, and, as Emily says in “Our Town” that no one is able to appreciate it while it is happening. “My Old Ass” conveys all of this with welcome heart and humor.

Parents should know that this film includes very strong language, teenage drug use, and sexual references and situations.

Family discussion: What would you tell your younger self? What would you ask your older self?

If you like this, try: “17 Again”